if you're thinking about cutting the cord your local abc cbs fox nbc and pbs stations
are probably among your must-have channels the good news you can get those channels without a pay
tv subscription but the bad news unless you have an antenna it'll cost you this is the reason why
federal law allows the major broadcasters to charge paid tv operators so cable satellite
and live tv streaming to carry their channels that explains the broadcast tv fee that you may
have seen on your cable bill and it also explains why locast a free streaming service that provided
access to locals was sued by the major broadcast networks and it shut down in late 2021 has left
cord cutters scrambling for cheap ways to watch local tv in our video today i'm going to share
with you the best ways to watch local tv without cable let's get started number one get an antenna
and i know this is not an option for a lot of you so i'm just gonna spend about 30 seconds talking
about antennas stick with me there's more to come if you live close to broadcast towers an antenna
is the best way to pick up your local stations because it's only a one-time cost for the antenna
and after that you get a lifetime of free tv i've got a mohu leaf indoor antenna you can
watch my separate review video to see how i set up this antenna in my home now indoor antennas like
this one work best in cities and some suburban locations but for homes in more rural settings
an outdoor antenna is the way to go you can check out tyler the antenna man's channel for details
number two sign up for a live tv streaming service youtube tv hulu live directv stream those are just
three of the live tv streaming services that carry local network stations now i refer to
these as cable 2.0 services they offer bundles of cable networks plus your local abc cbs fox
nbc and perhaps pbs stations for about 70 dollars a month at recording time now the benefit of these
services over cable is that you don't have a contract now be aware that not all cable 2.0
services carry your local stations sling tv is one of the more affordable options but it only offers
fox and nbc stations and select markets no abc and no cbs so before you sign up enter your zip
code on a services website to confirm the channel lineup now 70 bucks a month that is really steep
especially if you only care about those local stations it may be enough to get you to explore
antennas further but i've got some more creative solutions coming up next number three is paramount
plus and paramount plus formerly cbs all access is a streaming service that has a mix of both
on-demand and live content most of the content is on demand from a variety of paramount owned
networks you see them here but if you pay for the premium plan 9.99 a month at recording time
you get 24 7 access to your local cbs station the cheaper plan 4.99 a month only offers some
live coverage such as the nfl on cbs moving on to number four and that is peacock you can think of
peacock as nbc universal's version of paramount plus but there is a significant difference with
peacock the service does not offer 24 7 access to your local nbc station peacock does simulcast
nbc on occasion for its premium subscribers and peacock premium members can also stream current
nbc shows the day after they air now to number five hulu and my recommendation is changing and
for years hulu has been my substitute for a dvr because it's made many network tv shows available
the next day but hulu is having to pivot away from that strategy and focus more on original
content and here's why starting in the fall of 2022 new episodes of nbc universal shows will no
longer be available to stream the next day on hulu instead they'll be available on you guessed it nvc
universal owned peacock and although hulu struck a deal for out-of-season episodes of fox shows
the streamable reports those series will also be available free on to be that is the fox owned
service with a growing library of shows now if you care about abc know this disney controls hulu so
it does remain the primary streaming home for next day episodes of shows that air on the abc
broadcast network so the bottom line is that with streaming rights so spread out hulu is no longer
one-stop shopping for network tv shows but if hulu brings back its black friday deal one year
of service for only 99 cents a month you may want to keep it on your list anyway number six network
apps with so many streaming services i rarely use the network apps anymore but they do provide some
free content to watch and i do have one exception the problem with the apps for abc cbs nbc and fox
is that not everything is free lock icons like this one indicate that you will need a pay tv
subscription to sign in now that could be your cable satellite or one of the live tv services
that i mentioned earlier but one network app that i really do like is the pbs video app it
is free and a great way to stream your favorite programming from pbs you can get more content with
pbs passport five bucks a month but why not start with the free version we've made it to number
seven local news apps and if you're just looking for your local news there are apps like news on
and haystack news that provide content from local stations across the country but if you've got only
one favorite station i would skip those apps and first start with your station's website that's
because most stations will let you watch newscasts live from a computer or your smartphone and some
of them even have their own apps to stream to a tv set for example here's the app from miami
station wplg that i downloaded for my roku and there are lots of places to find national news
including replays of the popular morning and evening broadcasts pluto tv is a great place to
start and yes it is free you can also follow your favorite local and national news sources here on
youtube look here nbc nightly news uploads its entire broadcast to youtube and one more option
that i want to address in this video it's called puffer puffer is re-transmitting the over-the-air
broadcast tv signals as part of a research project for stanford university after signing up you can
stream abc cbs fox nbc pbs and the cw since this is a research project and a not-for-profit service
there are limitations like only 500 people can watch puffer at any given time plus it's unclear
at this point when the research project will be completed now to my key takeaways and if you
cannot set up an antenna think about the content that you watch on the major broadcast networks
and try to find streaming alternatives here's a recap local stations air lots of news i already
mentioned where you can find the news if it's network sidcoms and dramas that you enjoy look
into affordable services like peacock paramount plus and even hulu basic syndicated programming
is a bit more complicated if you watch shows like jeopardy and wheel of fortune every night
a live tv streaming service may be your best bet it really depends on the channel that airs those
shows in your city and the major networks also broadcast a lot of sporting events including
the super bowl in this case you may decide that it is worth paying for
a live tv streaming service like youtube tv or hulu live remember no contracts you can cancel
at any time a lot of people tell me they would be happy to pay 20 bucks a month for a streaming
service that only has their local stations but unfortunately i do not see this happening at
least not in the near term and that's because the companies that own the broadcast networks
also control many cable channels so while paying for 100 channels when you only watch 10 of them
doesn't really work for us as consumers it does work for the bottom line of these major content
companies learn more by clicking on the video on your screen right now and i'll see you over there