What is the best way to download episodes of TV shows for free?

You can often watch shows for free on a ‘catch up’ style service. For example, BBC iPlayer (http://bbc.co.uk/iplayer), or 4OD (http://www.channel4.com/4od/). These services are only available for the UK at the moment.

You can also buy many television shows on the iTunes Store or similar services, like Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/), and Viacom and other providers are also making certain shows available for free, like South Park (http://www.southparkstudios.com/). Unfortunately both of these are only available in the US right now.

Availability of on-demand services in other countries are very limited and in a state of relative infancy, so keep an eye on media outlets for news and information regarding future releases and plans. Things will eventually free up and become more widely available.

There are many illegal options for downloading shows for free such as torrents, but in line with the Fluther Guidelines (http://www.fluther.com/faq/#guidelines) we can’t really tell you how to use them here.

Im pretty sure that the major American broadcasting companies (abc,cbs,nbc) will let you watch the most recent episodes of their shows on theirs website. You can’t download them, but at least you can catch up on what you missed.

Joost.com has an IPTV software solution that is worth checking into/

thanks guys, i’ll have a browse on itunes and stuff to see what’s for free at the moment. I did download joost but apparently their search thingy isn’t working at the moment.