Best Free Streaming Apps for Live Television: Top Picks for Your PC or Mac

5KPlayer > Video Music Player > Live TV Player

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Top 3 Live TV Players to Watch Live TV Free on PC/Mac

Written by Kaylee Wood | Last update: July 14, 2020 | 2 Min Read

Surely, you can’t always stick at home and sit in front of the TV to enjoy shows. Now that you have a need to watch live TV free in the work place or at the coffee house, you need a live TV player for PC, Mac or mobile device. When you search online, there are hundreds of options for you to choose from. However, some of them are only made for Android, some of them are for iOS, and some of them are unsafe to access. If you think it’s time-consuming to find the proper one, this article compiling top 3 live TV player apps will do the work for you.

3 Live TV Player Apps with Resources Recommended

No.1 TVPlayer – Watch Live TV, Catch-up & on-demand in the UK

Link: https://tvplayer.com/

TVPlayer is an internet-based TV subscription service in the UK, which follows the best of UK television contents to provide over 45 free to air and premium channels. Covering documentary, history and nature shows, this live TV player offers the possibility for you to watch TVs at home or on the go on wide variety of devices. In case needed, you can also download your favorite shows to enjoy anytime.

Channels: Ranging from Drama, Reality, Sports, Kids to Lifestyle category, there are 45+ channels including BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, BBC Four, Quest, LifeTime HD, TLC, Sky History, Think history, Species, Think nature, Discovery, Crime+Investigation, Unbeaten, Think travel, Humanity, Really, Quest Red, ITV 2, ITV 3, 4 More, ITV 4, ITV Be, 5 Star, Food Network, CITV, BBC CBeebies, DMAX, HGTV, Cheddar, France 24, NHK World Japan, Newsy, FNTV, Law Crime, TV5Monde, Discovery Home & Health, Film 4, 5USA, 5 Select, Paramount, C Extra, Comedy Central, MTV.

Compatibility: Available on PC, Mac, iOS, Apple TV, Android, Fire TV, Chromecast.

Price: TVPlayer offers customers some free channels. But if you need more amazing contents, you are suggested to upgrade to the premium pack (£6.99 per month or £69.99 per year) to access over 10 premium channels.

Cons: Only available in the UK.

No.2 Pluto TV – A Leading Free Streaming Television Service in America

Link: https://pluto.tv/welcome

In partnership with major TV networks, movie studios, publishers, and digital media companies, Pluto TV player app has attracted millions of fans to tune in each month to watch live TV free news, TV shows, movies, sports, lifestyle and trending digital series.

Channels: Over 250+ channels, and 1,000s hit movies, binge-worthy TV shows, the latest breaking news, live sports and more for you to watch free. Also, there are 1,000s of on-demand contents.

Compatibility: Pluto is a top free live TV player app available on all mobile, web, connected TV streaming devices and Mac/PC desktops, including smart TVs (Amazon Fire TV, Hisense, Roku, Samsung, Vizio), streaming devices (Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PS4, Xfinity, Roku), mobile apps (iOS, Android), desktop apps (Windows, macOS) and web browsers.

Price: It is totally free.

Cons: Only available in America.

No.3 SPB TV – Free Live TV Web Player to Find Worldwide Channels

Link: https://spbtv.online/

SPB TV continue working on adding new channels to meet your needs as much as possible. And all channels available in this live TV player app have TV license, so there is no need to worry about getting into legal trouble when streaming copyright contents.

Channels: SPB TV provides you with the choice of streaming 100+ TV channels worldwide for free and also a premium version for you to get access to more live channels. There are about 133 free channels from 20+ countries for you to enjoy through the web browsers, and the premium channels are currently available only for iOS and Android platforms.

Compatibility: SPB TV is supported by almost all the existing mobile OS including Android, Symbian, iOS and Bada, and BlackBerry, webOS, Maemo and Windows Phone are also on the list. If you want to watch live TV free on Windows and Mac through this platform, you are suggested to open the site on browsers (Firefox, IE, Chrome, Opera and Safari).

Price: Different versions have different fees.

Cons: Different platforms have different channels. More specifically, the list of channels available on your mobile device differ from that on the desktop version due to the license agreements with content owners. If you need more popular channels, you have to pay some money.

However, the subscription fee is variable if you get access to any streaming contents from any big names. Besides, if the current agreement with the content owners are changed, the contents were previously available no longer available now. If you have your own ULR streams found online, unfortunately it is not possible to add the streams to the above TV player apps.

5KPlayer – Mac/PC Live TV Player to Play IPTV M3U8 Links

5KPlayer, a free IPTV player, can help play live TV programs in the form of streaming IPTV .m3u8 links from the content owners. You have great freedom to add the IPTV M3U8 playlist URLs you found online to 5KPlayer to play as well.

Step 1. Free download 5KPlayer, install and launch it on your Mac or PC.

Step 2. Click on the “Live” icon on the main UI of 5KPlayer.

Step 3. Input your IPTV .m3u8 link to the play box and then hit Play to start watching live TV free with 5KPlayer.

If interested, 5KPlayer’s AirPlay function lets you receive live TV streaming from iPhone iPad, and its DLNA function allows you to stream live TV free from computer to smart TV wirelessly.

Also read: