I was working so much over the past year that I have fallen behind on watching all my favorite TV shows. Where are some good places to stream — or even download — them online? (I’m hoping for free or inexpensive — and want reputable sites only, please.)
Watch just the way you want
Lucky for you and other friends of good television programming, there are all kinds of legal and reputable options out there — depending on what shows you want to watch, and whether or not you are willing to pay a little for the convenience of watching TV on demand.
Do the Hulu
Hulu.com offers a wide variety of television programs — including current series as well as entire TV seasons from years (even decades) past. The service is ad-supported, and does not require any special software — you just watch on their site.
Hulu also offers a $7.99/month subscription service called HuluPlus, which is still ad-supported, but offers the episodes that just aired, more older programming, plus allows you to watch with a variety of other internet devices (such as TiVo, ‘net-enabled TVs and gaming consoles).
Streaming down the Amazon
Amazon have recently joined the free TV (and movie) fray with the addition of their fantastic Prime Instant Video service
.
Amazon Prime
members, who get free two-day shipping on the majority of Amazon goodies, also now get unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of more than 5,000 movies and TV shows for no extra cost. If you’ve been on the fence about spending $79 per year for fast shipping, this TV bonus might just make the decision a little easier. (The Prime cost comes out to just about $6.58 a month.)
Amazon Instant Video
also offers pay-per-episode (and some season) TV downloads and streaming, most for 99 cents each — with many offered in HD.
Netflix it
Netflix is now more than the disc-of-the-month club. For $7.99 per month (and up), you can also stream thousands of TV shows and movies commercial-free. Use your PC or Mac… or stream via Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 consoles; several Blu-ray disc players, Internet-connected TVs; iPhone, iPad and iPod touch… in all, more than 200 devices can stream from Netflix. You won’t get first run TV shows, like Hulu and Amazon Instant Video offer, but you can enjoy television marathons and catch up on whole seasons at a time.
Network and cable
Most broadcast and cable TV networks offer at least some full-length episodes on their own sites. Most of these offer new episodes the day after airing, and run short ads throughout the programs. Here’s where you can find some of ‘em:
With so many options available to you, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever you shouldn’t be completely caught up on Dr Who (well, all the David Tennant episodes, at least).
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Another way to get your TV fix
While it’s not a truly “online” option, you can also leverage PC and streaming video hardware to time-shift programming that’s available to you via over-the-air, “terrestrial” broadcast TV.
A Roku box can be used to consume most of the services listed above, as well as content stored on your PC via the Plex application and media server. In combination with one of the many commercially-available PC tuner devices (which either attach by USB or as an add-in card), you can schedule shows for recording off-the-air, then watch them at your convenience via a Roku or another streaming box.
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