Andrew Mager

YouTube is awesome. Anyone can create their own television station with a few clicks and a palette of patience. Time Magazine even named it “Invention of the Year” in 2006. Google gave up $1.6 billion of its shares to acquire it!

Well, if you are sick of personal video publishing, or just want to watch some regular TV on your laptop, check out FreeTube.

You can watch almost any channel that you want. Cartoon Network, The Weather Channel, MSNBC, Food Network, even ESPN. Granted, the video quality is poor for some stations, but you can still watch them live. One of the cooler features is the ability to watch local television from stations in other metropolitan areas. You can watch ABC 7 in Chicago, or CCTV 20 in Charlotte.

You can also watch a number of international channels. There is a Chinese sports channel called CCTV 5 that was showing a UEFA soccer games. Still in search of Osama Bin Laden? Flip to Al Jazeera.

Some channels didn’t work though, like SumoTV, which promises to show zany and viral video content, but they have a website too.

They even have a webcam section with interesting channels like Bear Cam, which shows a live webcam feed of bears in a wildlife exhibit. Prison Cam shows a live feed from Harrison County Adult Detention Center in Mississippi. The sherriff department’s website shows the same feed, but requires you to agree to a list of terms. It says, “While not common, by accessing this video feed, you acknowledge that you may be exposed to possible nudity and/or possible violence.” haha

Pregnant? You can watch BabyTV, a UK channel especially created for expecting mothers. MTV Uber is a live channel music channel dedicated to the college and university lifestyle. What, is our MTV dedicated to the middle school lifestyle?

FreeTube offers plenty of cool and complicated channels, but it seems that only about half of them work.

You will get kicked out of broadcasts from time to time, but it’s still something to check out. http://freetube.us.tc