How to Watch Grit TV Without Cable

Grit is a great channel for western fans. And you have a couple of ways of getting it — some even free. Read on to learn how to watch Grit without cable.

In a hurry? If you don’t want to set up an antenna (or you live in an area where it isn’t available), you only have one option: sign up for Sling TV. With Sling Blue and the Hollywood Extra add-on, you get over 50 TV channels for just $41/mo. Save 50% on your first month of Sling TV.

Westerns are a favorite genre of a lot of people, as evidenced by the number of channels that feature them. Grit (sometimes Grit TV) is one such network, airing mostly films and TV shows from the Western Golden Age.

If you want to hang out with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, then saddle up, pardner, because we’re gonna take a closer look at Grit.

What Is Grit

Following on the success of Bounce TV, a channel targeting African-American viewers, Jonathan Katz launched Katz Broadcasting in 2014 with the channels Grit and Escape, which were targeted at age 25-54 men and women, respectively. In 2017, Katz was acquired by EW Scripps, which bought Ion Media in 2021, meaning more TV stations were available to carry Grit and the other multicast channels.

Katz Broadcasting now operates several classic-TV demographically-themed multicast channels. These are the channels that are in-between the main channels if you have an antenna.

In addition to Grit and Bounce TV, it also airs Court TV, Ion Mystery (formerly Escape), Laff, TrueReal, Defy TV, and Newsy. Other broadcasters are also vying for the nostalgia market with Westerns, such as Weigel Broadcasting’s Heroes & Icons, Sinclair’s Charge!, and INSP, an independent cable channel.

Grit’s programming is simple. It offers no original series or recent releases. Its lineup consists mostly of classic Westerns from the 1930s through the 1950s. But it also occasionally features more recent additions to the genre.

The network typically shows classic TV series (see below) during the day, while featuring a movie every evening at 8 pm ET. This week’s features are Apache starring Burt Lancaster and a young Charles Bronson, The War Wagon starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, Open Range starring Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall, and Tombstone starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.

The nightly movie features are sometimes non-Western action or action-adventure flicks, such as On Deadly Ground, Sudden Impact, or Dirty Harry.

Stream Grit

Grit is transmitted free over the air (OTA). This means that you can get it with an antenna.

It is also provided as a channel on some pay-TV providers. But most streaming services do not provide it. The largest live TV streaming service, Hulu + Live TV, does not offer it. The same is true of DIRECTV STREAM, FuboTV, and YouTube TV. Sling TV is your only choice. Let’s get to the details.

Antenna

If you’re lucky enough to live in the over 86% of the US that can pick up Grit as an OTA channel, all you need is an antenna and you are good to go! Easy to find for under $50, HD antennas are also easy to install and use. See our indoor antenna guide for all you need to know.

Once you have one, you can get all your local networks — at least ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox for most of the country — totally free. Even better, you can pick up local multicast channels — like Grit and its sister stations — also totally free!

Sling TV

If you want more than what you can get through an antenna (which can be 20 channels or none depending on where you are), then you can always go with Sling TV. Currently, save 50% on your first month of Sling TV. For $35/mo, you can get 30-40 channels, including popular cable networks like A&E, History, Nick Jr, TBS, TNT, BET, and AMC. Add on the Hollywood Extra for $6/mo additional and you’ll get Grit and Heroes & Icons, along with Turner Movie Classics and other movie channels.

Or, if you want to have your cake and eat it, too, Sling TV offers deals on free digital antennas and discounted AirTV devices, which let you add the free OTA channels to your Sling TV interface. So you have all your channels right there in the guide. One model even lets you DVR shows off your antenna feed.

Sling is one of the oldest live streaming services. It allows you to watch Grit TV on most streaming devices:

For more details, see our Sling TV review.

Wrapping Up

So let the debate begin: who plays the better cowboy, Randolph Scott or John Wayne? You can always find some oldies-but-goodies and old-fashioned masculinity on Grit. Don’t forget your spurs — and your cable bill don’t need to show its low-down, no-good face around your house again!

FAQs

What is Grindhouse Grit?

Whoa there! Slow them horses down — if you’re the kind that really takes to Grit’s classic Westerns with their old-Hollywood charm and ne’er above a TV-PG rating, you’d best steer clear of this similarly-named channel from Moturoais Studios/Independent Network Channel (INC). It has nothing to do with the Grit channel itself.

There are several channels in the Grindhouse Grit family: Grindhouse Grit 2.2, Grindhouse Grit Ultra, and Grit Gold. They all feature similar low-budget films featuring “guns, gore, and girls.” You can find them, if you’re curious, on Roku, and there’s a mobile app, “Grindhouse Grit on Fire,” that offers the same fare. Just be aware these channels and the app are absolutely no relation to the Katz Broadcasting channel.

Is Grit available on Roku?

Grit, the Katz Broadcasting channel featuring classic Westerns that uses the tagline “Television with Backbone” and that describes itself as “the all-new network television home for your favorite bold, brave and legendary action heroes!” is not available as a Roku Channel. However, Sling TV is available on Roku, and Grit is available on Sling, so you can watch it via your Roku device with a Sling subscription.

What kind of shows can I watch on Grit?

Grit varies its roster of series, but currently on the schedule over the next week are:

• Laramie starring John Smith and Robert Crawford Jr
• Zane Grey Theatre hosted by Dick Powell
• Death Valley Days starring Dale Robertson and Robert Taylor
• The Deputy starring Henry Fonda and Allen Case
• The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O’Brian and Paul Brinegar
• Tales of Wells Fargo starring Dale Robertson
• The Virginian starring James Drury and Doug McClure.

Where else can I watch Westerns free?

Other free OTA channels featuring Westerns and action-adventure movies are Heroes & Icons (sometimes listed as H&I) and Charge! (which has MGM classics). If you don’t live near enough to an affiliate and don’t want to pay for a service to get them, there are other options:

• Pluto TV Westerns (free Western movies and episodes of Bonanza, The Rifleman, and others)
• Tubi (How the West Was Won and other movies free on demand)
• Plex (large collection of free Western movies and TV shows on demand, from all eras)
• Xumo Westerns (free Western classics like the old black-and-white Lone Ranger series and The Roy Rogers Show and movies)
• The Roku Channel (free “Western Zone” has tons of John Wayne and more)
• Vudu (over 250 free Western movies).

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Alanna Baker

Alanna Baker is a self-described "English nerd for hire." A writer/editor and closet hippie, she enjoys knitting, building LEGOs, armchair psychology, traveling the world with her family, and all things Disney.

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