YouTube is taking on over-the-air TV with nearly 4,000 free episodes of TV

The company is offering free shows with ads. The video giant says you will be able to stream nearly 4,000 episodes of TV for free, as long as you are willing to watch ads during the show. You can watch Hell's Kitchen, Andromeda, and Heartland on the web, mobile devices, and most connected TVs in the US.

The new free TV shows are taking on a number of major competitors. One is over-the-air television, and by offering free TV on demand, YouTube is hoping that you'll see what's available on its platform instead of channel surfing to see what else might be on.

There are many options for streaming ad-supported TV for free, including Tubi, Xumo, Plex, and offerings from Vizio, and SAMSUNG, just to name a few. It's not hard to imagine people checking out TV shows they can stream for free while scrolling through other YouTube content, since it's already where many people spend a lot of time watching videos.

The free shows could entice people to switch over from the company that has had some very public disputes with the company that owns YouTube. According to a November report, the company is planning to develop more than 50 original shows for its free and ad-supported channel. The 155 million people who live in households with a Roku device is far smaller than that on the video site. There are more than 3 billion devices in the wild, and that is only a small portion of the potential devices that have easy access to the internet.

Gone in Sixty Seconds and Legally Blonde are two of the free movies on the platform. Each week the company will add up to 100 shows and movies.