Best Sites to Watch TV on Your Computer Over the Internet
There were very few tools available to watch TV on your computer years ago. This was only around 2010 when streaming services started making a dent in the armor of the cable TV monopoly.
A host of major companies are trying to get into the internet TV game these days. Netflix was certainly a major market leader early on. On concord now there are companies such as Amazon, Sony, Apple and Google all fighting for a piece of the online entertainment pie.
It’s so competitive because so many people are scouring the web for both streaming and live TV content and also lots of scams. There are sites that promise free movies or TV. On concord, then infect your computer with a virus or malware the moment you download a file that you think is a movie. There are also sites that promise “live TV”. On concord, actually offer nothing more than streaming content from other major video streaming sites such as YouTube.
Your best option is to avoid all of that nonsense. What you will find below is a comprehensive list of services and sites for watching TV on your computer over the internet.
How to Watch TV on Your Computer
It’s hard to know where to begin with so many options for watching TV online. The best place to start if you want to immediately dive into streaming TV content right away is with the big three that everyone knows and loves Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix.
Netflix: Because You’ve Always Used It
There’s a reason Netflix became the king of streaming. Essentially people are lazy. Stores such as Blockbuster and small video-rental places let people walk in and pay to rent DVDs. To capitalize on the internet for the same purpose, Netflix was one of the first companies.
The consumer could rent a movie without ever leaving home as the benefit was that regardless of the weather. This all started with a mail-order DVD rental business. On concord, then grew into the online streaming behemoth we know today.
You Have to Love Hulu
Hulu was the go-to place for people looking for free for with high- quality TV content for a long time. You could find old episodes of shows that you haven’t seen in years at the free end of the site. You could find a growing library of movies and more recent TV episodes on the paid side of things. Eventually Hulu converted its free offering into a joint venture with Yahoo called Yahoo view.
If you want to get true TV content online today, a Hulu subscription is one of the few places where you can watch the current seasons of popular TV shows.
To find recent hit movies, and even some original series Hulu is also the place to find recent hit movies. A Hulu subscription goes a long way in conforming that you don’t live to regret the decision if you are considering completely cutting cable for good.
Pay as You Go With Amazon
Amazon is the last of the “big three”. It’s a bit different than the previous two. While Hulu and Netflix give you full access to all of their content for a fixed monthly subscription fee. Amazon takes more of an a la carte approach to digital entertainment. A “Prime” membership is potentially the cheapest subscription of the three big video streaming services only $99 per year or $10 a month if you pay monthly.
Certainly, there’s plenty of free content available to stream with a Prime membership. On concord, for the most part these are really low-ranked movies and very old TV episodes most people won’t care to watch.
That is not to say you can’t find some great stuff to watch within the free Prime library. On concord, for the more recent or higher quality movies or TV shows. You are going to have to cough up anywhere from $2.99 to $19.99 per rental.
If you only watch a couple of movies each week, that still isn’t a whole lot of money. But if you’re a TV fanatic who loves to binge on the latest TV shows and movies every single night, Hulu or Netflix are probably better suited for you.
The world of streaming movie and television content over the internet to your computer has exploded by bounds and leaps. These “big three” are no longer the only choices. They are no longer the best options either some might even say.
Other Ways to Watch TV Online
Every company large or small tries to jump into the game whenever anything becomes popular. Certainly this is most important case when it comes to streaming entertainment on the internet.
Watching TV With Walmart?
Vudu, the American company started out offering its own devices and a proprietary peer-to-peer technology where people could use to stream TV and movies over the internet to an actual television. Walmart acquired the company in march of 2010. The Vudu service has shifted to offering a library of thousands of movies and TV series for streaming to third-party hardware, mobile device, or computers as the hardware is no longer supported.
Vudu’s pricing for individual video rentals is competitive with Amazon’s pricing structure by adding competitive advantage that there’s absolutely no membership fee for signing up with Vudu. You can simply pay for those you watch. The movie selection at Vudu is just as plentiful as Amazon’s library without many of the one or two-star “free” movies you will find at Amazon that nobody cares to watch anyway.
Vudu has a free section as well called “Movies On Us”. Here anyone can choose from a selection of hundreds of free TV-shows or movies. The only catch is that they also come with ads.
Considering many of these selections is not a bad compromise as there are really good TV shows and movies.
Vudu is a good place to turn if your main goal here is only to watch the most recent TV shows you are interested in.
There are families that pay well over $150-a-month for a cable subscription and really only watch two or three of their favourite shows each week. Vudu instead and simply buying the shows you want to see by using a subscription-free service. You can save a lot of money every month such as an entire season of The Walking Dead in SD for only $26.99.
