How to Watch NBC Without Cable

Getting rid of cable just makes sense: you'll save a ton of money, and you'll find that you can still enjoy all of your favorite shows without traditional pay TV. But there's no universal guide to cutting the cord (just kidding – there is!), and you may find yourself wondering how to get a specific show or channel without cable. Maybe that's the question that brought you to this page: How do I watch NBC without cable?

The good news is that NBC is one of the easier channels to get without cable, because it's available for free over the air in many areas. Let's check out all of your options.

Here are a few of our favorite ways to stream NBC:

	Price	Channels	Free Trial
#1	$5.99 – $85.96	68 – 88	7 or 30 days	See Offer
#2	$39.99 – $44.99	85 – 100+	7 days	See Offer
#3	$25 – $40	32 – 52	7 days	See Offer
#4	$44.99 – $79.99	49 – 100+	5 days	See Offer

When it comes to watching NBC without cable, you have two options: you can watch it over the air with an antenna, or you can stream it on the internet with a skinny bundle. We'll explain over-the-air TV in a bit more depth later on, but since there are a whole bunch of skinny bundles, let's take a moment to chat about skinny bundles right now.

Skinny bundles are streaming services, so they're notably unlike legacy pay TV services like cable and satellite. But they will look familiar to live TV fans, because they offer live streams of the same network TV channels that used to be available only via cable or satellite. In addition to being delivered “over the top” (that's industry lingo for “online”), skinny bundles are, of course, skinny: they generally have fewer channels than cable or satellite. Some skinny bundle services allow users to pay more to get more channels, but all of them offer some kind of slimmed-down package for a price south of $50, which means you can save money by opting for a skinny bundle instead of cable.

Oh, and one more thing: each of the skinny bundles listed below has NBC among its offerings, but NBC is only available in select markets on each of these services. Fortunately, each of the skinny bundles below also has a free trial, so determining NBC's availability is a risk-free proposition. Alright, let's meet the candidates, shall we?

Hulu with Live TV is, as you might expect, the skinny bundle service from Hulu, a company once focused entirely on on-demand streaming. The service's lone base package costs $39.99 per month and features more than 55 channels, including NBC (in select markets, of course, as is the case with every service on this list). You can read our full review of Hulu with Live TV or click the link above to try the free trial for yourself.

fuboTV is a skinny bundle with a sports focus, which is reflective of its heritage as a soccer-only skinny bundle. The soccer thing is ancient history now, but fuboTV still has plenty of soccer-focused channels in its two English-language base packages. NBC (and its Premiere League broadcasts) is in both base bundles, too, so fuboTV is worth a look for NBC fans. You can read our review of fuboTV – it was written shortly after fuboTV ditched its soccer-only identity. fuboTV's two base packages cost $44.99 per month (“fubo”) and $49.99 per month (“fubo Extra,” which is a larger bundle). Both come with a discount for your first month of paid service, and you can try either for free for a week by clicking the link above and signing up for fuboTV's free trial offer.

Sling TV is Dish's take on the skinny bundle. It's been around for a while now (it's been available on multiple platforms for the longest of any of these skinny bundles), but it still stands out from the crowd thanks to its unique la carte format: subscribers choose a base package and then tack on add-on packages to create a customized bundle. The Sling Blue base package ($25 per month) is the place to start for NBC fans, as it's the only on of the two base packages that offers NBC. Grab the free trial to check out the NBC live stream's availability in your region. Check out the Sling TV review to learn more.

No, you don't need a PlayStation to watch PlayStation Vue: Sony's skinny bundle streaming service has been available on a lot of platforms for some time now. PlayStation Vue offers a tiered selection of bundles. The smallest is the $44.99-per-month “Access” package, which, as luck would have it, includes NBC. The free trial is a couple of days shorter than with the competition (five days instead of seven), but it still gives you plenty of time to test out NBC's availability in your region and to explore the rest of what the service has to offer. Read our review of PlayStation Vue.

YouTube TV

YouTube TV also offers NBC in select markets. Not to be confused with regular old YouTube, YouTube TV is Google's entry into the skinny bundle sweepstakes. It's a very solid skinny bundle service that will cost you $40 per month. YouTube TV is being rolled out on a region-by-region basis, but it's available in most major U.S. markets as of this writing. If you would like to learn more about YouTube TV, check out our review here.

DIRECTV

AT&T's skinny bundle, DIRECTV NOW, divides its offerings into tiers that begin with the $40-per-month “Live a Little” bundle and move up to larger and pricier packages. NBC fans will get their favorite channel right from the start, so there's no reason to climb the price ladder unless another channel or several call to you. You can read our review of DIRECTV NOW.

Free Over-the-Air TV

The simplest, cheapest, and most effective way to get NBC live broadcasts without cable is to invest in an antenna. It's likely that NBC (not to mention ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, and others) is available for free over the air in your region, and all you need to start picking up the broadcast is an over-the-air antenna. Modern over-the-air TV has come a long way: you'll get HD picture quality and can even use OTA DVRs to record content, just like you would with traditional pay TV services like cable or satellite. Not sure how big your antenna needs to be, or how to set it up? Just check out our complete guide to choosing an antenna and getting free over-the-air TV. Old-school antennas aren't the first things most people think of when they think of cord cutting, but they play a huge role in the trend.

Check out free over-the-air TV

Yes, you absolutely can! Each of the skinny bundles listed above has apps for most of the major streaming devices, including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast (in the case of Chromecast, of course, we're talking about apps for other devices that can be used to cast to the Chromecast). Specifically:

Roku fans can enjoy NBC without cable on Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DIRECTV NOW.

Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and DIRECTV NOW each have apps for Fire TV.

Apple TV fans can get apps for Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DIRECTV NOW.

Chromecast (via other apps) supports Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DIRECTV NOW.

Android TV users can get apps for Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV.

Watching on mobile devices is easy, too, thanks to apps for both iOS and Android devices from Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DIRECTV NOW.

Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, and DIRECTV NOW each also support desktop and laptop computers via desktop and/or in-browser apps.

As noted above, you can also watch NBC with an over-the-air antenna. You can get that live feed over to a major streaming device, too. One way to do so is to use a PC TV tuner and a computer running the media server app Plex. Plex's premium version can stream your OTA TV to client apps on major streaming boxes. Another option is to rely on an OTA DVR and associated app – Tablo and the Tablo TV app are a good example.