Plex Makes Its Live TV Feature Free To Everyone For Three Months

Plex is back with another long blog post, this one offering something free to all of the people who are stuck at home in quarantine. Among other things, the company is making its Live TV feature available to all of its users for free for the next three months. With this, anyone who has an HD OTA TV antenna can stream their region's broadcast television on their favorite (Plex-compatible) devices.

Plex, for those unaware, is free software that enables anyone to turn their computer into a personal server. The service has expanded over time to add in some other features, including access to free news content available to stream directly in the Plex app. One of the platform's more interesting features is the inclusion of Live TV, which isn't quite what you get from services like Hulu.

Rather, Plex's Live TV feature is for cord-cutters who have a set-top box or something similar, as well as an HD TV antenna that can pick up local OTA stations. You also need a TV tuner, which is an increasingly common built-in feature in smart TVs and some streaming devices, as well as a Plex Pass.

Through June, Plex will remove the Plex Pass part of those requirements, meaning anyone who has the right hardware can use Plex to stream their local broadcast television channels through the Plex software. You'll still need the Plex Pass if you want to access some premium features like DVR storage, however.

The free Live TV feature includes guide data on the local broadcasts that go up to 48 hours in the future. Plex Pass subscribers will continue to get the data for up to two weeks rather than only 48 hours, however. Plex notes that you must be running Plex Media Server version 1.18.9 or greater in order to benefit from this feature.