You can stream local TV in Maryland with an antenna, an official station stream, a paid live TV streaming service, or a TV service from an internet company. Which option gives you the channels you want depends largely on where you live, because Maryland is not one television market: a household in Towson, one in Silver Spring and one in Salisbury can each have a different set of local stations.
This page explains which stations reach your part of the state, the routes for watching them without cable, what the stations’ own free streams actually carry, and where IPTV playlists fit in. For how IPTV itself reaches Maryland homes, see how IPTV works in Maryland.
To stream local TV in Maryland, start with where you live: Baltimore-area counties, the Washington-Hagerstown counties and the lower Eastern Shore are served by different television markets. Then choose a route. An antenna receives local broadcasts free. Some stations offer free official streams, which carry local news rather than their full broadcast schedule. Paid live TV streaming services and internet companies’ TV services carry local stations based on your location.
Which Local Channels Reach Your Part of Maryland
Local stations are grouped into television markets, and Maryland is split among several of them. The market you live in decides which local stations a paid service offers you and which ones your antenna is most likely to receive.
Market boundaries are defined by Nielsen and can split individual counties, so treat the county lists below as a guide rather than a fixed rule; they come from a database that republishes Nielsen’s assignments, not an official Nielsen publication.
Baltimore-Area Stations
The Baltimore market includes Baltimore City and much of the surrounding area; the market database used for this guide lists Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Harford, Howard, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties. Households there are served by Baltimore’s stations, including WBAL-TV, WJZ-TV and WBFF (FOX45), and by Maryland Public Television.
Washington-Hagerstown Stations in Maryland
The Washington-Hagerstown market includes Montgomery, Prince George’s, Frederick, Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties in that database, along with western Maryland areas such as Allegany County and Hagerstown. Households there are served by Washington-area stations rather than Baltimore’s, which matters most when a paid service sets its local lineup by location.
Eastern Shore and Western Maryland
The market boundaries do not follow regional names. In the west, Allegany County and the city of Hagerstown are part of the Washington-Hagerstown market, not Baltimore’s, according to the same database. On the Eastern Shore, Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties are listed in the Baltimore market, while the lower Eastern Shore, around Salisbury in Wicomico County, has its own Salisbury market.
Stations do not necessarily stop at market lines. WBOC-TV, based in Salisbury, says it reaches Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset and Dorchester counties as well as Talbot, Caroline and Queen Anne’s. If you live near a boundary, an antenna may pick up stations from more than one market.
How to Stream Local TV in Maryland
There are four practical routes, two free and two paid, but they do not all provide the same amount of local programming.
Free: An Antenna
An antenna receives local broadcast stations over the air at no monthly cost. The Federal Communications Commission’s DTV Reception Maps show which stations are predicted to reach a given address. The FCC notes that its signal predictions assume an outdoor antenna 30 feet above ground, and that actual reception with an indoor antenna may vary significantly, as may reception affected by buildings, trees and terrain.
The FCC’s antenna guide adds two practical points: an antenna needs to receive both VHF channels (2 to 13) and UHF channels (14 to 36) to pick up every station in an area, and a channel scan on the TV is the first step before changing any equipment. Stations sometimes change frequencies, so the FCC advises rescanning when a channel disappears.
Free: Official Streams From Local Stations
Some Maryland stations publish free streams of their own. Two examples from their official sources:
- WJZ (CBS News Baltimore): CBS News Baltimore describes a 24/7 local news streaming platform, watchable on wjz.com, in the CBS News app and, according to CBS, on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and LG and Vizio smart TVs.
- WBAL-TV: Hearst Television’s free Very Local service lists Baltimore (WBAL-TV) among its cities and offers live local news, weather and other local programming in select cities, without a subscription.
- Maryland Public Television: MPT, a statewide public television network, offers a livestream on its website and through the free PBS app.
Other stations may offer similar streams; check the station’s own website or app rather than a third-party page claiming to carry it. Which of these apps a given TV or streaming stick can run depends on the device, as our guide to IPTV devices explains.
Paid: Live TV Streaming Services
Several paid live TV streaming services carry local broadcast stations as part of their packages. Which local stations are included depends on your location, typically confirmed by entering a ZIP code on the service’s own site, and not every service carries every local station in every market.
The market section above explains why the lineup in Silver Spring can differ from the lineup in Towson. Streaming live TV also depends on the home connection; how much headroom a household needs is covered in our guide to internet speed for IPTV in Maryland. This site does not rank or recommend these services.
Paid: TV Services From Internet Companies
Some internet companies serving Maryland also offer TV services that include local stations, and their apps can bring those stations to other screens in the home. Xfinity and Verizon Fios are examples: Xfinity says its Stream app requires an Xfinity account and that watching the full TV subscription requires being on the Xfinity WiFi network at home, while Verizon ties its Fios TV Home app to a Fios TV package and in-home use.
How this model compares with standalone IPTV is covered in our guide to IPTV and cable in Maryland.
What Free Station Streams Cover, and What They Don’t
A free station stream and the station’s broadcast are not the same thing. The streams above describe themselves as local news services: CBS News Baltimore calls its stream a 24/7 local news platform, and Very Local describes live local news, weather and local programming.
None of the free station streams reviewed for this page describes itself as carrying the station’s full broadcast schedule, including the network programs a station airs over the air.
Maryland Public Television is the clearest case of a station streaming its own channel, through its livestream and the PBS app. For the commercial stations, watching the full broadcast, network shows included, still means an antenna, a paid live TV streaming service or a TV service from an internet company. A free stream is more accurately understood as the station’s local news, available without any of those.
Local Channels and IPTV Playlists
Receiving a station over the air, or through a service that carries it, is different from seeing its name in an IPTV playlist. A playlist entry labeled with a Maryland station’s name does not show that whoever supplies the playlist is authorized to retransmit it. Whether an IPTV source is licensed is a question about the source, covered in our guide to whether IPTV is legal.
This site does not name, rank or recommend subscription services, for the reasons set out in our DMCA disclaimer.
Conclusion
To stream local TV in Maryland, start with your market: Baltimore-area counties, the Washington-Hagerstown counties and the lower Eastern Shore each have their own local stations, and Allegany County and Hagerstown sit in the Washington-Hagerstown market. An antenna brings in local broadcasts free, with the FCC’s maps as a guide and the caveat that its predictions assume an outdoor antenna.
Free official streams exist for WJZ, WBAL-TV (through Very Local) and Maryland Public Television, but for the commercial stations those streams carry local news rather than the full broadcast. The full lineup, network shows included, comes through an antenna, a paid live TV streaming service or an internet company’s TV service.
For how IPTV reaches Maryland homes and where it fits alongside these options, return to how IPTV works in Maryland. Claims here are checked against primary sources where available, with secondary reporting named where it is the available record, as described on our About page; if a station changes its streaming options, let us know.
Sources
All sources are linked where they are cited above. Accessed September 2026.
- FCC: DTV Reception Maps · Antennas and Digital Television
- Stations: CBS News Baltimore, how to stream · Very Local app (Hearst Television) · Maryland Public Television livestream
- Internet companies: Xfinity Stream app · Verizon Fios TV Home app
- Market assignments (secondary, republishing Nielsen): Baltimore market · Washington-Hagerstown market
- Station coverage: WBOC-TV, About
