7 Ways to Watch MTV Live Without Cable

You don’t need cable to watch MTV. You can watch MTV through any of the following streaming services: Philo, Sling TV, fuboTV, YouTube TV, Vidgo, AT&T TV Now, and TVision. These streaming services allow you to watch MTV on streaming devices, mobile devices, and online. These streaming services provide a live stream of MTV so that you can watch MTV shows like The Challenge: Double Agents and specials like MTV Unplugged when they air, just as if you had cable.

Streaming Services that Carry MTV

Let’s take a look at all the ways you can watch MTV without subscribing to a satellite or cable TV provider.

Philo is The Cheapest Way To Watch MTV

Philo also has MTV2, MTV Classic, and MTV Live

Philo is our favorite option for watching MTV Live online. Philo is a live online TV streaming service that provides MTV, MTV2, MTV Classic, MTV Live, and 60+ other channels for $20/month. You can check out a free trial and see if the service will meet your needs. Philo also includes a cloud DVR for you to record shows to watch later. 

Sign Up For A Free Trial To Philo

Philo supports the Apple iPhone and iPad (running iOS 9 or newer), Android phones and tablets (running 5.0 or newer), Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

With online access to MTV streaming, you will never miss great shows like “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” “The Hills: New Beginnings” “Ghosted: Love Gone Missing,” “Teen Mom OG” “Ex on the Beach,” and “Are You the One?”

You can use your Philo credentials to sign on to the MTV app and watch many episodes there. For information, check out our review, which includes a list of all channels available on Philo.

Watch MTV on Sling TV

MTV is not in Sling’s base packages. However, you can get MTV through the Orange or the Blue package if you add the “Comedy Extra” add-on package. This would bring the total amount to $41/month ad the base package costs $35 per month and the Comedy Extra add-on is an additional $6 per month. A Cloud DVR is included.

Sling TV is available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and more, so it’s not a problem to enjoy it on a TV, tablet, computer, or other smart devices. There are more channels than I’ve mentioned available on Sling TV than what I’ve discussed here. To find out more about what Sling TV offers and more information about Sling TV device compatibility, check out this detailed review of Sling TV or check out this free trial.

Watch MTV on Vidgo

Vidgo is a newer Streaming service that offers fairly competitive pricing over other Live streaming services. The only catch is they do not currently offer a DVR. Their service offers MTV as a part of its Core package along with over 60 other channels. New customers can sign up for the Core Plan for $55 per month. (They offer discounted promo pricing for your first 3 months.)

Vidgo doesn’t force you into a contract so you can cancel any time. They do offer a 3-day free trial, which you can cancel within the first three days at no charge. Vidgo is supported on available on Android, iOS, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV. You can also stream the service on up to 3 devices at the same time.  We have the full details in our guide to Vidgo’s live streaming service.

Watch MTV on AT&T TV Now

AT&T’s TV Now service is one way you can watch MTV. It is offered as part of their most affordable “Plus” package. At $69.99 per month, you get more than 40 channels, while at the highest level of $135 a month you get over 125. You can check out everything this service offers by reading our AT&T TV Now review.

Watch MTV on FuboTV

FuboTV is an excellent place to go for sports, but it offers many other channels, including MTV, in it’s “Family Package” for $64.99/month (after 7-day free trial). Fubo TV includes:

• One 100 channels including MTV, ESPN, and FS1 are available in fuboTV’s channel lineup
• You can watch on three screens at the same time 
• 250 hours of cloud DVR storage
• The FuboTV app is available on major platforms, including Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. 

You can sign up for a 1-week free trial or check out our review of FuboTV for more details.

MTV is Now on YouTube TV

In late June 2020, YouTube added MTV along with several other channels to their lineup. They also suddenly raised their prices to $65 per month. YouTubeTV does include a DVR with limitless storage space for recording your shows. Plus, you can watch your library of recorded shows anywhere! The YouTube TV channel lineup includes MTV for $64.99 a month. Youtube TV supports Roku, Android, iOS (includes AirPlay to Apple TV), and Chromecasts/Chromecast-compatible TVs. Check our review of YouTube TV for more information.

MTV Is On TVision

TVision is a new live TV streaming service from T-Mobile. However, the service is currently only available to T-Mobile customers. TVision’s “Vibe” plan offers MTV with 30 other channels for just $10 per month. Below are features included with this plan:

• Over 30 live channels, including MTV
• Add 100 hours of cloud DVR for $5 more per month
• stream to 2 devices at a time
• supported on Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast, and more

The TVision Vibe plan provides a ton of entertainment channels and costs only $10 per month. The TVision Vibe plan allows streaming to 2 streams simultaneously and doesn’t include a DVR. However, you can also add 100 hours of Cloud DVR for $5/month, which means you can get VIBE with a DVR for $15/month.

See our review of TVision or visit T-Mobile’s website for more information.

