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Are you interested in watching your favorite shows from premium networks like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. for free?
We currently have cable and internet through a local service provider (we just moved in September 2018 and they had a great initial offer for new owners in our neighborhood). We don’t, however, have any upgrades to the cable like premium channel packages or access to premium channels like HBO, Starz or Showtime, but we still like catching up on some of the shows they offer.
To get around this, we’ve been using our free 7-day trials with each streaming network to watch our favorite shows for free.
Streaming Services
In addition to cable, we also have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu (we signed up for a promotion around Christmas for $1/month for 12 months). Each one of these services has the option to add channels to their streaming services (at a nominal charge of course!). For many of the premium networks, however, they have the option to take advantage of a free 7-day trial, typically once a year, that you can start when you want and just have to cancel prior to the end of the trial.
Streaming Devices
We currently use an Xbox One and Roku Ultra to stream these services, but many televisions now have built in streaming capabilities. Also, even if your tv doesn’t, you can find a Roku Express for as little as $25, hook it up to your existing tv, and start streaming immediately.
The Xbox One works great, but I love the Roku we own. It is super easy to use, I’ve never had any problems with performance whatsoever, starts up quickly, and broadcasts great HD quality picture.
Internet Setup
To fully take advantage of these free trials, you’ll need access to pretty good internet (dial up’s not going to cut it).
We have internet through our cable company and my parents have internet through a satellite provider, and both work for these streaming services. My parents have more issues than we do, especially during storms or heavy cloud cover, but that’s to be expected.
Our Strategy
What we typically do is wait until our favorite shows are done for the season. We then wait until a long holiday weekend or a 7-day time frame where we know we’ll have a little time to binge watch the show(s) we want. When we’re ready to start watching, we sign up for the 7-day free trial, set a reminder in our phones to cancel the trial before the 7 days is up, and start watching! Because most of these channels offer on demand services, we use this to watch the entire season from start to finish; all for free!
Since we have multiple streaming services, we’re able to do this multiple times throughout the year for the same premium network (i.e. we’ve used both Amazon Prime and Hulu to get access to the HBO free trial).
We recently used our 7-day free trial for HBO to watch the last season of Game of Thrones. We waited for Memorial Day weekend, started the trial just before we started watching that Saturday, and was able the watch the entire season from start to finish over the course of the weekend (kind of wish we had stopped after Episode 3…). We’ve also done this for Big Little Lies on HBO and Outlander on Starz (wife loves both these shows), and Silicon Valley (A favorite of mine).
Conclusion
This is a very simple way to get access to your favorite premium shows for free. If you already have access to these streaming networks (all it takes is one), you can do this immediately for free. If you don’t, many of these streaming services offer packages for as little as $6/month and, if done right, can replace your cable or satellite for a fraction of the price.
To recap:
- Make a plan for what shows you’d like to watch
- Wait until the season ends
- Find a 7-day period that works for binge watching
- Sign up for the free trial
- Enjoy your favorite shows!
How do you watch your favorite shows? Do you take advantage of free trials to watch your favorite shows?