Subscription services are ass and a half, who likes paying for shit that switches networks every three months and isn't even that good anyhow? What if you could just... not pay? You can, if you're willing to break a few eggs. Here's four excellent options that you can do RIGHT NOW to never spend another cent on streaming.
# 1. Over The Air TV.
You can still get your TV as in the olden days, plugging a cable into the back of your TV.
https://files.catbox.moe/8p2xpr.jpg This is a coax cable. There is a slot on the back of almost every TV ever manufactured which looks like this https://files.catbox.moe/lgkwwp.jpg and it's as simple as screwing the cable in. But you're not going to get very far with just that. You can either buy a powered antenna off Amazon or some other website (You might already have one.) or you can do what I used to do and that is stick a piece of tinfoil on it. Experiment, ball it up, use it like a sheet, tape it to different surfaces to see what helps with reception. Odds are you have at least 20 channels, all available to you. This is a good start, but it's not much nowadays.
Advantage: EXTREMELY low cost, works without internet, fast to set up, no delay, subtitles, program guides
Disadvantage: Little to no choice in what you watch, reception can be spotty, limited selection except in major cities, commercials out the ass
Verdict: The TV equivalent of Waffle House's limited menu. There's not as much, but it's usable in emergencies when you still need it.
# 2. IPTV.
IPTV is sort of like streaming, but more official. You can run IPTV on almost anything. Hook a laptop to a TV with an HDMI cable, or just watch it on the computer. All you need is VLC Media Player, which is possibly one of my favorite computer programs given its support for almost any format. Press Ctrl and N at the same time. You can find links here: https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv There's way more too but you'll have to look a bit harder. VLC actually saves previous links so you won't need to keep a list. They're in almost every language in almost every country. You can sort through THOUSANDS of channels, though I can't guarantee great reception on all of them and not many are 24/7. It's sort of the shortwave radio of TV, in that it's still supported but hardly anyone knows about it. https://files.catbox.moe/39olp4.png Here's a screenshot of Fuji TV in Japan running live.
Advantage: Insanely massive channel selection, can run on almost anything, supports multiple languages, open-source, you can still download channel guides, incredibly high amount of information available
Disadvantage: Little to no choice in what you watch, reception can be spotty even with great internet, subtitles are rare to nonexistent, requires internet, few minutes' delay, commercials exist on some channels
Verdict: Pretty good. I could go the rest of my life using this instead of commercial television, there are a lot of people who swear by it, and I find daily use in it because I'm learning Japanese and it's GREAT for exposure.
# 3. Torrenting
Ahh, the classic. It's been around since the dawn of man, the humble torrent. What can be said about it that hasn't been already? Everything you need on peer-to-peer filesharing, ready in minutes or less. Get a torrent client, find a torrent list (Use dzen.ru as your browser, it really does find EVERYTHING. It's in Russian though. https://files.catbox.moe/unr7sb.png) and download away.
Advantages: It's free, you save all the files locally, you can torrent things like books and music too, you have free reign over what you watch and when
Disadvantages: You need a VPN and probably an adblocker, it's not exactly legal, good luck finding torrents for more obscure things, some are horribly slow, there's an ungodly amount of porn on almost anything that hosts torrent links
Verdict: Torrenting is for the data hoarders and patient ones here. Waiting three hours to download Avenged Sevenfold is something that should've stayed in the mid 2000s.
# 4. Weird shady streaming sites
Remember that dzen thing I told you about? It's gonna come in handy again. Literally just type the name of any show and you'll find a billion places to watch it for free. Pretty swanky if you ask me. Just don't get viruses. Shady is there for a reason, these places are loaded with weird ads and viruses. Adblockers and strong antiviruses are a must. https://files.catbox.moe/jyk08f.png
Advantages: Mostly everything you want to watch is there, quality is usually pretty good, way more stuff available and functions more like an actual streaming service, doesn't rely on P2P or the government to keep it afloat
Disadvantages: Sites are unstable and often go out randomly, they're not the safest spots to be in, your internet provider will probably notice, subtitles are often in other languages, some shows with edited variants are usually the censored versions (For example, Family Guy is rarely taken from DVD, which cuts out a lot of good scenes.), your data is probably being harvested, you can't download shows most of the time
Verdict: If you know what you're doing, this is probably your best bet. It's not the safest option, yes, but in terms of getting you the most bang for your not-buck, I can see this taking most people pretty far.
I probably missed a LOT of stuff, this is just what I know and will probably allow most people to see what they want when they want it at no cost. Please leave further advice in the comments, criticise what I got wrong, add to the list, share it around, and remember to not give the scumbags who own streaming companies any money.
