How To Get Free TV Channels On Your Samsung TV Without An Antenna

Over the last several years, what it means to be a "cord cutter" without cable or satellite television service has changed radically. Contracts for key content expired, resulting in various new streaming services launching that wanted to grab at your wallet, and a bunch of cable TV replacement streaming services have launched, as well. If you're the kind of person who wants to try to keep up with as many new shows as possible, it's probably going to cost you more than it did a few years ago.

However, if you're not picky and you're not looking for the latest and greatest, the free options have greatly expanded, as well. Multiple major players have launched their own free ad-supported streaming television (or FAST for short) services, which carry both cable/satellite/broadcast-style linear channels as well as on-demand programming.

Though initially, these services didn't necessarily have much in the way of mainstream programming, the model proving itself and established content owners supporting it have led to a much more interesting landscape with huge amounts of modern and classic TV and movies available for free to anyone with an internet connection. In other words, these are the cheapest ways to watch live" TV without a cable subscription or an over-the-air antenna.

Most of the key FAST services/apps are available on Samsung smart TVs running the manufacturer's Tizen OS. With the caveat that some of these apps have some degree of overlapping channels, particularly from content owners that don't have their own FAST service, let's go over what your options are and how to set them up.

To add any of the FAST platforms discussed below to your Samsung smart TV, you just install them like you would any other app:

1. Turn on your TV.
2. Press the Home button on your remote.
3. Scroll to the left until you see the Apps icon, then press the big circular/OK button on your remote.
4. Navigate to the search icon to look for an app by name and follow the prompts.
5. Select the app you want, then navigate to the Install option on the screen and press the big circular button once you've highlighted it.

That's it. Just repeat for additional apps as needed. Having said that, newly installed apps aren't instantly pinned to the home screen on Samsung smart TVs. Instead, they exist under the Downloaded Apps section of the Apps menu. If you want to pin a downloaded app to the home screen:

1. Press the Home button.
2. Select the Apps menu as you did earlier.
3. Scroll to the Downloaded Apps section.
4. Long-press the big circular button on the app that you want to add to the home screen and then select "Add to Home."

Again, just repeat this as needed for each app that you want to be on the home screen. With that out of the way, let's look at what FAST options are available to you from Samsung's app store.

We might as well start with Samsung's own FAST app, Samsung TV Plus. If you already have a Samsung smart TV, you may already be familiar with it even if you haven't sought it out, as it's the default playback source on some models when you turn on the TV or exit a different app.

Overall, Samsung TV Plus includes a pretty generic selection of channels as far as FAST providers go. The selection consists mainly of the kind of channels you'll see on most FAST apps, plus some on loan from Pluto TV as part of a deal between the two services. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's still a pretty decent selection here, including plenty of national and local news channels and plenty of quality shows, and on a Samsung smart TV, it's already there by default.

In practice, though, if you end up preferring a different FAST app, you're probably best off sticking with that because it will likely have most or all of what Samsung TV Plus has. Some of the more obvious overlapping channels include broadcast network ION, the wall-to-wall "Degrassi," "21 Jump Street," and "The Walking Dead" channels, an array of true crime channels, game show channels including 24/7 "The Price is Right" and "Supermarket Sweep" channels, and Vevo's music video channels.

Pluto TV is Paramount's entry into the field of FAST channel providers and was basically the proof of concept that ushered in the various competitors that we'll be discussing momentarily. Though it does have an on-demand component, its focus is on its large suite of linear channels, some of which are exclusive by way of leveraging Paramount properties.

Pluto includes many themed movie channels exclusive to the service. Just from a quick peek at the onscreen guide while writing this section, notable movies on the slate in the next few hours include "Forrest Gump," the original "Top Gun," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Clueless," "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," "House of 1,000 Corpses," and other major titles. There are various cult film options, too. Pluto's movie channels definitely have a "something for everyone" flavor to them.

There's a ton of classic TV on Pluto, as well. Some channels, like the wall-to-wall "Family Ties" and "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross" channels, overlap with rival FAST apps. But others, like the "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Star Trek" channels, are Pluto exclusives leveraging the Paramount library. In general, the Paramount ownership gives Pluto TV a lot of content not available from competitors, with the likes of CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon/its sub-brands, Paramount Pictures, The Paramount Network (previously Spike TV), and Paramount Television Studios all represented strongly on the platform.

And if you're a fan of "Big Brother," then Pluto is great for you, as it carries the show's 24/7 live streams.

When it comes to FAST apps from legacy heavy hitters in the entertainment world, Fox's Tubi is the other entry from a big legacy name besides Paramount's Pluto TV. Unlike Pluto TV, though, its video-on-demand offerings are positioned front and center on its website and apps. That VOD programming is particularly well-curated and well worth checking out, but that's not why we're here.

