Staying cozy and enjoying the sacred spot will most times require the presence of a companion — whether it’s a good book, a friend, TV, or music. For most people, watching something on TV is all they need whether they’re alone or with someone.
In today’s world, watching something meaningful on TV will sometimes take good money out of your pocket every month.
Is there any way you could get quality TV time for free or with minimal spending? That’s what we’re looking at.
Here is how you can watch quality TV channels for free.
Types of Free TV Content You can watch
Before we talk about the types of TV channels, you may be wondering, “Do we actually have free TV channels?”, “Can I watch them?”
The answer to both questions is a firm yes!
With the vast availability of satellites and the amazing internet, literally every country in the world can receive free TV content.
What are the kinds of free channels or TV content you can receive?
If you are looking to get free channels or trying to reduce the cost of entertainment in the home, cabin, or caravan, there are two obvious options for you.
We’ll categorize them based on the source. They are satellite TV and streaming services.
These two options are different and are good for certain types of conditions.
It all depends on your needs which will very much be determined by your location and the amount of money you have to spend or the devices you have with you (yes, on certain occasions you may have to pay for hardware).
Okay, let’s shed a little more light on that.
If you are camping out somewhere for a few weeks, you won’t want to install anything permanently.
You will be more comfortable with something you can detach and take home when you’re done with the adventure.
The obvious solution in such cases will be streaming services. But if the internet connectivity in the area is poor and you also don’t have a satellite internet solution like Starlink, then you could consider finding a way to take your TV antenna with you.
The other very obvious factor is the weather. It rains a lot and many places will be covered with snow.
There are only a few locations, like certain areas of Nesbyen, that can get a great deal of the little heat available.
If you’re living in this area, you should do just fine with your satellite dish outside.
But many other regions, for the most part, will do better using streaming services. Nobody wants a satellite dish outside when it’s snowing.
Whether you’re getting a streaming service or satellite TV for your free TV channels, the location will be a huge decision-making factor.
Free Streaming
Streaming is a very popular and preferred option for TV. It also opens you up to myriad options as far as TV networks are concerned.
Whether you’re using a streaming box, smartphone, or smart TV, you’re likely to have access to the same free streaming options available all over the world.
Generally speaking, as long as the device has browsing capabilities and can connect to the internet, you can access nearly any kind of streaming service out there.
How to Access free streaming channels
Getting premium content for free is going to be difficult. It takes money to create and distribute them so it’s going to be hard to them for free.
Even when it looks like everything needs a subscription before you can watch anything at all, there are a few ways to stream good TV channels.
Firstly, you’ll have to define your entertainment needs. Which do you prefer? Sports, movies, news, or documentary? When you know this, it will be easier to look for free services.
It’s easier to find a single sports channel, a single movie channel, or a single news channel than it is to get a whole streaming service for free.
Once you know what you want, you can use any of the solutions below to get free streaming.
Search for the app
After deciding on the category of content you want, it’s easy to go search for a streaming app that offers what you need in the app store.
Go to your app store or marketplace and search for the app. If you want a basketball channel, search for basketball streaming apps. If you want to watch movies, search for a movie app.
When you are specific and define your needs this way, it makes it a lot easier to find what you need. I’ve actually gotten a few sports apps for live matches this way.
Stream from a popular TV network
It can be difficult to find a free streaming service with this option. But it’s worth giving a try.
There may be lots of TV channels you love already. Great! All you need to do is search for their streaming app on your app store.
Some people watch less than five channels per month but pay for 200. Simply search for streaming apps for those channels. They could even have a live stream on YouTube.
There will be a few you can stream from their app without having to pay for some big package. This works really well with news and documentary channels.
Peruse Premium channels
Try some premium apps alongside. Some premium apps do have free content on the side so don’t ignore them completely.
If you check some premium services you may find a free plan you can use completely free. Though you won’t get some of the paid channels, the free ones may just turn out to be all you need.
And don’t just limit yourself to your country. There are many TV networks abroad that will allow worldwide streaming access to their content.
Get on a shared subscription plan
Many services will allow you to get plans for an individual but also for the entire home or office. If this feature is available, you can take advantage of it.
The other way is sharing a single account with a friend or relative. This is not simply about sharing passwords. Some streaming services will let you use a single plan on more than one device. Go for it!
Free satellite TV channels
Free-to-air TV channels won’t be the ideal solution for most people, primarily because of the weather conditions in most places.
But if the weather favors you, you can save a lot of money with an FTA setup to view great channels.
Getting set up is easy. All you need to do is to buy an FTA decoder, a satellite dish, LNB, and the required length of coaxial cable.
Be sure to talk to a technician so they can guide you on the right type of peripherals to go for.
Once you’ve purchased all the materials, get an installer to set things up for you. That’s how you start enjoying nonstop free TV for as long as you want.
And if your location is favored, you’ll have a good number of satellites to pick from.
Common issues with free satellite TV
The first and obvious problem is the weather. Most times you’ll lose the signal when the dish is covered with snow.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use satellite TV because of this. You’ll have to find a way to deal with the snow.
Easy ways to deal with snow on your Satellite TV dish
Knock off the snow. Most times you’ll have to go out, use a stick to take the snow off the dish. Once the snow’s off, you’ll get your back signal.
Alternatively, you can find a way to have the snow slide off on its own once they drop on the dish.
How to make snow slide off a satellite dish
There are three ways you can cause snow to slide off once it hits the surface of your dish.
Use Cooking Spray
While researching on this I found that some people actually recommend using cooking spray like PAM or Tourangelle on the dish.
This will do the job as it creates a slippery surface which makes anything (like snow for instance) that falls on the dish effortlessly slide off it.
I feel using a spray on the dish is good as long as it does not collect dirt on the surface over time. That can be difficult to clean. Further research led me to other solutions as well, thanks to rsinc.
Use a Warmer
Another very good, though slightly expensive, solution to snow is using a warmer on the dish. A warmer will keep the dish constantly above freezing temperature and this will cause snow to melt as it makes contact and slide off.
Electricity consumption is clearly a factor here but a warmer works with a thermostat which regulates the heat produced to keep power consumption down when it has little or no snow to melt.
Also, you can always take off the warmer during summer.
Use Satellite Dish Cover
A satellite dish cover is another good and affordable solution to snow. Simply buy one and slide it on the dish.
Satellite dish covers are made with nylon material. Its slippery texture causes the snow to slide off the surface of the dish.
Conclusion: We’ve discussed two great sources for free TV content in a Nordic area such as Norway. Your top two options are satellite TV and streaming services.
With satellite, you’ll have three ways to deal with the snow so it doesn’t disrupt viewing. Streaming channels on the other hand can be costly but there are a couple of ways to stream great content for free.
You can always make do with OTA TV channels but I doubt you’ll get anything out of the ordinary.
