5 Websites to Watch American TV in Italy (For Free)

I miss my satellite dish. More accurately, I miss being able to watch my TV shows. Normally I complain about everyone in my family watching too much television, but after moving to Italy I realized how much I enjoyed the TV programs I did watch.

I know, I know. The military gave us one of those great AFN decoders to solve this very problem. AFN is okay, but am I the only person who gets tired of all those “public service” announcements? Besides, the times certain shows aired were not convenient and many shows were not on AFN at all.

So, we tried SKY television. It works well, but not all channels are available in english. While my kids can watch every cartoon under the sun, I get rather tired of watching FOX Crime, the History Channel and the Sci-Fi Channel. The shows are several seasons behind and they do a lot of reruns of the same show.

After those two options did not let me watch what I wanted to watch, I made my first foray into watching online television. I was pretty sure most of these sites were built on the backs of disreputable file-sharing networks. BUT…I was desperate.

I discovered that there were a bunch of shows I could watch online without the aid of a VPN or other service. There are some inconveniences, like the annoying advertising. Pop-ups, risqué sidebars, and pop under ads with REALLY loud advertising. (There are extensions you can use to stop this if you use Chrome or Firefox, but I will cover them another time.) But, I have become hooked on watching TV online. I can watch a whole season at a time if I only had the time!

Now I will get to what you came here to learn, 5 websites that you can watch your shows for free.

Project Free TV

Project Free TV was the first website I figured out. It is not the easiest one to use, but it has a huge number of shows and usually has several places you can watch each episode. That way, if one episode of your show disappears (due to the possibly illegal file-sharing network that hosts the show) you can still watch it.

The site lists the latest episodes of shows  toward the top of the page, but if you want to find a specific show, use the  list. They don’t divide by genre (mystery, comedy, etc), so everything is lumped in together.

Coke & Popcorn

Coke & Popcorn operates much like  Project Free TV. It has an alphabetical listing and you will need to scroll through it to find your show. There is a section for top tv shows and one for recently added that make it easier to find some shows. It does have a much easier on the eyes color scheme that Project Free TV.

The hardest part of using this website is that you have to scroll and scroll to find the actual links to the shows. You will read a description of the show, see some similar shows, and view upcoming listings of various shows. Only then do you get to the actual links to the shows. I almost gave up before I scrolled down far enough to find them.

USTVnow

USTVnow has a slightly different approach to watching TV online. It does not offer shows on demand, unless you upgrade to the paid version. The free version allows you to watch ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, and PBS much like you would if you have a digital antenna in the US. You need an account to access it, so if you don’t like to put your information on the internet you might choose a different option.

Once you have an account, you can go to their page and view the program listings. Simply click on the show that interests you and it will start to stream. If you don’t mind watching  the news or programs in eastern standard time (think New York or Miami), then this is not a bad website.

TV Duck

TV Duck has a pretty basic layout. You have to type in the name of the show to find it on the site. It used to have categories that made it easy to find different shows or similar shows that you might enjoy, but that feature is no more.

TV Duck also has movies listed. This is a great feature when you just want to watch something, but you aren’t looking for the latest movie. It’s a good option for when you don’t want to fork over any money, also! It also appears to have adult content, so be aware of this if you have kids in your household.

Vodly.to

Vodly.to has been known by a number of names. It was 1Channel and LetMeWatchThis; in a previous life. The way the website gets television programs is probably a bit sketchy, because it has changed names several times. However, the selection of shows and movies is decent. It also has the annoying ads and pop ups that the other sites have.

One useful thing about this website is that you can sort by genre and by a number of other options, such as most recent and most popular. This makes it easy if you are looking to find a new series to watch.

Let me know how these websites work for you! Do you have any other places you like to watch american tv online? Let me know in the comments section!