How to Watch Indian Channels in the USA

Around 4.2 million people of Indian origin live in the United States. It should therefore come as no surprise that Indian TV is in high demand in the country. However, there's a problem: tuning in to a local US cable channel usually won't bring you much (if any) Indian programing, meaning you'll need to be inventive if you'd like to watch your favorite entertainment shows, Bollywood movies, or local language news from the USA.

Fortunately, there are many options to get the job done. In this short guide, we explore two methods to watch Indian TV in the USA. Stay tuned!

Method 1 — Using Video-On-Demand

Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash

In the US, there are a few big-name over-the-top (OTT) or video-on-demand streaming services offering Indian TV programing over the internet. Programing typically comes in most of India's national languages and includes sports, entertainment (including Bollywood), news, and more. Here are the most popular services to choose from in this category:

• YuppTV: A popular option to watch Indian TV from countries abroad, including the USA, YuppTV offers a package (costing $9.99 per month or $49.99 every six months) that features over 130 TV channels in all of India's major languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and others. Popular channels available on YuppTV include Zee TV, SonyLiv, Colors, Sing, BBO, and dozens of others.
• Sling TV: With packages ranging from $35 to $50 per month, Sling TV is more expensive than YuppTV and has fewer channels (between 30 and 50), but its programing is broader and caters not only to Indians in the USA but to Asian Americans in general. Sling TV is also compatible with an impressive number of device types.
• Guru IPTV: By paying a once-off fee of $230 for five years' worth of service, you can access all of the major Indian TV channels in most Indian languages. However, the difference between Guru IPTV and Sling TV, for example, is that it comes with a decoder and remote which need to be delivered to your address.

Another popular Indian entertainment and sports programing service, Hotstar, was discontinued in the US in November 2021.

Method 2 — Using a VPN

NordVPN

As we touched on above, many TV services such as Hotstar, Netflix India, SonyLIV, Voot, and Zee5 block access to streaming from the USA. This is because a lot of Indian streaming services don't work with an American IP address (instead, your IP address will need to be Indian).

Fortunately, there is a solution for this — a VPN that changes our computer's IP address. A VPN is a kind of tool that allows you to obtain an IP address in India (and plenty of other countries). Using a VPN, you'll be able to set your location to India and make the TV service believe that you're physically present in the country.

By using a VPN, you'll quickly and easily be able to change your IP address to a Indian one to dodge regional blocks and watch Indian series, movies, news, and sports — not just from the USA, but from anywhere in the world.