How to Watch Local Channels Without an Antenna

Quick Answer: It depends entirely on what you mean by local channels. If you want local news and weather, you almost certainly do not need an antenna. NewsON carries live newscasts from over 285 stations in 165+ markets free, PBS streams your local station free once you enter your ZIP code, and Samsung and Roku televisions ship with free live news channels already installed. If you want your local station’s full broadcast schedule, meaning the primetime dramas, the sitcoms and the Sunday NFL game assigned to your market, then no free app delivers that and you need an antenna or a paid service. The single app that once did both, Locast, was shut down in 2021 after the networks sued. Work down the list below and stop when you have what you need.

Start Here: What Are You Actually Trying to Watch?

People arrive at this question wanting four quite different things, and the honest answer changes completely depending on which one you mean. Pick yours.

Step 1: Open Your Television’s Own Live Guide

Cost nothing, takes thirty seconds, and it is the step almost everybody skips. If you own a Samsung, LG or Vizio set, or anything with Roku built in, a free live channel service is already installed and waiting.

Samsung TV Plus and The Roku Channel both carry round-the-clock news feeds including ABC News Live and NBC News Now at no cost and with no account. The part worth knowing is that some Roku devices carry genuine local NBC station streams in the larger markets, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago among them. Not everywhere, and not every network, but if you live in a big metro there is a real chance your actual local station is already on the box you own.

Already have an antenna plugged into a Roku TV? Read whether a Roku antenna setup needs WiFi, since the answer surprises people.

Press Home, find the live TV or channel guide section, and scroll. If your station is there, you are finished and you have spent nothing.

Step 2: Install One Local News App

If the built-in guide did not have your station, this is where most people find what they came for (covered from 1:19 in the video). All three are free, legitimate, and run on phones, Roku, Fire TV, Samsung, Android TV and Vizio.

App	What it gives you	Coverage	Try it if
NewsON	Your actual local station’s newscast, live and on demand	285+ stations, 165+ markets	Start here. Best chance of your real station.
Haystack News	A rolling stream stitched from local headlines for your city	Most US cities	NewsON does not have your station.
Local Now	Local news and weather plus a set of live channels	Organised by ZIP code	You want weather alongside news.

In a lot of areas NewsON means you can watch your local six o’clock news live, on the app, with no cable login. That single fact removes the antenna requirement for a large number of households.

Step 3: Go Direct to the Network

The networks give away more than people expect, because local news is cheap to stream and it keeps their brand in front of you.

Source	Free?	What you get
PBS app or website	Yes, confirm your ZIP	Your local PBS station streaming live. PBS Passport is the paid tier and only covers on-demand back catalogue.
Fox Local	Yes, no login	Live local news and weather from selected cities, all day.
ABC, NBC and CBS apps	Yes, with ads	Live news coverage plus recent episodes. Full live station usually needs a provider login.
Your station’s YouTube channel	Yes	Many stations simulcast newscasts live. Search the call sign, for example WABC or KSAT.

Worth knowing: the PBS one is the easiest on this entire page and a lot of people buy an antenna without realising it exists. Watching what is airing right now on your local PBS station has always been free. You confirm a ZIP code and that is the whole process.

Step 4: Add Pluto TV or Tubi for Something Closer to Real TV

News apps solve the news problem but they do not feel like television, where a channel is simply on and you join partway through. These two do.

Pluto TV runs whole categories of live content: rolling news, weather streams, financial coverage, and city-focused channels built to mimic a local broadcast. Tubi does something more directly useful here, pulling live feeds from regional stations in the larger metros and running them as full-time channels, so you drop into a broadcast already in progress.

Neither gives a complete local lineup. Both are free and owned by major broadcasters, Pluto by Paramount and Tubi by Fox.

Step 5: TV.garden, If You Just Want Something Live Now

Open tv.garden in any browser for a world map of live streams. Click a country, pick a channel, watch. No app, no account, works on a phone, laptop or smart TV browser.

It is not built for US local stations, though many regions include live news feeds. The site aggregates publicly listed streams rather than licensing them, so picture quality depends on the source and channels disappear without warning. Good for browsing, not for planning an evening.

What Each Option Actually Covers

Laid side by side, because the gaps are the important part.

Option	Local news	Full station schedule	Local NFL game	Cost
TV’s built-in guide	Sometimes	No	No	Free
NewsON or Haystack	Yes	No	No	Free
PBS app	Yes, PBS only	Yes, PBS only	No	Free
Pluto TV or Tubi	Partly	No	No	Free
Antenna	Yes	Yes	Yes	$30 to $50 once
YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Fubo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Monthly

Why There Is No Single App That Does All of It

There used to be. Locast streamed local broadcast stations over the internet as a nonprofit, and for a while it was exactly what everyone wanted. The major networks sued, the court ruled against it, and it shut down in 2021. Nothing has replaced it and nothing legally can under the current rules, which is why what exists today is a patchwork of smaller apps rather than one clean solution.

Common Problems and What Fixes Them

Problem	Likely fix
NewsON does not list my station	Not every station is a partner. Try Haystack News, which covers the same city by stitching headlines together, or check whether your station streams on its own YouTube channel.
I can watch the news but not the show that follows it	Expected. These apps carry newscasts only, not the station’s full schedule. That needs an antenna.
The ABC or NBC app asks me to sign in with a provider	Live full-channel access is behind a TV provider login. The free portion is news coverage and recent episodes.
My Roku shows national news but not my local station	Local station streams on Roku are limited to certain large markets. Fall back to Step 2.
A channel on tv.garden stopped working	Normal. Those streams are not guaranteed by anyone and drop without notice.
I want every local channel in one place for free	That does not exist any more. Locast was shut down in 2021 and nothing replaced it.

So, Antenna or Not?

You probably do not need one if you want local news, weather and something live in the background. Steps 1 to 3 cover that for most addresses, for nothing, in about ten minutes of setup.

You probably do need one if you want the whole broadcast day, meaning primetime network shows, Sunday football and awards broadcasts. No free app delivers that, and an antenna delivers all of it permanently for one small purchase.

Either way the order matters. Spend ten minutes checking what you already own before spending money. If it covers you, you have saved a purchase. If it does not, you now know exactly what you are buying an antenna for, which stops you overpaying for range figures that mean nothing. If the antenna wins, our guide to watching TV for free shows how to check your signal at dtv.gov/maps before you buy one.

Note: app coverage changes as stations join and leave these partnerships, and Roku’s local station availability shifts by market. If something here does not match what you see, check the app store listing for your market before assuming it is unavailable.