4 Ways to Watch Discovery Channel’s Shark Week for Free

Discovery Channel’s much-loved, annual Shark Week event is back as of Sunday evening. Shark Week 2015, aptly hosted by horror film director Eli Roth, will run throughout the week with nightly lineups of shows centered around the ocean’s most feared creatures.

Shark Week began in 1988 as a way to inform audiences about sharks and increase respect and understanding for these marine animals. The program almost doubled Discovery Channel’s network average with its prime-time rating, according to the Washington Business Journal. Shark Week has run every year since then, becoming the longest-running event on cable television, according to The Atlantic.

Airing in July or August every year, Shark Week has become a summertime staple for Americans. An astonishing 42 million people tuned in for last year’s Shark Week, reportsVariety, making it the can’t-miss television event of the summer.

Shark Week 2015 Schedule

Shark Week 2015 kicked off Sunday night and will continue until it wraps up on Sunday, July 12. Here is the new shark-centric programming lined up foron the Shark Week 2015 schedule:

• July 5 — 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. ET: Shark Trek, Island of the Mega Shark, and Monster Mako
• July 6 — 9 p.m. ET–Midnight: Return of the Great White Serial Killer, Alien Sharks: Close Encounters, and Shark After Dark.
• July 7 — 9 p.m. ET–Midnight: Bride of Jaws, Tiburones: Sharks of Cuba, and Shark After Dark
• July 8 — 9 p.m. ET–Midnight: Super Predator, Ninja Sharks, and Shark After Dark
• July 9 — 9 p.m. ET–Midnight: Shark Planet, followed byShark After Dark at 11 p.m. ET
• July 10 — 9 p.m. ET–Midnight: Sharks of the Shadowland, Shark Clans, and Shark After Dark
• July 11 — 9 p.m.–10 p.m. ET: Sharksanity: The Return
• July 12 — 8 p.m.–9 p.m. ET: Shark Island

How to Watch Shark Week for Free

Those who are cutting back on cable to save money don’t have to miss out on this television event. Here are some ways you can watch Shark Week programming for free, even without a cable subscription.

Discovery.com has a variety of Shark Week videos available to be streamed by anyone directly from the website. These videos are mostly clips, but the lineup does include several full-length Shark Week episodes. “Into the Shark Bite” offers a close-up look at various shark species’ teeth, jaws and bites, while “Shark Rebellion” delves into the mystery of the man-eating sharks off the coast of Brazil. The site also has a section of non-stop shark cams, which stream live, around-the-clock video of sharks in action.

Amazon Instant Video and iTunes also offer some options to watch Shark Week for free, including a free download of “Ninja Sharks” from the 2015 Shark Week season. Other episodes from the current season are available on both services, starting at $1.99 each. iTunes offers a Shark Week 2015 season pass to stream and own the programming for only $19.99, still far less than what most Americans pay per month for cable.

Another option watch Shark Week programming for free is Hulu. This TV streaming site offers 26 full Shark Week episodes from the 2011 to 2013 seasons  to subscribers of its Hulu Plus service. A subscription costs $7.99 a month, but you can sign up for a free weeklong trial on the site — just long enough to stream Shark Week for free.

The Twitter Feed for Shark Week (@SharkWeek) includes video clips from the show, as well as quotes and tidbits live tweeted during the program’s airing.

Photo credit: Steve Garner via Flickr

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 4 Ways to Watch Discovery Channel’s Shark Week for Free

This article by Elyssa Kirkham first appeared on GoBankingRates.com and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.