Though Tubi's channel guide starts with the kind of news and sports channels that overlap with its competitors, navigating to the "entertainment" tab gives you a better idea of what linear Tubi has to offer. Tubi also offers up many of the channels from FilmRise that appear across the FAST landscape, like the all-"Iron Chef" channel that features the Food Network dubs of the original Japanese series. But there are exclusives to be found, as well.

As you scroll down, you see over a dozen Warner Bros.-branded channels featuring programming from throughout the recently merged Warner Bros. Discovery catalog, including a lot of reality shows from the Discovery family of channels, plus a Tubi Originals channel and some Fox programming like "The Masked Singer" and "Hell's Kitchen" getting wall-to-wall channels.

Though the breadth of exclusive channels that Tubi has to offer isn't at the scale of Pluto TV, it still offers enough to distinguish itself that it's well worth checking out.

Even Comcast, the cable TV giant and parent company of NBC Universal, has its own app in the increasingly crowded FAST landscape: Xumo Play. And despite its ownership, it has very little in the way of exclusive content, not leveraging the NBC Universal library in any really noticeable way.

There are a few exclusive channels, like Xumo Food TV, Xumo Travel & Lifestyle TV, and Xumo Movies, but their lineups aren't exactly impressive. The movie library, in particular, doesn't appear to offer up anything remotely mainstream outside of 1993's "Rudy." It does carry some NBCU-centric channels like SNL Vault and Universal Crime, but despite being from the parent company, those channels are not exclusive to Xumo Play.

This makes Xumo Play a bit of a puzzler. What is Comcast doing in this space if it isn't bothering to leverage its libraries at all? Why is this app not a free, ad-supported product complimenting Peacock the way that Pluto TV is the FAST compliment to Paramount+? Making Xumo even weirder is that there's outright NBC-branded programming on a competing FAST app instead of being on Xumo.

FreeVee, meanwhile, is Amazon's entry into FAST, which is available through both the regular Amazon Prime Video app and a dedicated FreeVee app. Much of its channels are, like in everyone else's FAST apps, overlapping channels from FilmRise and similar licensing houses. But it does have a bunch of exclusives, as well, though not in the same numbers as Pluto TV.

Where this gets particularly weird is that FreeVee struck a deal with NBC Universal for a bunch of channels in June 2023. Though many of these, like the aforementioned Universal Crime and SNL Vault, are not exclusive to FreeVee, some attractive ones are. These include a wall-to-wall "Saved by the Bell" channel and a TNBC channel named after NBC's '90s Saturday morning lineup.

It's not entirely clear why NBC and FreeVee went with the TNBC branding for that channel, as it mainly shows reruns of "Coach," a primetime sitcom that was not part of the classic TNBC lineup. The "Saved by the Bell" channel is the real deal, though, airing the original series and its spin-offs in order. This includes "Saved by the Bell: The New Class," which had not streamed anywhere since Peacock replaced NBC.com's streaming apparatus in April 2020.

FreeVee also added five exclusive BBC-based channels in October 2023: BBC Comedy, BBC Game Shows, BBC Sci-Fi, BBC Travel, and Silent Witness/New Tricks. All of this is bolstered by a slate of original programming as well as numerous major movies and notable past primetime shows like "Lost," "Alias," and "Bones" which are all available on-demand through FreeVee. Overall, it's another strong FAST contender that's well worth installing on your TV.

Though it started as an app for streaming your personal video library, Plex added free, ad-supported content a few years ago. Much of its lineup consists of the usual suspects from FilmRise and company, but Plex also appears to be an early destination for FAST channels that have just launched and are trying to spread their wings and make deals with all of the FAST providers.

This includes bigger players like ION, which Plex was carrying before its competitors, but also a host of smaller content companies. This is particularly noticeable in the sports section of Plex's guide, especially if you're a fan of combat sports, both legitimate and simulated. Not only does Plex include FAST mainstays like Glory Kickboxing and Impact Wrestling, but it also offers The Fight Network, Ultimate Classic Wrestling Network, Spanish-language CombaTV, and more. If you're heavily into pro wrestling, mixed martial arts, and/or kickboxing, then Plex's FAST channels are probably more likely to catch your eye than those of its competitors.

As its name suggests, The Roku Channel started off as a FAST provider that was exclusive to Roku streaming devices. Of late, that's changed, though, with Roku making its FAST app available on other platforms, seemingly to broaden its advertising base. Like with basically everyone on this list other than Pluto TV, the linear channels aren't the immediate focus of the app when you open it up, but it has a robust selection nonetheless. However, there are no exclusive channels of note to speak of.

The Roku Channel's advantages come in its on-demand catalog, mainly in the form of its Roku Originals. The most notable of these to date would be "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story," the docudrama parody that theoretically profiled the titular parody songster, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic. It's been nominated for eight Emmy Awards and scored 83% positive on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer with an 81% audience score.