MTV Is Not on Hulu Live TV

MTV is not available through Hulu’s Live TV service. However, some MTV shows are available on Hulu’s subscription service, including “Jersey Shore,” “Catfish: The TV Show,” and “The Hills.” Hulu’s on-demand streaming service starts at $5.99/month. You can see which MTV shows are available on Hulu’s streaming library on Hulu’s MTV Page.

Watching MTV on A Streaming Device

Once you subscribe to one of the streaming services that carry MTV, all you need to do is download the streaming services app to a supported device, and then you can start watching MTV.

Watch MTV on Roku

To watch MTV on Roku, follow these instructions.

1. Subscribe to a streaming service that carries MTV (Philo, Sling TV, YouTube TV, FuboTV, etc.)
2. On your Roku Menu, navigate to “Search” and press “OK” on your remote
3. Enter the name of the streaming service you subscribe to in the search bar
4. Select the streaming service and press “OK.”
5. Select “Add Channel” press “OK” on your remote. If the channel is already installed, “Go To Channel” will be an option.
6. The App is now installed on your Roku. Open the app, and log in with the credentials you used to subscribe to the service. MTV will be a channel available through the app’s live TV guide.

Watch MTV on Fire TV

To watch MTV on Fire TV, follow these instructions.

1. Subscribe to a streaming service that carries MTV (Philo, Sling TV, YouTube TV, FuboTV, etc.)
2. On your Fire TV Home screen, click on the search icon in the screen’s upper-left corner.
3. Enter the name of the streaming service you subscribe to in the search bar
4. Select the streaming service and press “OK.”
5. Select “Download,” and the channel will install
6. The App is now installed on your Fire TV. Open the app, and log in with the credentials you used to subscribe to the service. MTV will be a channel available through the app’s live TV guide.

Watch MTV on Apple TV

To watch MTV on Apple TV, follow these instructions.

1. Subscribe to a streaming service that carries MTV (Philo, Sling TV, YouTube TV, FuboTV, etc)
2. Scroll right to the search icon in the upper-left corner of the screen
3. Enter the name of the streaming service you subscribe to in the search bar
4. Select the streaming service click the cloud icon, and the channel will install
5. The App is now installed on your Apple TV. Open the app, and log in with the credentials you used to subscribe to the service. MTV will be a channel available through the app’s live TV guide.

Is There an MTV Subscription

No. There isn’t a way to directly subscribe to MTV. However, you can watch MTV live and on-demand through the web site or the MTV app. Your login credentials from FuboTV, Philo, YouTube TV, Vidgo, and TVision will work to unlock all the content available through the MTV app.

Using The MTV App

If you subscribe to Philo, Vidgo, YouTube TV, FuboTV, or TVision, you can watch MTV by simply downloading the app for that streaming service. However, these streaming services are also a valid TV provider to unlock all the content available on the MTV App.

New episodes of shows on MTV become available the day after they air on TV. You can also catch up on full seasons and watch hours of stand-up specials, classic shows, and more on the app. Without a TV provider account you can watch MTV free through the MTV app for 24 hours.

How To Activate the MTV App

The best way to explain this is through an example. Let’s assume we have a Philo subscription and a Roku. We can follow the steps below to get the MTV app working on our device. While the steps below use Philo and Roku to watch MTV, most streaming services and devices will have the same process.

1. Go to the channel store or app store on your device. On Roku, it’s called the “Channel Store.”
2. Search for “MTV”
3. Add the MTV app to your device and then open it. 
4. Your Roku device will then show you an activation code and a URL to activate the MTV app.
5. Using a computer or mobile web browser, you go to the URL.
6. You will then be asked for a TV provider and a username/password. I’m entering the username and password I use for Philo.
7. Once you sign in on MTV’s website, your TV screen will refresh. You should now have access to all the video content the app provides.

Supported Streaming Devices

The MTV app is supported on all of the following streaming devices:

• Android Devices
• iOS Devices
• Apple TV
• Roku
• Amazon Fire TV
• Chromecast
• Android TV

Watch MTV for Free

Most of the streaming services that carry MTV offer a free trial. You can take advantage of those and watch free MTV for almost a month or longer if you use different email addresses. Let’s look at the free trials available.

• Sling TV – Sling TV offers a 3-day free trial. However, there is a way you can still get a 7-day trial with Sling.
• FuboTV – offers a 1-week free trial.
• Vidgo – Offers a 1-week free trial
• YouTube TV –  offers a 1-week free trial
• AT&T TV Now – offers a 1-week free trial.

As long as you cancel before the free trial expires, you won’t be charged. You can cycle the free trials to get nearly a month of MTV free. If you get creative with email addresses and payment methods, you could watch free MTV even longer. Doing this would also let you test out the various live TV streaming services to see which one you like the best.

For information on watching other TV channels online check out: How To Stream Specific TV Channels

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