Xfinity Doesn’t Care What Device You Use
This isn’t to say that all cable companies are evil. As the reality of the world today is that everyone in every family likes to watch television in whatever way is most convenient for them. You may have in any given household:
Dad laying on the couch in the living room and watching The Walking Dead on the TV.
Mom working on the computer in her office and watching The Voice on her laptop.
Big sister lounging on her bed after school and watching Deadpool on her smartphone.
Little brother watching an episode of Spongebob Squarepants on his tablet in the basement.
Comcast caught onto this trend and through their Xfinity brand, are quickly expanding their entertainment offering to include internet-based media streaming services. The service offered to all of their customers is called Xfinity Stream.
The service allows customers to choose from a collection of popular and recent TV series and movies that are just as bursting at the seams as Netflix’s collection. Currently catching up on the latest episodes of The Voice using Xfinity Stream while writing this article.
iTunes and Google Play
Those big companies getting into the entertainment streaming business include Google and Apple. Both companies also provide digital content streaming through their Google Play services and iTunes respectively.
Movies and TV Shows are the two categories noticed on iTunes.
Both prices for TV episodes and movies are comparable to other services such as Vudu and Amazon. On concord, of course you get the added benefit of quick access to iTunes from all your Apple devices.
There is a TV and Movies section on Google Play where you can similarly buy and stream both TV episodes and movies to your Android and other Google devices.
Generally prices are equivalent to iTunes prices. On concord, again the benefit of using this service is how easy and quick it is to access all of your favorite entertainment straight from your Android mobile devices. Easy, Fast, and with no subscription required.
Best Buy: Don’t Buy Stream
You know Best Buy is the first place you go when you want to browse digital video camera or laptops, right? Did you know that Best Buy now also offers an subscription-free online digital streaming experience called CinemaNow?
CinemaNow is Best Buy’s foray into the digital entertainment marketplace. Additionally, an impressive collection of not only old and new TV episodes. On concord, also documentaries, season downloads of your favorite network shows, and a giant library of just about any movie you can think of.
While other movies are available for one-time rental fees at a fraction of the cost, as far as pricing goes, many of the more popular or recent movies are only available as full-download purchases. If you’re more interested in cheaper one-time rentals, there is also a “New Rentals” category. The selection of rentals isn’t bad but most of the best movies are only available here at full purchase prices.
Fandango Streams TV?
Fandango has been around for a long time as one of the internet’s most popular movie review sites. To watch movies this site is also the place you may want to go to watch movies as well. The streaming service is called Fandango Now.
Fandango prices now seem pretty close to Amazon’s prices. Of course without the annoying Amazon Price subscription fee. The beauty of a service such as Fandango Now is that it’s such an inexpensive alternative to pay over $100 for a monthly cable subscription. Easily you can find a new hit TV series such as Mars. Also you can purchase the entire season for $9.99 in Standard Definition.
Some TV series, like Game of Thrones for example, will cost upwards of $27.99 for an entire season.
Considering an entire season is 15 to 20 episodes. You are looking at almost a month’s worth of nightly entertainment for a fraction of the cost of cable.
To saving as much as possible on your digital entertainment is to shop around the real secret. For instance, the movie The Road is only available as a $9.99 purchase on Google Play and CinemaNow. On concord, it’s included as part of a Netflix subscription. Start out by thinking about what you want to watch. Then check all of the available streaming services for the best possible price before you buy.
How to Watch TV Online for Free
It may seem like all of the digital streaming services out there are now offering some form of pay-only option. But you don’t always have to cough up money to watch great movies or TV.
The first place you should always check is the website of the network running the show if you have a favorite TV show. Often you can watch each new episode of a show merely a day or two after the show airs on TV. Some of the most popular network stations that let you watch streamed episodes of their most popular shows for free are following.
NBC
ABC
PBS
FOX
Discovery
In online there are also still some decent free video streaming sites available, The content there is not quite as varied or recent as some of the options listed above. But there’s still some great entertainment to be found there.
Crackle: Older movies and shows
LinkTV: Cultural and Colorful shows produced by LinkTV
YouTube: YouTube has more free video content than any other site out there
The following sites offer subscription access to multiple channels of online content as an honorable mention.
YouTube Movies: Premium movie rentals, some as cheap as $0.99
SlingTV: Digital streaming service similar to Xfinity Stream. But starting at $20-per-month instead of a cable subscription.
PlayStation Vue: Get access to major live TV networks for as little as $29.99-per-month.
DirecTV Now: You can watch live TV For as little as $35-per-month and for a little more watch some premium channels as well.
Still Have Cable? Why?
Amazing content available on the internet at prices much lower than any cable subscription these days. Really, it doesn’t make sense for anyone to remain bound to a cable box. You have got options to watch just about any TV or movie show your heart desires.
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