We are retired on very limited income and get Prime TV and Paramount + TV via our children setting up our tv with family sharing. We have our own sign in character icon for each channel. These 2 streamers allow sharing within family groups.
There are many free services, some a lot better than others. It is all personal preference.
Some service allow both on-demand and also streaming like cable used to do.
I like the free Youtube, Pluto TV and Roku TV. Besides new content, sometimes I just like noise in the background. I have to admit that I am a court junkie. Court TV, Matlock (both original and new), US and British mysteries and I admit to have seen every Perry Mason episode multiple, multiple times.
I know this is situational and depending on where you live, but I invested in a Tablo device and I have to say, it’s great. I live in the Los Angles area and there are over 200 over the air channels available. The device app acts like any other streaming service, but it’s completely free once you purchase the device. It sets up easily and with your internet connection, allows all TV’s in the house to share the signal. It also has onboard storage or you can add an external hard drive. I’ve had mine for over a year and love it. Really good alternative if you live in a large market area. I forgot to add that the device cost me $49.00, dirt cheap when you consider that there is no other cost to watch live TV
This is a gimmick. It says: “streaming”, but then says you need a OTA antenna! This is not what they claim to be!
I have used 2 4th gen Tablos since 2023, One 2 tuner, the 4 tuner. I purchased cheap amplified antennas from Amazon 20-30 dollar range, sometimes cheaper on sale, they are all look like the Motu Leaf. I put them on a window with scotch tape. I also purchased an 8TB WD drive for each. Over the years I have all the CSI franchise series, Law and Order, and other popular shows. Tablos have a built in amplifier that you can turn on and off. One of the latest update to the Tablos is that there is an offline mode so if my internet provider is down, I can watch all those programs. I paid around $300 a month than cable. I paid around $300 for a Tablo, Antenna, and external hard drive. I’m in metro Phoenix and get something like 89 OTA channels and around 160 internet channels on Tablo (210 total). My biggest concern with the Tablo is when ATSC 3.0 goes active, the networks want to kill ATSC 1.0 quickly. For most, that will mean new TVs, and other gear who use antennas. It’s been an unfulfilled promise that it’s coming for five years or so. I’m not too worried, I have years of contend recorded on my Tablos. I recommend it with the caution of ATSC 1.0 going obsolete. Hopefully there will be converters that are cheap available when the local affiliates went digital. The definition on the Tablo is great for sports on the main 720 or 1080, x.1 channels (ie 8.1 = PBS main) but the x.2 and beyond are all 480 (ie 8.3 PBS World). They are still clearer than cable ever was. The 4th gen Tablos have onboard storage. Using it alone is fine but it is encoded then decoded in a lossy format, not bad but having an external hard drive connected is the signal with no compression. Honestly, if I were to put a drive on the 2 tuner Tablo, I would use a 4TB, as the 8TB is only 66% full after 3 years. The 4 tuner Tablo fills quickly with 9% left and constantly overwrites all the content. My only complaint with Tablo is the free guide. It sometimes has the incorrect Season & Episode numbers around Daylight Savings Time switch months. It might be because I’m in Arizona where we don’t change while the rest of the country does. Half the year we are equal with MST the other half PST, but we are MST(GMT -7:00). There are many YouTube reviews on Tablos. My experience is great. If you are in Phoenix metro area, South Mountian is where to point your antennas, I am over 40 miles away and it helps to check channels when there aren’t many clouds in the sky.