7 Excellent destinations to watch TV Shows for FREE

Over the last several months, in MakeUseOf Directory posts we have mentioned several websites that let anyone freely stream popular Movies, TV shows, Cartoons and other entertainment content. While some of the websites are long gone, some got much more popular and are able to maintain an excellent job at keeping content both up-to-date and free of dead links. Check out some of the better ones below. Listed from top to less preferable ones.

Top Picks

TV-Links (no longer online) - extremely popular, comprehensive and always up-to-date video directory. Additionally to ‘TV shows’ also features ‘Cartoons’, ‘Anime’, ‘Movies’, ‘Music videos’ and ‘Sport’ categories. Outperforms other similar services in several ways: huge number of shows, lots of good video quality shows, few broken links, full-screen mode and more.

Alluc - Very similar to above mentioned TVLinks. Lists TV shows, cartoons, anime, movies, music videos, sport videos and documentaries.

Sidereel - Wiki-style directory with lots movies and TV shows. In addition to listing links to full-length web videos also lists destinations where you can buy related shows/movies.

Other ‘Live Streaming’ Services

  • TV-Video - TV shows
  • AllOfTV - anime, cartoons, music videos, TV shows.
  • VideoHybrid - movies, TV shows.
  • Peekvid - TV shows, cartoons, anime, movies, music videos and some more

Bonus: Custom Search Engine

MOVIES and TV SHOWS Search (Google Co-op): similar to what was done for ‘Q&A’ and ‘HowTo’ services, this custom google-powered search engine lets you search simultaneously on all ‘free-to-stream’ Movie and TV Shows sources.

Subscribe to MakeUseOf

Filed Under: Cool Websites ¦ Lists of tools
Tags: , , ,

Latest from Aibek:

Most Popular:
  • 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick (both for Mac and Win)
  • 1 Awesome Gmail tip You Don’t Know about. Seriously.
  • 40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark
  • The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner
  • 5 Packs to Transform Windows to other OS
  • 13 Bargain Websites That are Cheaper than eBay
  • 7 Excellent destinations to watch TV Shows for FREE
  • 5 Tools to Make Windows XP Look Like Vista
  • 18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet
  • Watch Popular TV Shows,Cartoons,Movies,Anime for free
  • How To: Move Music from iPod to PC in 5 Easy Steps
  • Collection of Rapidshare Tools and Tricks
  • 5 “DISPOSABLE” Web Accounts to Keep Your Identity Safe
  • Gmail Craze: 40 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail
  • Ultimate GMail Collection: over 80 Tools and Tips
  • 49 Comments » Leave One...

    Comment by Brent
    2007-06-17 12:24:12

    Thanks for a great post. These sites are pretty good. Tv-Links in particular looks pretty good. Amazing list of shows. Looks like they are using Veoh for the player.

    After checking out the shows though, I wonder if these are really legal? Episodes of Rome for instance are not available (or supposed to be available) online. Since Veoh is a P2P app, it looks like these are pirated episodes. Not sure of this, but it looks suspect to me so I wonder how long these sites will last.

    A post I made earlier this month outlined some good, legal sources of online tv shows. It highlighted some sources that aggregated listings of TV shows online and although certainly not as good since they don’t all play in the same type of player like Veoh - I’m sure they are legal at least.
    How to Find Legal, Full Episode, TV Shows Online

    Check it out if your interested.

    Brent

     
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-06-17 12:48:04

    Hi Brent

    You’re right most of the mainstream TV shows on TV links and alike websites are pirated. However despite it, TV links seem to get just better and more popular. Which means users tend to like it more then they dislike it. I guess at the end it all comes down to personal choice.

    Btw, thanks for the ALTERNATIVE link. Now we got something for everyone.

    Comment by Stephen
    2008-03-14 03:32:42

    Personal choice correct - whether you want to live ethically or not

     
     
    Comment by Brent
    2007-06-17 12:57:06

    Aibek,
    The links you have here are still a very nice resource if you miss a show. There are times when you miss a show and theres no good way to get caught up without going to places like this. I think the TV Networks will have to eventually offer more of this and adapt. Torrents were where most people looked for things like this, but your search engine and the tv-links site are better - no need to download anything.
    Thanks,
    Brent

     
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-06-17 13:08:45

    Thanks for the quick reply. In the comment above you have mentioned:

    “…TV Networks will have to eventually offer more of this and adapt”

    I think you’re definitely right here, because what we got at the moment costs TOO MUCH, especially when most of the content easily accessible online for free. Hence, it seems a better model is yet to come.

