There are a ton of web sites that stream live TV broadcasts over the internet. Some are completely free and legal. Others, not so much. TV Flash Alpha is a new Android app that lets you access both types of internet TV streams for free on an Android 2.2 phone with Adobe Flash.
The selection of channels is pretty good. News junkies can find CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, C-SPAN, and Al Jazeera English stream. But there are also unofficial streams from USA Network, CBS, Nickelodeon and others.
There are also links to on-demand videos which stream directly from network web sites including The CW and Cartoon Network.
There’s also content in a variety of languages, including Arabic and French.
Overall the video quality is surprisingly smooth — although it varies from channel to channel, because TV Flash doesn’t really control the source, it just provides a directory and user interface for accessing videos.
If you’ve installed Adobe Flash on your Android phone and you’re having a hard time finding videos that play well on your device, TV Flash is certainly worth checking out — even if there’s no guarantee that some of the content will continue to be available if the networks decide to shut down those video streams. The app is available as a free download from the Android Market.