You don't need a cable bill to keep watching HLN. Here's every way to stream it online, and how to do it for free.
Reviewed and updated August 2026 by our cord-cutting team · 9 options
From true crime original series to news shows like Morning Express and Weekend Express, HLN offers a good mix of easily digestible programming and intriguing stories.
HLN is available without cable on Sling TV Blue, DIRECTV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, Spectrum TV Stream, or Spectrum TV Choice.
The cheapest way to watch Hln is Spectrum TV Stream for $45/month.
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.
Yes, with a free trial. HLN is on Hulu + Live TV, and you can watch it free for Hulu + Live TV's 3-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
Already have Hulu? Hulu + Live TV is an easy way to add live TV channels along with your on-demand plan. You can stream HLN, or similar channels like Investigation Discovery, Justice Central and American Crimes, alongside with various crime docuseries from ABC, FX, and Hulu itself. Compared to subscribing to another streamer, it’s usually cheaper for Hulu users to swap to Hulu with Live TV.
It caps you at two simultaneous streams, the fewest of the big live-TV services; lifting that cap costs about $10 more a month.
Hulu + Live TV plans
Our breakdown of Hulu + Live TV →
Yes, with a free trial. HLN is on DIRECTV, and you can watch it free for DIRECTV's 5-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
If you haven’t yet cut the cord, DirecTV Stream would be the closest thing in the streaming world. It’s nearly as pricey, but the wide channel line-up, multiple simultaneous streams, and the unlimited DVR makes it a more convenient way to watch HLN. On top of that, you can also enjoy other true crime channels like Investigation Discovery and True Crime Now, as well as your regular news channels. Wanting a cheaper option? DirecTV Stream has a slimmer MyEntertainment bundle we listed below.
The price climbs steeply between tiers, and a regional sports fee gets added on top.
DIRECTV plans
Yes, with a free trial. HLN is on YouTube TV, and you can watch it free for YouTube TV's 7-day free trial. Cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.
With its huge channel line-up and intuitive interface, YouTube TV has quickly become a favorite streamer for live TV. There’s no need to hunt down quality entertainment when you can just search for HLN the same way you would search in YouTube. Their line-up includes other exciting true crime channels like Investigation Discovery, American Crimes, and Law & Crime.
At around $83 a month it's one of the priciest options, and add-ons push the bill past $100 fast.
YouTube TV plans
No, not free. Sling TV carries HLN but has no free trial, so you pay from day one — at $45.99/mo it's the second-cheapest way to watch HLN on this list.
Out of Sling’s two base plans, Sling Blue is the bundle that has HLN. That’s because Blue primarily holds more news and entertainment channels than Sling Orange. It’s also one of the cheapest ways to stream HLN, especially with our 50% discount for the first month.
There's no ESPN on the Blue lineup, and local channels only come in a handful of markets.
Sling TV plans
No. Fubo doesn't carry HLN.
No. Philo doesn't carry HLN.
No. Paramount+ doesn't carry HLN.
No. Peacock doesn't carry HLN.
No. Frndly TV doesn't carry HLN.
No. Disney+ only streams the Disney family (ABC, FX, Nat Geo, ESPN and the Disney kids channels), and HLN isn’t part of it. The best way to watch HLN without cable is YouTube TV above (free-trial).
Yes, but only a few originals on demand. HLN doesn’t stream live on HBO Max; only a slice of CNN and HLN originals turn up on demand, with no live news channel.
When Warner Bros. Discovery folded discovery+ into HBO Max, the whole Discovery and Turner library came with it, so those networks stream on demand here.
No. There’s no Prime Video Channels add-on for HLN, so Prime can’t stream it on demand or live. The best way to watch HLN without cable is YouTube TV above (free-trial).
The honest way to watch HLN 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.
If you're cutting cable for HLN, odds are you want Investigation Discovery too. It's a sister channel, so every service above that carries HLN carries Investigation Discovery as well, and the same free trials get you both. See our full guide to watching Investigation Discovery without cable for the per-service breakdown.
| Service | From | Free trial | Plans | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hulu + Live TV |
$82.99/mo | 3 days | 2 | Get it |
| DIRECTV |
$94.99/mo | 5 days | 4 | Get it |
| YouTube TV |
$9.99/mo | 7 days | 2 | Get it |
| Sling TV |
$45.99/mo | None | 3 | Get it |
HLN 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 HLN with: Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV
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 HLN with: Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV
Get Surfshark →Whichever you pick, connect to a US city first, then sign in to HLN or the service that carries it as normal. Choose a VPN with a money-back window so you can confirm it un-blocks HLN before you commit.
No. HLN 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.
Every service that carries HLN runs on the major streaming platforms, so you can watch on just about any TV, phone, or console. Here's how, device by device:
On Roku, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, add the channel from the Roku Channel Store, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On Amazon Fire TV, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, download the app from the Amazon Appstore, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On Apple TV, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, install the app from the App Store, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On Android TV & Google TV, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, grab the app from the Google Play Store, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On Chromecast, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV and Sling TV. The gap: DIRECTV and YouTube TV don't offer a Chromecast app. To set it up, cast it from your phone or use the built-in Google TV app, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On Samsung & LG smart TVs, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, install the app from your TV's own store (Tizen or webOS), sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On phones & tablets, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. To set it up, download the app from the App Store or Google Play, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
On game consoles, you can watch HLN through Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV. The gap: DIRECTV doesn't offer a game consoles app. To set it up, download the app from the Xbox or PlayStation store, sign in, and open HLN in the live guide.
Cheapest is the question everyone starts with, and it's the wrong place to stop. A $35 plan that drops HLN the month after you sign up hasn't saved you anything. So the first number we pay attention to is the real one, what you owe after the introductory month ends, not the figure in the ad. From there it comes down to whether the channels you actually want sit in the base plan or get stranded in an add-on, how the service behaves day to day (a slow app and a useless DVR wear on you faster than you'd expect), and how much of a fight it puts up when you decide to leave.
Whatever lands at the top of a list like this is the service that gets most of that right for the most people. Once in a while that's also the cheapest one. Usually it isn't.
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.
The people who test, price-check, and update our cord-cutting coverage.
