Free Satellite TV on PC?

Category: Cool Stuff , Video

"I saw a website advertising software that's supposed to give you free satelite TV on your PC. The program costs $40, but they claim it lets you watch hundreds of live worldwide channels free of charge. Sounds too good to be true... is this a scam?"


Can I Really Get Free Satellite TV on my PC?

  [ En Español: Satélite Televisión Gratis para PC? ]

free online TV Everything I've read about this type of thing tells me it's a scam, or at least a waste of money. The software you get for your forty bucks is nothing more than a menu of free online television broadcasts. Most of the stations listed are foreign, and the list contains many entries that are obsolete or do not work.

If you're considering buying a software package named "PC Satellite TV", "Satellite TV Elite", "Satellite TV on PC", "Satellite TV for PC 2008 Elite Edition", "TV on PC Elite", "Digital TV 4 PC" or anything similar... they are ALL THE SAME type of scamware. You will pay $40 and in return you'll get a crappy software program that does NOT deliver what it promises. You WILL NOT get any premium or pay-per-view channels for free. The only thing these packages offer is links to online video sites that you could find for free with a quick search on Google or Yahoo.

Sorry, but there's no way to turn your PC into a satellite dish and get free HBO or MTV. But there is some good news... You CAN use your internet-connected computer to tune into a huge number of free television broadcasts. You can watch SOME programs from the BBC News, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, ESPN, and other broadcasts from around the world.

I suggest that you first go to the official website of the TV station or broadcast that you'd like to watch and look for a link to view live or recent broadcasts. Here are some links to popular TV network websites:

If you don't see what you want there, try one of these sites that aggregate content from various video and TV sites across the Internet:

Exposing the "free satellite tv on pc" scam has not made me popular with some people. Many times I've received emails from people saying that I'm a liar, that I must be "really old fashioned" or "a Direct TV executive." Others post comments here with a glowing review of some Satellite TV software and a link to buy. But EVERY TIME, it's the exact same scamware, being sold through an affiliate link. My advice here is only meant to protect people who might otherwise be tempted to waste their money and fall for this scam.

As I said before, these programs will NOT give you access to anything that's not already freely available on the Web. What this software provides (when it actually works) is little more than a searchable list of websites that offer streaming video. You can find the same information yourself with a search engine query. It's ONLY dishonest people, who stand to profit from ignorance, that continue to push this scam. Don't fall for it.

Oh, and one last point... every few months someone posts a comment and asks "Why do you sometimes have ads on this page for the same type of products that you warn against?" That's a fair question, and I've answered it several times in the comments. But since those replies can get buried after a while, I'm going to address the issue here. The Google ads are not under my control, and are automatically selected for relevance to the content of the page. And in an ironic way, even those questionable ads are. My hope is that people will actually *READ* the article and understand why they should NOT believe the hype. Click if you want, just be forewarned.

Got comments or questions about free online TV? Post your thoughts below...




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Posted by Bob Rankin on December 29, 2006 10:23 PM


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Related Keywords: Video   online tv   satellite   television  

Most recent comments on "Free Satellite TV on PC?"

(See all 230 comments for this article.)

Posted by:
NYK
10 Jun 2009

It really is a SCAM! I just paid $40 for premium satellite tv for pc. It doesn't work. As bob said, they give you links to whatever is available online for free. Plus most of that free stuff doesn't work.

I am disputing the charges thru paypal. If you really want to be stupid (and somewhat greedy) like me, you might as well paypal me $40. because u ain't gonna get nothing either way! Your friend from New York!


Posted by:
NYK
10 Jun 2009

I wish I had found this site 3 hours ago!


Posted by:
Jim
12 Jun 2009

Thanks so much for the honest warning....You just saved me 40 hard earned bucks....I guess the only Sat TV I will be watching on my pc will be piped in from my dish receiver into my tuner card via A/V cable.....Remember the old saying " If its to good to be true, its most likely a Lie." Godspeed, tv/sat/to pc watchdog.....


