Watching TV for free in London

Watch telly for free if you know where to look. Photo Credit: cloudzilla

Thanks to the Internet, there has never been a better time to enjoy movies and TV online—especially for students on a budget. And these days, it’s even possible to do it legally. Gone are the days of Napster and BitTorrent being the sole dominators of file sharing. With rights-holders gaining more traction in their quest to find and prosecute those who illegally view their work, it’s definitely in your interest to stay on this side of the law. Luckily, Britain makes this relatively easy.

The great foe of all TV-watchers is the licence fee. But thanks to BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 on Demand,  ITV player and other similar services, you can watch British television (and radio as well, in the case of BBC) for free—and without worrying about a licence. And despite what the licence brigade might try to tell you, you only need a licence if you’re watching live TV on a computer. If going to individual channels’ sites to view your favourite shows seems too cumbersome, there are solutions to that too: SeeSaw and FindMeTV combine several channels into one consolidated viewer. LoveFilm, the British equivalent to Netflix, allows you to watch television and some films for free as well. Some, like the iPlayer, only keep one week’s worth of shows, but others will have up to a month’s worth of content.

For US and international shows, try “download” sites like scnsrc.net or scenereleases.info. These provide links to TV episodes and movies. They also have the advantage of working in university halls of residence, where P2P (peer-to-peer) applications like BitTorrent are blocked.

Finding a good online solution for sports (especially football) is somewhat harder. Most P2P sites that claim to show you free sports are dodgy (and won’t work where P2P is blocked anyway).

If you do end up watching TV online, make sure that your computer setup is up-to-spec to avoid getting a virus or Trojan. Use a modern browser like Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer 8 (beware of earlier versions) and keep your antivirus up to date. Consider using a media player like VLC to watch video—it supports more formats than your computer’s default settings allow.

Finally, don’t underestimate the “sneakernet”—i.e. moving data around by getting on your feet and out the door. Many students—and your campus library—have extensive collections of movies and television, and asking nicely can fill up a high-capacity USB stick pretty quickly. Happy viewing!

Nothing in this article should be seen as inducement to violate any applicable laws.