The TV business is changing, as is the entertainment business in general. In a world with tivo and high-bandwidth, it is increasingly difficult for television networks to get their commercial in front of their audiences eyes. Networks, however, are embracing the shifting nature of entertainment and some are involved with very good websites where you can watch their programs. These, of course, have advertisers, which is how revenue is earned. Still, this creates a situation where, if you wanted to, you could cancel your cable subscription and still watch your favorite tv shows online.
This article is about three of the best websites where you can watch tv online. I like these sites because they are easy to navigate and have great shows and movies. In other words, it’s easy to find the video content you’re looking for.
Watch TV Online at Hulu.
The first is Hulu.com. This site splashed onto the scene a couple of years ago and immediately gained acclaim from online tv watchers all over the country. It is incredibly easy to find the tv shows, movies, or video clips you are looking for. If you own your own website you can even embed clips or entire episodes onto it with a simple copy and paste of some javascript code. Hulu is probably one of the more well-known online video sites out there and rightfully so, because it has a lot of quality content.
You can watch full length episodes of tv shows like 30 Rock, The Office, Saturday Night Live (SNL), and other popular current shows. You can also find episodes of shows that have been off the air for quite some time like Air Wolf, The Addams Family, and gems like Arrested Development which are getting a second chance at having an audience thanks to the internet. There is also a great movie selection at Hulu, as well as all kinds of other videos you may be interested in.
Watch TV Online at Fancast.
Fancast is hot on the heels of Hulu in terms of popularity I would say. This might be swayed a little by my opinion because I just think the first site I wrote about has a simpler, cleaner look and a more accessible format. But by no means is Fancast a bad site. You can find a lot of great tv show episodes as well as movies and videos to entertain yourself with. Often, I find myself going to this site and watching the week’s episode of 30 Rock or Fringe because I know they will be right on the front page and one click away for me to start watching the video.
Fancast also has a convenient “Top 5″ widget on the homepage that shows the most popular tv shows movies, and movie trailers for you to access very easily. A lot of the time, one of these videos will be what you are looking for in the first place since it is some of the most popular content on the site. Right now, if went over to Fancast, you would find links to the most recent episodes of Burn Notice, CSI: New York, NCIS, Lost, and House.
If you’re looking to watch tv online, definitely surf on over to this site.
Watch TV Online at Sling.com.
Sling.com is a very cool and newer free tv website that is growing on me and I’m sure is attracting a lot of avid followers. It is a very cool site and simple to navigate and find just what you are looking to watch. One thing you will notice about these sites is that you can find a lot of the same tv shows at all three of them. You can’t go wrong with any of these three sites as they all have similar content and each have their own strongsuits–that you may or may not notice.
I like the way Sling.com has a drop down menu with tv show suggestions from the staff as well as a list of the most popular content on the site. This cool little feature helps you find new (or old) shows that you may have never had the opportunity to see or may have never been exposed to before.
If you’re looking to watch tv online, definitely check out these three websites and you should have all the tv shows and movies you can handle online.
These websites are completely free and legal. The videos are streamed with permission from the producers. You will notice that all of these sites have advertising, which is a pretty fair trade-off. There aren’t as many commercials as there are on the traditional tv, which is nice. These sites are not like torrent sites or download sites because you never actually download a video file onto your computer–you just stream tv and video content right off the sites.
