INTERNET TV FREE

From: FREE TV ON THE INTERNET & MORE

Yes, it's possible.

I am a football fan. Actually, you might say a football fanatic. I also travel overseas many months out of the year. This used to be a recipe for disaster. Separating myself from my cable tv for months at a time was always depressing.

For years I searched for a solution that would let me watch live sports broadcasts, current tv series, and news all from my laptop on a single platform. And if you found your way to this article, you have probably run into the same roadblock. Fear not, because there are solutions available in 2007.

Until very recently, not much has really been done to bring regular television programming to the internet. In the US, in particular, the ever-powerful networks cringe at the thought of giving anything away for free, and have more or less stonewalled any effort by developers who wanted to bring their content online. In the past 2 years or so, many of them have started to allow their viewers to download episodes of previously aired television series and other special programs on-demand. They tout this as a giant leap forward, stating over and over that they are giving the consumer the power to choose their content, when and where they please. But here's the dilemma. I don't want anything that they offer ( American Idol just doesn't do it for me, I'm sorry ) and I want it now, not later ( What good does it do to see a football match a day after it's been played? ).

So, that being said, if you're looking for a way to watch movies or television series, user created content, or just funny clips online, you're in luck because there are tons of outlets to find that sort of stuff. Between places like Joost and YouTube, you'd never get through it all. But for the rest of us who want LIVE tv, there are still options.

Whenever I travel with friends and they see me watching our local programs on my laptop, I almost always get the same two-part response: 1) "Wow, that's cool, I want to have that software on my laptop! and then, 2) "But I don't want to pay anything, where can I get it for free."

With all of the new software that floats around the internet these days -- the Beta's, the trial versions, the Limewires and Bit-whatever's that allow you to grab just about anything for free, it's a real downer when you have to pay even a little. But trust me when I say that I've spent years going through crappy free versions of internet tv software to know it's worth every penny to find a good one.

Now, after a one-time fee, you do truly have internet tv free. And that is the goal. If you spend as much time on your laptop as I do, you can even get rid of the cable or satellite for good and save yourself a ton of money. With satellite tv over the internet, your pc acts as the receiver, so you'll never have to pay a monthly fee for service. Better yet, there's no equipment needed so you can take your internet tv service wherever you go, whether that's down the street or around the world.

While there are certainly several different beta versions of similar software out there available as freeware, they are ultimately a pain to use. As the saying goes, you DO get what you pay for. Most of the free versions suffer from one of two problems -- either they have very limited content, and you will constantly be prompted by a pop up window or flashing advertisement on screen to upgrade to a paid service anyway... or you are required to navigate through multiple files and folders in order to connect to each channel separately. This can really be a headache, and after testing a few of these I usually gave up within a few minutes. It's definitely not comparable to channel surfing on your normal television.

Below is a short youtube video example of one of these programs, and just a few of the steps you have to take just to open up a channel in the player. Needless to say, it's complicated and many times causes the video player to freeze.

The best one that I've come across so far, and the one that I use myself is called Satellite TV for PC. For a one time fee, you get an instant download with nothing else to add on later and no monthly fees. With this version you get upgrades for life, so it's well worth the money.

The thing I like best about this software is the interface itself. Simple, clean, and easy to navigate. The screenshot gives you an idea of just how easy it is use, much closer to a real television experience.

In my opinion, it's the best one available when you consider the amount of channels that you can receive -- over 4000! That's insane when I stop and think that I was paying over $120 dollars a month in the US for an internet + tv package with only 100 or so channels. And I certainly didn't have access to channels from other countries, whereas now I can pick up channels from virtually any country on earth.

In any case, if you're looking for something to give you live internet tv free, this is one of the best ones you'll find. Then next time you're stuck at the office or in an airport and you don't have to miss the big game you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

You can directly download this software at:

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