     
    2007-06-18 13:50:18

    [...] Enquanto isso o YouTube dá mais um passo interessante para permitir que o “cidadão comum” produza seu conteúdo, disponibilizando uma ferramenta de edição online.  E falando em YouTube, já publicamos aqui uma lista de TVs Online, então vamos agora acrescentar mais 7 opções para a sua lista. 18 de Junho de 2007 Tags: IPTV, TV ONLINE, YOU TUBE IPTV, TV ONLINE, YOU TUBE [...]

     
    2007-06-24 19:35:19

    [...] Full Article: 7 Excellent destinations to watch TV Shows for FREE [...]

     
    2007-06-25 19:44:44

    [...] Arrested Development - critically acclaimed and hillarious TV show about formerly wealthy and extremely dysfunctional family. Here you can freely watch (100% legal) all episodes from season 1 and half of season 2. In case that ‘legal’ term doesn’t really bother you than check out recently covered A+ destinations to watch TV shows for free. [...]

     
    Comment by Nado Skinner
    2007-07-01 10:43:17

    There’s another source you would like to add to this list. Unlike the other ones, the site Venividi (http://venividi.blogsome.com) embeds the video in a nicer and cleaner player. Plus it doesn’t bug users with multiple pop-up, pop-under or ads. I guess the site prefers to lead its users straight to the videos more than trying to lure them to click on ads.

     
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-07-01 14:59:38

    @Nado

    true there are no ads what so ever, however VeniVidi provides rather limited amount of links and very inconvenient to navigate. Onh the other hand, most of the services that were mentioned above categorize links in directory-like structure making it easier to find what I need fast.

     
    Comment by Norman Roberts
    2007-07-13 15:22:56

    NSR - your ticket to one of the most comprehensive on line collections of free entertainment links available on the web,no registration,no fees, no downloads!!!”your entertainment blog site promoter”
    http://nosubscriptionrequired.blogspot.com/

     
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-07-13 16:00:51

    @Norman

    Thanks for the nice link, looks little cluttered but good. ;-)

     
    Comment by fnuz
    2007-07-15 18:36:43

    you should check Fnuz The directory of video streaming websites
    http://www.fnuz.com

     
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-07-18 00:55:38

    @ fnuz
    thanks, will do.

     
    Comment by Watch Movies Online
    2007-07-23 15:55:19

    Want to search YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Revver, ITunes, Mofile, ExpoTV, Myspace & More all at 1 Place. Go to http://www.LotsOfGreatVideos.com where you can catch up on the Simpsons or Family Guy - Read about chemtrails - watch sports news Or watch ANYTHING online for free!

     
    Comment by Anissa
    2007-08-15 12:27:15

    Watch free TV online :

    On http://www.tvonline.2ya.com ….. for MTV, MCM, ESPN, Eurosport, CNN, ABC, BBC, NBC, NASA TV, ANIMAL PLANET, NATIONNAL GEOGRAPHIC … by categories.

    On http://englishtv.site.voila.fr/index.html …. for watching free vieo clip like Rihanna, Ciara, Beyonce, Fergie, Cassie, Nelly furtdo, Timbaland, DMX, Akon, The game, Snoop dog, Chamillionnaire, 50cents, Ludacris, Avril lavigne, Pink, Gwen stefani, Green day, Blink 182, U2, Madonna, Evanescence, Tiestö, Cascada, Lasgo …

    It’s free with nothing to download, Just need a media player.

     
    Comment by watch lost online
    2007-08-25 13:07:48

    I watch LOST online at LotsOfGreatVideos.com

    You can watch your favorite TV Series or latest movies for free!

     
    Comment by jitendra
    2007-08-31 09:34:00

    nothing

     
    Comment by eloise
    2007-10-05 04:53:39

    yea, great about the ‘legal’ ways, but some of us live outside the US, and network websites don’t let us watch stuff online. so that sucks.

     
    Comment by Brainiac
    2007-10-05 07:17:32

    @eloise

    And that’s why we have no choice but to resort to sites like TVlinks-co.uk. Right?

    :-)

     
    2007-10-14 06:44:41

    [...] You can get a quick overview of these services in previously published ‘7 Excellent Places to watch TV Shows for FREE’. [...]

     
    Comment by harry potter
    2007-10-28 23:09:46

    where cn i watch death note other than youtube veoh and anime org? i can’t find it in the websites above……………

    Comment by Aibek
    2007-10-29 07:31:11

    Hey, I found it on the above mentioned Sidereel, check out following link

    http://www.sidereel.com/Death_Note

     
     
    Comment by Andrew
    2007-11-11 04:55:26

    Hello there,

    I’ve been reading your article and I hope you’ll take a look at our website: http://www.flickpeek.com . We think it’s a great resource for tv shows and movies.

    Thanks!

     
    Comment by Erodote
    2007-11-17 11:38:14

    Hi,

    I love watching cable & satellite TV online by internet. A great website where to Watch Free TV is TVonline :

    http://www.tvonline.2ya.com

    Lot of webradio & webTV like MCM, MTV, Eurosport, ESPN, CNN, ABC, SKYNEWS, Discovery channel, Sci-fi channel, NASA TV, Research channel, and more.

