Are You Paying for TV You Could Watch for Free?
Weekly Wheaties #2607
In this newsletter:
📝 Post: Are You Paying for TV You Could Watch for Free?
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: SpaceX
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Super Bowl Commercials
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Tech Headlines
😎 Pick of the Week: Recapp Sports Highlights
📦 Featured Product: Magnetic Wristband
📝 Are You Paying for TV You Could Watch for Free?
In the past, I’ve made a post about How to Cut Cable and Join the Cord Cutters Revolution, along with An Update and Tips for Cord Cutting in 2025. With streaming becoming an ever-growing piece of technology that is engulfing our entertainment more and more, I figured another update would be useful, and hopefully appreciated. With less than half the homes in America having cable TV anymore, larger streaming services like Netflix trying to purchase studio companies, and studios creating their own standalone streaming services, the streaming wars are not cooling down.
That said, there are tons of streaming services available to help you replace traditional cable. There are those like YouTube TV to try to replace traditional cable, as well as those like Disney, ESPN, and Hulu creating their own entertainment platform. Outside of those, there’s another niche set of services that will help supplement traditional cord-cutters, or simply those who may have never had cable in the first place.
Enter FAST Services. These are Free Ad-supported Streaming Television services. As long as you have an internet connection, you can gain access to these services free of charge. Typically, they are broken up into two categories. The first includes the 24/7 streams of entertainment. Consider this as being the “antenna” version of the internet TV world. The other style includes on-demand viewing. In both cases, they often include older or niche programming. Don’t expect newer content here.
To be clear. These services are not illegal or piracy. They are very legitimate and have licensed content they share. They are also not free trials, or “free with limitations.” They are simply ad-supported. Sometimes they may require an account to be created, but that isn’t always required. And all that does is allow you to save programming to your list to follow, and keep your watch history synced. Many newer TVs or streaming devices now even come bundled with FAST channels pre-installed.
With there being hundreds, if not thousands, of FAST services available, here are some major ones I’d like to share. All have a free option (at least at the time of writing). They may not all be available on every platform, and some may have a paid tier, so tread carefully.
General
Fandango at Home (fka Vudu) (Some free content)
Google TV Freeplay (Google TV devices)
Hoopla (free with a Library Card)
Kanopy (free with a Library Card)
LG Channels (LG TVs)
PBS (Participating local affiliate required)
Philo Free (Unlimited 30-day DVR on most content)
Samsung TV Plus (Samsung & TCL TVs)
Sling Freestream (10-hour DVR)
TCL TV+ (Roku TV & Roku devices)
TiVo+ (TiVo devices)
News/Weather
As a bonus, I’ve shared about an app called TV Time before in order to help track your shows. Something very similiar I started using (mainly because they have an Apple TV app) is called Trakt. This allows you to track your shows, see what’s coming up soon, and even function similiar to JustWatch.com in order to see what streaming service is playing a specific show or movie. Once downside to these FAST services is their licenses for a specific show may only cover a season or two. You may have to jump service to service to finish out the rest of a show. Using one of these apps will help keep you on track!
In a world where streaming keeps getting more expensive, FAST services are quietly bringing TV back to its original model. Don’t forget there’s always the tried and true antenna! When there is almost unlimited content to watch for free, what FAST service are you using?
🗞️ ICYMI: SpaceX
As they continue their expansion to (and in) space, SpaceX announced they will delay Mars plans to focus on the Moon. As part of their ongoing relationship (or contract) with NASA, they also recently sent a mission to the ISS, relieving a bare-bones astronaut crew. Their subsidiary, Starlink, is exploring a "Starlink Phone" for direct-to-device internet services, leveraging its network of satellites already providing global internet connectivity. This is still a rumor, but they have partnered with T-Mobile to provide Starlink connectivity to existing smartphones - so the technology (hardware and software) is already there.
🗞️ ICYMI: Super Bowl Commercials
For those of you who tuned in just for the commercials during the big game, you may have noticed a lot of talk and use of AI. There were some bold plays with AI from the expected tech companies, but even one that appeared to be a full AI-created commercial from Svedka Vodka. Some aren’t receiving the feedback they thought they would, either. Amazon’s Ring Search Party commercial has users so concerned about their privacy and security, the backlash has caused Amazon to end its controversial partnership with Flock Safety, a law enforcement tech company.
You can check out this extensive list of 2026 Super Bowl Commercials on YouTube or look at Billboard’s 10 Best Super Bowl Commercials 2026.
🗞️ ICYMI: Tech Headlines
Anthropic closes $30 billion funding round at $380 billion valuation
Apple’s buying an AI company that listens to ‘silent speech’
Ferrari introduced a new EV, the Ferrari Luce.
😎 POTW: Recapp Sports Highlights
I’ll be honest. I grew up playing all sorts of sports and still consider myself to be at least a bit athletic. However, I haven’t been as much of a professional sports fan in the past few years. The biggest issue for me is simply having time to watch games - regardless of the sport. Something I recently found that fits with the cord-cutting aspect and helps with the sports side of things is an app called Recapp.
You can track a sport (NFL, CFB, MLB, NBA, CBB, NHL, WNBA, MLS) or any of those sports’ teams. News, scores, stats, and schedules are all available within the app, but the hero here is the Game Highlights. You can rewatch entire games in minutes with highlights of the main plays or scores in a social media reels-type feed. Pro tip: visit the Profile tab and “Hide Scores” to keep from spoiling any games as you watch the highlights.
As of now, it’s only available on the Apple App Store.
📦 Featured Product
If you decided to take on some of the House Picks/Spring Cleaning tips from Weekly Wheaties #2606, consider a Magnetic Wristband. A simple velcro strap for your wrist has magnets strong enough to hold screws, nuts, and bolts to your wrist while working. Something else useful if you don’t have one is a Magnetizer/Demagnetizer for screwdriver tips, bits and other small tools. This allows your tools to be magnetized or not to hold screws, nuts, and bolts while trying to put them in the correct place.
