- Plex has just launched a free live TV service with over 80 channels available to stream.
- Few of the channels on Plex Live TV are what you’d find with a cable subscription, but there’s a wide variety of content, from sports to news, children’s shows, anime, and classic movies.
- Plex Live TV is now being deployed on Apple TV, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire, Android, Android TV, and desktop computer.
Plex is one of the most expansive media players and platforms on the market, but its functionality grew again this week as the company is launching a free live TV service with more than 80 channels that will be available in more than 220 countries. . This live service joins the 14,000 free movies, documentaries, and TV shows that are already available through Plex on demand, and covers a wide range of interests, from news to sports, cartoons, and more.
As Plex points out on its blog, it was previously possible to watch live local channels through Plex with an antenna, tuner, and Plex Pass, but now you can add more than 80 streaming channels to your line without additional hardware. If you want to see the selection of live TV, navigate to a new section called “Live TV on Plex” in the sidebar of the application. Here you will find a network guide similar to what a cable service like Spectrum would offer.
Once you open the guide you will be presented with various channels including Reuters and Yahoo Finance for news; Electric now, The file, The film detective for movies; 80s party, Party Tyme Karaokeand Texas-sized successes for the music; Taste done and Kitchen panda for food; CONtv and RetroCrush for anime AFV Spanish for shows in Spanish; Toon Goggles, Monster kidsand KidsFlix for children’s shows; Fubo sports network for live sports; and IGN TV for eSports, just to name a handful of the more than 80 channels on Plex.
In addition to these traditional channels with a variety of content, there are also channels dedicated to a single program or idea, such as The Bob Ross Channel and the deal or no deal channel. This will not replace your subscription to Sling or YouTube TV, but the price is hard to argue with. Of course, Plex still has to pay for this, and to make a free live TV service possible, you’ll have to go through an occasional business meeting.
Here’s the full list of Plex apps that support the Live TV feature starting Thursday, July 23:
- Amazon Fire TV (v8.3.1 or newer)
- Android mobile (v8.3.1 or newer)
- Android TV (v8.3.1 or newer)
- Apple TV (v7.3.1 or newer)
- Chromecast
- iOS (v7.3.1 or newer)
- Plex web application (v4.38.2 or newer)
- Roku (v6.6.5 or newer)
Plex says updates for the app on Apple TV, iOS devices, Roku, Amazon Fire, Android mobile devices, Android TV, and on desktop computers to add Live TV functionality are now rolling out, while updates for TVs Smart and game consoles are coming soon. Once it appears, you can customize it to your liking or hide it entirely.
Jacob started covering video games and technology in college as a hobby, but it quickly became apparent to him that this was what he wanted to do for a living. He currently resides in New York writing for BGR. His previously published work can be found on TechHive, VentureBeat, and Game Rant.
.