     
    Comment by chris
    Comment by Aibek
    2007-11-23 22:27:30

    Thanks for the comments, I will check it out shortly.

     
     
    Comment by UrStop
    2007-12-07 02:33:48

    Thanks, I was looking for this information for a while.

     
    2007-12-14 10:05:52

    [...] TV channels, i.e. MTV, ESPN, CNN, AlJazeera, BBC, NBS, and so on. We have profiled dozens of similar websites before, however QSS seems to lead the way when it comes to video stream quality. Most of the videos [...]

     
    Comment by lob
    2007-12-15 17:09:27

    I’ve put together a blog of stuff on hulu

    http://hulustuff.blogspot.com/

     
    Comment by Justin
    2007-12-22 20:47:14

    Television companies - Listen up!

    We are the consumers who buy your products and give you the audience which gets you the advertisers (who pay crazy amounts of money to you) without us you would not have any ground on which to demand so much from the advertisers, no one to sell to - no deal right?

    Anyways I can understand why movies are illegal to ‘flash up’ and share on the internet - but TV shows? Come on buddy you know damn well that you already made the money on an old show that plays over and over with reruns on television.

    What’s that you say? DVD’s? - get real most people do not buy seasons of television shows on DVD and if they do they are usually big big fans who want the real thing with the inserts and everything (keep in mind the show is still on TV reruns anyways)

    Family Guy.. wasn’t it cancelled? Yes, wasn’t it Internet ‘interest’ that brought it back? Yes!

    Remember that MacFarlane :P

    Comment by Aibek
    2008-01-18 19:46:09

    I am totoally with you on that. TV shows should be free. They should ad some ads there, I don’t thinks anyne would mind.

     
     
    Comment by Vic
    2008-01-18 00:38:54

    quero ver tv

     
    Comment by jenny
    2008-01-20 11:34:34

    It’s a free TV portal where you can watch more than 3250 online TV channels.
    http://www.theycool.com

     
    Comment by jappi
     
    Comment by Joe
    2008-03-18 12:15:39

    I think it bares mentioning that tv-links is back online @ tv-links.cc

     
    Comment by Alex
    2008-03-19 19:27:21

    I found this site where you can Watch free tv shows online,
    as well as movies.

    here is the link:
    http://www.tvduck.com

    amazing site, always updated.

    Have you been quacked yet ?

     
    Comment by rob
    2008-03-30 11:58:27

    The bigger sites tend to get crowed, some smaller tv show sites are a bit better if you ask me. Faster streaming & loading of the videos. I’m currently using a site called http://thisweekontv.net , their videos load withing 5 seconds most of the time.

     
    Comment by rob
    2008-03-30 12:00:35

    Another good site is http://tvshowguide.net which always has current & up to date shows.

     
    Comment by Johnhq
     
    Comment by bowlpacked
    2008-04-06 15:05:17

    I really like sidereel.com, they have pretty much every TV show. Also, check out

     
    Comment by Tara
    2008-04-11 11:28:39

    Another great site http://WWW.SHOWREWIND.COM :)

     
    2008-05-28 16:43:37

    [...] - Very similar to above mentioned TVLinks. Lists TV shows, cartoons, anime, movies, music videos, sport videos and [...]

     
    Pingback by tv shows websites
    2008-06-03 11:26:30

    [...] [...]

     
    Comment by justin
    2008-06-05 08:45:14

    another great site that i like is surfthechannel.com

    thanks for the other links too! I was looking for something i couldnt find on surf the channel.

     
    Comment by sana
    2008-06-07 22:46:56

    Watch Free Online TV Channels from all over the world and select it from entertainment music news education cartoon sports movies games information etc
    http://www.greatonlinetv.com
    thanks

     
    Comment by tv online
    2008-07-12 20:41:50

    You can add this link : http://www.oiubire.ro/tv/online.php to the list. Is a great place for tv online.

     
    2008-07-22 14:12:57

    [...] and TV shows on Make Use Of. There was Ditch Your Cable Company With Free, Legal Alternatives, 7 Excellent destinations to watch TV Shows for Free, the Interview with Top 5 Free Movie & TV Shows sites, and The only TV and Movie Websites you [...]

     
    Comment by JOhn
    2008-07-30 19:22:59

    http://www.showrewind.com has a HUGH database of links. :)

     
    Name (required)
    E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
    URI
    Subscribe to comments via email
    Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
    You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment. All comments are moderated. If your comment does not show up immediately, be patient. It will show up momentarily.


    © 2007-2008 MakeUseOf.com. All rights reserved. Design by Unique Blog Designs.