You don’t need cable to watch MASTERPIECE. There are four legal ways, and they often get confused. The main thing to know: PBS Passport and the “PBS Masterpiece” channel on Prime Video are separate products. Paying for one doesn’t give you the other.
The four options side by side
| Option | Cost | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antenna (over-the-air) | Free after buying an antenna | Your local PBS station live, including Sunday MASTERPIECE | Watching as it airs |
| PBS app / PBS.org | Free | New episodes stream for a limited time after broadcast | Catching up the same week |
| PBS Passport | A donation to your local station (often $5 a month or $60 a year; varies) | An extended on-demand library, including earlier seasons and some early releases | Binge-watching and catching up on older seasons |
| PBS Masterpiece on Prime Video | Separate paid add-on to Prime Video | MASTERPIECE series inside the Prime Video app | People who already watch everything in Prime Video |
1. An antenna: free, live and local
MASTERPIECE is broadcast by your local PBS member station, so a TV antenna picks it up at no cost in areas with PBS reception. You’ll see it exactly when your station airs it. Nationally that’s 9/8c for Maigret and 10/9c for The Gold from October 18, but stations can differ.
2. The free PBS app
The PBS app runs on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, some smart TVs, phones and web browsers, according to PBS SoCal. New MASTERPIECE episodes stream free for a period after broadcast. PBS SoCal, for example, says most of its programmes stay free for at least two weeks after they premiere. After that, you usually need Passport.
3. PBS Passport: the library option
Passport is a member benefit, not a subscription sold by PBS itself. You get it by donating to a local station at or above its Passport level. THIRTEEN and PBS SoCal both list $5 a month or $60 a year, but each station sets its own level. Passport opens a much larger on-demand library in the PBS app and on PBS.org.
This fall, that matters in two ways:
- Earlier seasons. PBS says you can stream earlier seasons of The Gold, Maigret and The Marlow Murder Club with Passport before the new ones start.
- Early releases. Professor T season 5 went up on Passport as a full binge on August 9, 2026, more than two months before its weekly broadcast run begins on October 18.
4. The PBS Masterpiece channel on Prime Video
PBS offers a MASTERPIECE channel inside Amazon Prime Video as a paid add-on. PBS’s help centre says the Passport benefit is separate from these channels: a Masterpiece channel subscription doesn’t unlock Passport videos in the PBS app, and Passport doesn’t unlock the Prime channel.
Which should you choose?
- You only watch the new episodes, on Sunday or soon after: an antenna or the free PBS app is enough.
- You want to start a series from season 1: Passport, since it also supports your local station.
- You already watch everything in Prime Video: the Masterpiece channel keeps it all in one app.
The shows airing this fall, and their exact dates, are on our PBS page and in the release calendar.
Sources
Found an error? Report a correction. We update dates as broadcasters change them.
