Monopoly cable companies and satellite television companies will soon be things of the past. Consumers are wising up and making use of alternatives to watch their same favorite shows, only with much fewer commercials and without a monthly cable bill to go along with it. If you’re still paying a local cable company or one of the satellite television companies anywhere from $30 to $70 per month for television service, it’s time to tell them to get lost. There are many free ways to get your favorite television shows for free.
Here are some great Free Cable TV Alternatives:
Digital Over-The-Air Transmission – With the pending switch to digital television broadcasts, consumers can now get many more channels than they used to with cheap rabbit-ear antennas and at a much higher-quality than ever before. There are even some networks that broadcast in high-definition, giving you even better reception than you would have received through your cable or satellite service.
Hulu.com – Hulu is a fabulous website that will let you watch television shows from Fox, NBC, and CBS on the web. When you watch an episode of your favorite show on Hulu, you can also save a lot of time because there are much fewer commercials. You can now watch a 30 minute television show in just 24 minutes! If watching TV on your computer isn’t terribly appealing, you can get a special converter box to hook up a computer to a standard-definition or high-definition television. You might need to bribe a tech-savvy friend with a free pizza and a case of beer to set it up for you, but once you’ve got it setup the first time, you can watch the same great shows, for a lot less money.
ABC.Com, NBC.com, CBS.com and Fox.com – Each of the big four broadcasting networks are now showing many of their shows online for free. With all of the shows but ABC, usually Hulu is a better viewing experience than going on any of the networks’ individual sites. ABC doesn’t participate in Hulu just yet, so you’ll have to go to ABC.com to see Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and all of the other great shows that they produce.
Podcasts & Video Podcasts – There’ are quite a few high-quality television shows that tech-savvy individuals produce and put out on the web for free. They don’t have the greatest budgets in the world, but there is some high quality content that you won’t find on television anywhere online. There are podcasts and video podcasts on just about everything, and a lot of the content is just as entertaining was watching primetime television.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you need to pay $50 a month to your Cox, Charter, Time Warner, Comcast, or any other cable company to watch the shows that you want. You can get the same great shows, in higher quality, with fewer commercials and all for free by using a combination of the online services and digital over-the-air broadcasts.