How to get local tv on smart tv

If you want to cut the cord or stop paying for an expensive cable bill, we have five ways for you to still watch your local channels

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Maybe you’re looking to save money, you don’t live in an area that offers decent cable company options, or you simply don’t have a television and you watch all of your TV shows and movies on your iPhone, tablet, or smart TV.

But you’d like to find a way to watch local channels without cable TV because you want to watch the news or a sports game, or your kids want to watch Saturday morning cartoons.

Well we have five ways for you to watch your favorite local channel without cable. We’ll go over each one and how to get them, and hopefully you’ll leave this video with one or even a couple of options for you.

How to watch local TV channels over the internet

• Purchase an HD antenna
• Subscribe to the TV channel's app
• Live TV streaming app subscription
• Live stream local channel news online on their website
• Watch the clips on Youtube

Five ways to watch local channels without cable

Best options for watching local channels without cable

Data as of 11/11/21. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.

* Data as of 11/11/21. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.

1. HD antenna

We recommend the Gesobyte Amplified TV Antenna or the 1byone Amplified HDTV Antenna. An HD antenna is especially perfect for those who want a traditional TV experience. They are a one-time buy of about $25 to $65, they’re easy to set up, and you actually get more channels than you’d think.

The Gesobyte antenna costs about $30 and gives you over 40–150 channels with great reception. It has a 250-mile range, and it takes no more than 10 minutes to install. It also delivers channels with crystal-clear HD picture quality.

The 1byone antenna is $5 cheaper, a 200-mile radius, and gives you about 15–80 channels.

Before we get into the rest of the options .... you should know, you’re going to need internet. So if you’re not happy with your current internet provider, check out our list of the best internet providers.

2. Channel app

The second way to watch local channels without cable TV is getting a subscription to a specific channel’s app. At most, these apps are $10 per month, but sometimes they’re free, and you’ll be able to find all of your favorite local channels in the app store.

There’s Paramount+, which gives you access to live TV channels, on-demand TV shows and movies, and Original content. Not only can you watch Star Trek: Picard, Survivor, and The Brady Bunch whenever you’d like, but you’ll be able to watch your local CBS station, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, and ET Live 24/7.

NBCUniversal Peacock provides live news and sports coverage. This streaming service has 50+ channels, 40,000–$60,000+ hours of on-demand content. (The free plan gives you the lesser amount.)

Peacock's on-demand library includes TV shows and movies like The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Battlestar Galactica, Saturday Night Live, Saved by the Bell, the Harry Potter series, and the Fast and Furious series.

In the app store, you’ll also find apps for Fox Now, The CW, ABC, and PBS Video. These apps are easy to watch on-the-go on your smartphone, but you can also watch them on your laptop, tablet, computer, and smart TV.

3. Live TV streaming app

A popular solution to cutting the cord is subscribing to a live TV streaming service. And the service that knows how to give you local channels for a low price is Sling TV.  If you’re just wanting local channels, why pay $50 or more a month when you can spend $35 with Sling?

Data as of 11/11/21. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.

* Data as of 11/11/21. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.

The Sling Orange package doesn’t have any local channels, but the Sling Blue package gives you your local FOX and NBC channels, among 40 other popular channels like FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, and Food Network.

But if you’re willing to spend $65 per month or more for a live TV streaming service, we recommend YouTube TV or Hulu Live TV.

YouTube TV will give you 85 channels including your local ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and PBS channels. You and your family can also enjoy Disney Channel, Food Network, and ESPN.

While these last two options (the apps and the live TV streaming service) benefit the whole family, the next two options are strictly for the newsies.

4. Live stream local news online

If local news is what you’re looking for, then the fourth way to watch local channels without cable is simply watching the live stream of your local news station’s newscast on their website.

Find the “Watch Live” option on their homepage, and there you go! Free news.

5. YouTube

And for the last and final way to watch local channels without cable: YouTube, the online video-sharing platform. Lots of major networks have their own YouTube channel where they upload clips of their news segments daily.

You can easily find the latest clips, search by keyword, and view their most popular uploaded videos.

If this video helps you, please hit those Like and Subscribe buttons.

And go on and smash that notification bell to get updates whenever we put out a new video.

If you happen to choose to watch news on your station’s website or on YouTube, then let me suggest another free option for you for your entertainment channels: Pluto TV.

Pluto TV is a free live TV streaming service with more than 250 channels. (That's 150 more than this service had last year!) You’ll find CNN, NBC News, Comedy Central, FS1, Nickelodeon, and the History Channel, just to name a few.

Recap

So you don’t need a cable subscription to get your favorite local channels to watch the news, sports, cartoons, or some great TV shows.

You can get an HD TV antenna, subscribe to a specific channel’s app, subscribe to a live TV streaming service, watch the live stream of your local news station’s newscast on their website, watch your local news channel on their YouTube page, or watch Pluto TV.

You can stay away from a $50 to sometimes a $100 monthly payment and just spend $40 or less, or even for no money at all to get your local channels on your TV right at home.

Written by

Chantel Buchi

Chantel is all about finding the best tv or streaming service to watch as many football games as possible to keep her Fantasy Football team in check. Prior to being a TV and Streaming Tech Reporter for Reviews.org, she worked for NFL Network and The Alliance of American Football. Before that, she received a B.A. of Communication at the University of Utah and an M.S. in Sports Journalism at USC. Go Utes and Fight On. Contact her at

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