Posted by:
tom
12 Jun 2009

Im with you, this is nothing more than a scam.
I went to thepiratebay.org and downloaded a couple different tv for pc programs and they gave me crap, or nothing at all as far as "free" tv.


Posted by:
Brit
15 Jun 2009

THANK YOU so much for exposing this scam. I just wasn't sure. I don't want to pay for cable since I am a teacher and in graduate school. I may get 1 hour at most to watch tv at night but when I do get that time I want to be able to turn on something good I haven't seen. But cable is like $50 a month for something I will hardly ever use.

I am so grateful for you posting the hulu, wwitv, etc. because you did not have to spend your time doing that. Instead of hating people should be so thankful that you are a nice enough person to do that. I very much appreciate it and wish more people were as thoughtful as you.

Ignore dumb comments and focus on the positive! (Nice that you let them post anyways it exposes the idiots and makes you look even better).


Posted by:
Ed
18 Jun 2009

I bought a nice 60inch "HD" television, and didn't do my research. This was one of the early models, that didn't have the end-to-end HDMI channel. My tele has the DVI in put on the back.

Using the 'upconvert' DVD players, I thought that I'd be able to enjoy my extensive DVD collection in a higher quality picture. I'd heard about these things for a while, so I finally bought one.

I have an HDMI-to-DVI adaptor - that will allow me to watch these encrypted movies in high-quality, crystal clear static.

So - even if I bought a blue-ray player, I'd need to invest in yet *another* television - and this one isn't broke yet. I think I'll stick with DVDs for a while, or check out the Roku to stream digital pictures - I hear it is pretty inexpensive at fairly decent quality. Besides, I don't feel like rewarding Sony for their business practices (stealing money from college kids, for example).


Posted by:
Mary
23 Jun 2009

Thanks so much for the TV listings. They look well worth checking through.


Posted by:
Paul
25 Jun 2009

A while back I got into affiliate sales, and I was promoting one of the satellite tv for pc program. Then I found this article, I immediately went and canceled my affiliation and took down all the ads I was running. So I wanted to say thanks for helping stay honest. Do you think they will ever come out with a way to hook up my computer with my regular tv?


Posted by:
Ray
29 Jun 2009

I guess it's like anything else on the net; you have some people saying one thing and someone else saying another thing. I'm going to be safe and just not purchase it. However, you are being a hypocrite. You are trashing this software and then you are being paid from this software through the Google ads. You have addressed this and defended it by saying "Some people WANT to believe the lie, despite all evidence to the contrary. Those ads are for them."

You can have these removed by going to your Google account and filtering them out. I'm sure you know that. However, you don't, although several people have pointed this out. Why? Because you are being paid from this "scam". If you are getting paid, why are you trashing others who are trying to get paid? Filter these ads and have them replaced with something else. It will help your credibility.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think everyone who clicks wants to believe the lie. Some people understand exactly what they will be getting, and they still want it. Others are just curious. Clearly some think *I* am lying. And of course, not all the ads are scams.

I don't know if you have a website and run Adsense, but ad blocking is a fool's errand, similar to the old whack-a-mole game. Google does filter out the worst offenders on their end, and I do some selective filtering on my end. But keeping up with all the bad actors would be more than a full time job for any one person. Multiply that by hundreds of pages and you have an intractable problem.

So that brings us back to common sense and individual responsibility. Why do some people suspend all disbelief when they go online? What ever happened to caveat emptor?


Posted by:
vivaldi30
01 Jul 2009

I would never buy such a thing, just remember, if its way too good to be truth, it's not! However I have a question. If I buy a sat disc, is there any free software that can use to the pc to decode the signal? (I found a nice package with disc decoder etc 80 euros, but if I can buy only the disc 30 euros, all for the better!).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Search this site (or Google) for FTA.


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