Best free option
Philo
Philo's free week covers A&E with no sports or news tier attached, which is why it ends up the cheapest thing to keep afterwards.
Start free trial →
You don't need a cable bill to keep watching A&E. Here's every way to stream it online, and how to do it for free.
Reviewed and updated October 2026 by our cord-cutting team · 5 options
A&E is available without cable on Sling TV Blue, Sling TV Orange, Philo, Hulu with Live TV, Frndly TV, NOW TV, Spectrum TV Stream, or Spectrum TV Choice.
The cheapest way to watch Ae is Frndly TV for $8.99/month.
The fastest ways to watch A&E without cable, at a glance
Philo's free week covers A&E with no sports or news tier attached, which is why it ends up the cheapest thing to keep afterwards.
Start free trial →
Frndly is the outlier here: it carries A&E for the price of a sandwich, because it skips sports and news entirely and sells the lifestyle channels on their own.
Get Frndly TV →
Hulu + Live TV pairs A&E with the on-demand Hulu library and Disney+, so the reality marathons and scripted catch-up live in one app.
Get Hulu + Live TV →
Sling TV carries A&E live.
Get Sling TV →| Service | From | Free trial |
|---|---|---|
 Sling TV |
$45.99/mo | None |
 Philo |
$25/mo | 7 days |
 Hulu + Live TV |
$89.99/mo | 3 days |
 Frndly TV |
$8.99/mo | 7 days |
We routinely follow over a hundred live TV and streaming services in the US, closely monitoring their plans, features, and channel lineups. All of that work is on our cord-cutting hub.
Beyond this, we have been reviewing the best on streaming services since 2013, recommending highly-rated but little-known movies and shows: we find the gems that you haven't yet watched, that you will probably like.
If you want to watch A&E, without sacrificing local news and other entertainment channels, it’s better to choose Sling Blue than Orange. There’s also the option of having both Orange and Blue, as well as all the add-ons Sling TV has to offer.
Sling TV plans
Formerly known as Tivli, Philo expanded beyond streaming in universities to streaming to the whole nation. They’ve also expanded their channel list, adding channels like A&E to their line-up, but they continued to keep their prices student budget-friendly.
Philo plans
Hulu + Live TV plan adds 90+ channels to all that Hulu has on-demand. So along with all the Hulu Originals, you can enjoy streaming A&E live. Want even more channels? Hulu Live TV’s Entertainment Add-on adds a handful of news and lifestyle channnels you might enjoy.
Hulu + Live TV plans
Our breakdown of Hulu + Live TV →
Frndly TV is the cheapest way to stream A&E without cable. The price is low because it doesn’t have much sports or local news. But for lifestyle enthusiasts and true crime fans, there’s plenty of channels from the genres they enjoy.
Frndly TV plans
Yes, with the A&E Crime Central add-on. Add it through Prime Video Channels for $4.99/mo and you get A&E’s true-crime catalog on demand without leaving the Prime app. It’s on-demand, so there’s still no live A&E feed, and you need a Prime membership ($14.99/mo) or standalone Prime Video ($8.99/mo) underneath it.
Prime Video itself won’t have the live channel, but its Channels store rents the network’s own app as an on-demand add-on, billed through Amazon.
The honest way to watch A&E for free is a free trial, and the trick is not to spend them one at a time. Start one, then start the next when it ends, and you can string together a few weeks of free live TV back to back, usually enough to cover a tournament or a playoff run without paying for a month.
A&E and the US services that carry it are geo-locked to the United States, so your login stops working the moment you leave the country. A VPN fixes that: connect to a US server and the service sees a US address again. The catch is that streaming platforms actively block most VPN traffic, so the VPN you pick matters far more than the service does. These three reliably get back in:
A huge US server network (thousands of IPs across 15-plus cities) with SmartPlay DNS baked into every server, so streaming just works without extra setup. The best value of the top tier on a two-year plan.
Best for streaming A&E with: Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, Philo
Get NordVPN →The budget pick, and the one to get if the whole household travels: it allows unlimited simultaneous devices on one account, plus a Smart DNS for TVs. Reliable with the on-demand and lifestyle services.
Best for streaming A&E with: Hulu + Live TV, Philo
Get Surfshark →Whichever you pick, connect to a US city first, then sign in to A&E or the service that carries it as normal. Choose a VPN with a money-back window so you can confirm it un-blocks A&E before you commit.
No. A&E is a cable channel and doesn't broadcast over the air, so an antenna can't pick it up. An antenna only gets the free broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, The CW), which pair nicely with one of the services above; check which of those reach your address here.
Originally known as the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E now mostly airs reality TV and true crime. They air shows like Cold Case Files and City Confidential, but they also partnered with WWE to make docuseries like WWE Rivals. In recent years, some streamers have started to drop A&E due to programming costs, so it can be hard to find the channel. That's why we made lists like this. Fans of the channel can refer to this article to find the streamer that would best fit their needs.
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you sign up through one. That money is part of how we pay writers and keep the site free to read.
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Four criteria, each scored out of 10. The overall score is their weighted average: content 50%, value 20%, apps 20%, streaming quality 10%.
Value for money
0The most expensive service of its kind.
10The cheapest service of its kind, with full content.
Content quality
0None of the 20 most-watched cable channels, or nothing from our recommended list.
10All 20 channels, or the deepest catalog of titles we recommend.
Apps and devices
0A one-star app that runs on none of the 12 major devices.
10Five-star apps on all 12 major devices.
Streaming quality
0Below 720p.
104K on the plan we price.