Q. I heard something about PBS being available for free on streaming. How do you do that? Is it offered everywhere for free? Is my station in Northern Virginia available for free? — Millie, Fairfax, Virginia.
Millie, PBS announced last week that you can now stream 88 different PBS stations for free, including your local station in the Washington, D.C. area, WETA-TV. But the free streaming feature is not available on all streaming devices. So here’s the scoop on how you can watch it.
You can watch the live stream on your computer, or any other device that supports the following web browsers: Google Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge. Go to PBS.org and select the ‘Live TV’ button in the right hand corner of the home page. You will be asked to confirm your location, and once that’s done, your screen will become a video player for your local PBS channel.
PBS says other web browsers, such as Amazon Silk, are not officially supported so it can’t guarantee they will be able to play the video.
You can also watch the live stream on the PBS Video Channel on Roku devices. On the app, select Live TV at the top of the channel to begin watching.
The service is free, and you don’t need to be a PBS Passport benefit member.
PBS says it’s working on adding more stations, and compatible devices. The TV Answer Man will update this story if we get more information.
Until then, here are the 88 PBS stations that can be streamed for free:
Alabama Public Television
Alaska Public Media
Arizona Public Media
Arkansas PBS
Austin PBS
Colorado Public Television
Connecticut Public Broadcasting
Detroit Public Television
East Tennessee PBS
Illinois Public Media
Iowa PBS
KAMU
Kansas City PBS
KCTS
KEDT
KIXE
KLRN
KMOS
KNPB
KPBS
KPTS
KRWG
KTWU
KUAC
KUED
KVIE
Lakeland LPTV
Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Maine Public Broadcasting
Milwaukee PBS
Montana PBS
Mountain Lake PBS
Nashville Public Television
Nebraska Network
New Mexico PBS
Nine Network (KETC)
NJTV
North California Public Media
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Ozarks Public Television
PBS Charlotte
PBS SoCal
Pioneer Public TV
Prairie Public Broadcasting
WQPT PBS
Rhode Island PBS
Rocky Mountain PBS
Smoky Hills PBS
SOPTV
South Dakota Public Broadcasting
The Kentucky Network
The Nine Network of Public Media
Thirteen
UNC-TV
Vegas PBS
WBGU
WEDU
WEIU
West VA Public Broadcasting
WETA
WGTE
WGVU
WHRO
WHUT
WHYY
WITF
WJCT
WKNO
WLIW
WMHT
WNED
WNIN
WOSU
WOUB
WPBS
WQED
WQLN
WSIU
WSRE
WTIU/WFIU
WTTW
WTVP
WUCF
WUFT-TV
WVUT
WXXI Public Broadcasting
WYES
Wyoming PBS
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
