The 68th Emmy Awards will broadcast at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday (Sept. 18), and if you want to see the best that TV has to offer, you'll want to tune in. Will Idris Elba rise over Bryan Cranston and Benedict Cumberbatch for a lead actor award? Will Kevin Spacey finally take home an award for his work on House of Cards? Will the zany musical numbers make you laugh, or make you cringe? There's only one way to find out.
Watching the Emmys on broadcast, cable or satellite TV is extremely simple. If you need to watch them online, however, your options are somewhat more limited. Here are some platforms you’ll definitely want to investigate if tuning into the show via conventional means simply isn't an option.
ABC Live Stream
If you have a cable or satellite subscription but won't have access to your cable box or satellite dish during the Emmys, watching the awards is still a breeze. ABC Live Stream, available through its website or through the ABC iOS, Android and streaming player app, will broadcast the whole event in real time. Simply sign in with your cable or satellite provider's info, and you'll be good to go. Just keep in mind that if you receive ABC through an HD antenna, that won't be enough; "free over-the-air signal" isn’t a provider, after all.
PlayStation Vue
For those who like the idea of cable but don't want to be beholden to a cable company, PlayStation Vue is almost the same thing. Starting at $40 per month, PlayStation Vue offers dozens of channels that users can stream on a variety of Sony consoles and smart TVs, as well as mobile devices and streaming media players. ABC is one of the channels offered in all PlayStation Vue packages, so you can either watch it live or record it for later. If you subscribe for just the Emmys, you can also cancel your subscription afterward; PlayStation Vue does not tie users to a contract.
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HD Antenna and Streaming Box
ABC is a regular broadcast station, meaning that you can watch it as long as you have an HD antenna and a relatively good signal where you live. This by itself won't help you watch it online, but doing so is still quite easy. All you need is an OTA streaming box, such as the Simple.TV, Tablo or Channel Master. These devices vary in price as well as functionality, but each one allows you to connect an HD antenna to a streaming box, then access that live feed from a computer, mobile device or streaming player. Some will even let you record content, if you'd prefer to watch it later.
YouTube
If you're not committed to watching the Emmys as they air, or as one cohesive program, YouTube may be the simplest solution for you. The Television Academy, the organization that doles out Emmy awards, collects footage of the show in bite-size chunks and posts it once the event has concluded. It's not as exciting as learning the winners in real time, but watching on YouTube does let you skip past a lot of the boring parts and get straight to the meat and potatoes. YouTube is available on computers, mobile devices, streaming players, game consoles and just about anything else with an operating system.
