How Watching Local Channels Without Cable Is Changing in 2024!

if you want to watch local stations without cable your two main options have been hooking up one of these or subscribing to one of these but things are changing and today I've got all the updates let's dive in number one is live TV streaming price hikes and the biggest change since I published this related video back in 2022 has definitely been the price increases for live TV streaming services the ones that include local stations premium live TV services with full local coverage will they now cost around $75 to $80 a month at recording time to give you a little context when I started reviewing live TV services 8 years ago they cost $35 to $40 a month so basically the price has doubled your local stations along with sports networks like ESPN they're the main reasons why these Services have gotten so expensive and that's because broadcast TV networks carry a lot of sports particularly the NFL with premium live TV services the price of the locals it isn't a separate charge like cable companies and that broadcast TV fee but make no mistake you're still paying for locals with the premium live TV services and despite annual price increases pay TV operators including live TV streaming services are still finding themselves in public feuds with owners of local stations fights that have led to weeks long and even months long local channel blackouts sling TV starts at a lower price than premium live TV services like YouTube TV and that's because sling does not have full local coverage but sling has added more local stations to its lineup and that's number two today ABC owned and operated stations have been included with sling TV since March 2023 that's eight markets New York Chicago Los Angeles and more with sling you also get Fox and NBC but only in cities where the networks own the stations and sling doesn't carry CBS at all but this is the important part most local TV stations they're not owned by the networks instead they're owned by corporations like nextar Sinclair and gray let me give you an example where I live in the Miami Market NBC and CBS are owned by the networks ABC and fox are not so with sling TV my plan only includes the NBC station because of this sling TV has always been a better choice for people who can pick up their local stations with an antenna and yes I'm going to talk more about antennas a little bit later on here's a bit of good news for your wallet streaming your local CBS and NBC stations it doesn't require a $75 a month live TV service not anymore you can get Paramount plus and peacock instead these are separate Services Paramount plus has CBS and peacock has NBC let me start with Paramount plus only the Paramount plus with Showtime plan includes that 24/7 feed of your local CBS station Paramount plus essential includes only limited live CBS content like NFL games peacock's plans they're structured in a similar way but for NBC not CBS so you need peacock Premium Plus for your local NBC station now for the bad news with either service I would expect the price of these premium plans to go up and I say that because in addition to carrying your local stations these more expensive plans don't run advertising on most of their OnDemand content and adree streaming plant have been increasing in price a whole lot lately fortunately Paramount plus and peacock they offer annual plans they can save you some money compared to the monthly plans that would be a good option if you rely on these services for your locals we're up to number four today and I want to talk about a new option for your local ABC and fox stations this is for people who don't want to pay for a premium live TV service I'm talking about the new sport streaming service from Disney Fox and Warner Brothers Discovery this one is slated to launch in the fall of 2024 it'll report ly cost between $440 and $50 a month now as soon as this was announced I wanted to know whether subscribers would get National feeds for ABC and fox or whether they would get their local station and from everything I've read it's going to be the local stations unfortunately this is just another service that will offer only partial local coverage you won't get CBS and you won't get NBC with the new service so the new sport streaming service it may work for some people I don't think for most people and the math explains why there's no official price at recording time but let's say that it starts at $40 a month remember that gets you ABC and fox then to get CBS you pay $12 a month for Paramount plus with showtime and then another $12 a month for peacock Premium Plus to get NBC added all together it's about $65 a month for complete local coverage not really a whole lot cheaper than the premium live TV services the ones like YouTube TV number five today Hulu extends its partnership to carry Fox shows don't care about the live feeds for ABC and fox well then you can save a whole lot of money by subscribing to Hulu's on demand service the basic Hulu service includes next day shows from ABC and fox Hulu renewed a multi-year Content deal with fox in early 2023 it includes inseason streaming rights for Fox's Prime Time Shows next day shows from CBS and NBC they're not available able with Hulu's on demand plans you'll need Paramount plus and peacock for those if you've seen my deal alerts you know that Hulu with ads regularly goes on sale during Black Friday sometimes as low as 99 cents a month for a year broadcast TV Network apps are pretty much useless for cord cutters but there are a couple exceptions that I want to share we're up to number six now the apps for ABC CBS and NBC are mostly for pay TV customers if you want to stream the majority of the content including live TV you you need to log in with either a cable satellite or live TV streaming service of these apps I do give ABC some credit for how it spotlights unlocked free content but for the most part I rarely open the apps for ABC CBS and NBC whenever I'm trying to find something to watch and you may have noticed I didn't mention Fox well that's because it shut down the Fox Now app back in 2023 the PBS app is one of two Network apps that I still recommend I'm able to watch live and on demand content from my local station free of charge and the CW app it's also free no signin required number seven the rise of free ad supported Services streaming services like Pluto TV tub and the Roku channel are good options if you're looking for free alternatives to broadcast TV these Services have massive libraries of shows and movies much of it a little bit older I think they do the best job of replacing local stations when it comes to content that's traditionally aired during the daytime talk shows game shows crime shows and Court shows free streaming services also aggregate a whole lot of news content this includes live local news from stations across the country two good options for you Newson and hyack news if you have trouble finding your local stations newscast go to their website and stream news directly from them that's what I usually do anyway number eight today I'm calling it low cast Replacements comment below if you've been watching my channel since low cast was around this was a donation-based live TV streaming service for local channels it got sued by the TV networks and shut down abruptly in September 2021 recently there's been some news coverage about a similar service called local TV plus it's being offered in the Boston area no I don't live in Boston haven't been able to test it but I have tried out puffer this service retransmits over the broadcast TV signals from the San Francisco area it's all part of a Stanford University Research project after signing up you can stream ABC CBS FOX NBC PBS as well as the CW now since this is a research project and not a paid service there are some limits like only 500 people Nationwide can be watching puffer at any given time to me it's just not a Dependable way to watch broadcast TV if you made it this far in the video you're probably not surprised to hear that anent of use is actually on the rise that's number nine today about 18% of household using an antenna that's according to a 2022 report from horrorwitz research and this is by far the most affordable option for locals for around $50 some people can hook up an indoor antenna like the mou leaf and watch their local stations I pay for a live TV streaming service for part of the year because it carries a few networks that I like to watch networks that you cannot get with an antenna but when I put my live TV service on pause the first thing I do is hook up my indoor antenna and scan and for local channels and I'm lucky where I live I can pick up all the major broadcast TV networks there are tools online including this one on Moo's website you can enter your zip code and get an estimate of the channels that you'll pick up in some cases indoor antennas like these just won't do so then you may want to start researching outdoor antennas and Tyler from the antenna Man YouTube channel he's got a lot of free content to help you look over your options now if you're holding off on getting an antenna because you're waiting for a local C streaming option for locals stop waiting get the antenna despite cord cutting retransmission fee revenue for local TV stations in the US it's to $14 billion and that number keeps Rising every year retr fees are paid by cable satellite and live TV services that include local stations depending on the service these fees are passed on to Consumers either in the plan price or as an additional fee cable subscribers you're familiar with the broadcast TV fee it's up to $30 a month in some areas $30 a month just for your local stations with an antenna there are no retransmission fees you pay for the cost of the antenna and that's pretty much it some people may want to buy an overthe a DVR Tableau is a good brand for that with one of these devices you can record shows and then during playback you'll be able to skip through the commercials give this video a like if you found it helpful and visit Michael saav deals.com for deals on streaming services and more thanks for watching today I'll see you next time