Showtime comes to LG smart TVs, no cable subscription required

By Kris Wouk Published March 28, 2018

Billions season 3 — Jeff Neumann/SHOWTIME

If you’re planning on picking up one of LG’s stunning new OLED TVs but want to keep the area around it clutter-free, you’re probably trying to avoid plugging in hardware like external streaming boxes, but that might be a problem if you can’t access all the channels you want. Looking to watch Billions season 3 without plugging in a Roku or similar streamer? You’re in luck, as Showtime is now available on LG’s WebOS-powered smart TV platform.

A stand-alone subscription costs $11 per month, and grants access to the live feed of both Showtime’s East and West Coast feeds, as well as on-demand content. This lets viewers watch Showtime original series like Billions, Homeland, The Chi, Ray Donovan, Shameless, Twin Peaks, and more, as well as the upcoming limited series Patrick Melrose, all without having to plug any external devices into their TV. LG says this makes Showtime the first network to launch on its smart TVs.

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That’s great if you don’t have a cable or satellite subscription, but what if you do have a subscription, and just want to watch Showtime on an LG smart TV located somewhere else in your house? That’s where Showtime Anytime, the network’s authentication service that has also just come to LG TVs, comes in handy. Once authenticated, you can watch all of the content mentioned above just as easily.

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In addition to its stand-alone and cable offerings, Showtime is available via live TV streaming providers like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and others. It’s also available via Amazon Channels, which consolidates various streaming networks and services in one place.

Showtime first introduced its stand-alone streaming service in 2015. At launch, the service supported a few streaming boxes like the Roku and Apple TV, as well as viewing on the web, with additional hardware support arriving over the years. Now in addition to the platforms already mentioned, the service is available on Amazon Fire TV devices, Samsung smart TVs, and Xbox One game consoles.

For more information or to sign up for a free trial, see the Showtime or Showtime Anywhere websites.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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