# 1. Over The Air TV.
You can still get your TV as in the olden days, plugging a cable into the back of your TV.
https://files.catbox.moe/8p2xpr.jpg This is a coax cable. There is a slot on the back of almost every TV ever manufactured which looks like this https://files.catbox.moe/lgkwwp.jpg and it's as simple as screwing the cable in. But you're not going to get very far with just that. You can either buy a powered antenna off Amazon or some other website (You might already have one.) or you can do what I used to do and that is stick a piece of tinfoil on it. Experiment, ball it up, use it like a sheet, tape it to different surfaces to see what helps with reception. Odds are you have at least 20 channels, all available to you. This is a good start, but it's not much nowadays.
Advantage: EXTREMELY low cost, works without internet, fast to set up, no delay, subtitles, program guides
Disadvantage: Little to no choice in what you watch, reception can be spotty, limited selection except in major cities, commercials out the ass
Verdict: The TV equivalent of Waffle House's limited menu. There's not as much, but it's usable in emergencies when you still need it.
# 2. IPTV.
IPTV is sort of like streaming, but more official. You can run IPTV on almost anything. Hook a laptop to a TV with an HDMI cable, or just watch it on the computer. All you need is VLC Media Player, which is possibly one of my favorite computer programs given its support for almost any format. Press Ctrl and N at the same time. You can find links here: https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv There's way more too but you'll have to look a bit harder. VLC actually saves previous links so you won't need to keep a list. They're in almost every language in almost every country. You can sort through THOUSANDS of channels, though I can't guarantee great reception on all of them and not many are 24/7. It's sort of the shortwave radio of TV, in that it's still supported but hardly anyone knows about it. https://files.catbox.moe/39olp4.png Here's a screenshot of Fuji TV in Japan running live.
Advantage: Insanely massive channel selection, can run on almost anything, supports multiple languages, open-source, you can still download channel guides, incredibly high amount of information available
Disadvantage: Little to no choice in what you watch, reception can be spotty even with great internet, subtitles are rare to nonexistent, requires internet, few minutes' delay, commercials exist on some channels
Verdict: Pretty good. I could go the rest of my life using this instead of commercial television, there are a lot of people who swear by it, and I find daily use in it because I'm learning Japanese and it's GREAT for exposure.
# 3. Torrenting
Ahh, the classic. It's been around since the dawn of man, the humble torrent. What can be said about it that hasn't been already? Everything you need on peer-to-peer filesharing, ready in minutes or less. Get a torrent client, find a torrent list (Use dzen.ru as your browser, it really does find EVERYTHING. It's in Russian though. https://files.catbox.moe/unr7sb.png) and download away.
Advantages: It's free, you save all the files locally, you can torrent things like books and music too, you have free reign over what you watch and when
Disadvantages: You need a VPN and probably an adblocker, it's not exactly legal, good luck finding torrents for more obscure things, some are horribly slow, there's an ungodly amount of porn on almost anything that hosts torrent links
Verdict: Torrenting is for the data hoarders and patient ones here. Waiting three hours to download Avenged Sevenfold is something that should've stayed in the mid 2000s.
# 4. Weird shady streaming sites
Remember that dzen thing I told you about? It's gonna come in handy again. Literally just type the name of any show and you'll find a billion places to watch it for free. Pretty swanky if you ask me. Just don't get viruses. Shady is there for a reason, these places are loaded with weird ads and viruses. Adblockers and strong antiviruses are a must. https://files.catbox.moe/jyk08f.png
Advantages: Mostly everything you want to watch is there, quality is usually pretty good, way more stuff available and functions more like an actual streaming service, doesn't rely on P2P or the government to keep it afloat
Disadvantages: Sites are unstable and often go out randomly, they're not the safest spots to be in, your internet provider will probably notice, subtitles are often in other languages, some shows with edited variants are usually the censored versions (For example, Family Guy is rarely taken from DVD, which cuts out a lot of good scenes.), your data is probably being harvested, you can't download shows most of the time
Verdict: If you know what you're doing, this is probably your best bet. It's not the safest option, yes, but in terms of getting you the most bang for your not-buck, I can see this taking most people pretty far.
I probably missed a LOT of stuff, this is just what I know and will probably allow most people to see what they want when they want it at no cost. Please leave further advice in the comments, criticise what I got wrong, add to the list, share it around, and remember to not give the scumbags who own streaming companies any money.
if there's somehow a war and internet goes off you can just use radio for news