Well are you looking to watch American TV shows or Movies.

Im curious also for TV series, what others say.

A I just learned yesterday that Netflix will be availalbe in Switzerland at the end of the month.

Hi Kim,

If it's mainly to watch series, your best bet is to go through the TV network's website (FOX for example) and watch them streaming from there.  You will need an ISP tuneller since most US TV networks will not stream outside of the US.

Unfortunately, I have no experience with the other options for watching US channels if you're not series-centric.

I dont think there is a good answer for you right now, but there should be soon.  The natural Swiss providers dont offer many US channels at all on their traditional tv services which means you need to turn to the internet and that ends up dragging you through a few extra steps, so its all down to the level of convenience you want.  The most convenient doesn't actually exist yet but will later this year - an android set top box with a VPN supplier. So if you can wait a bit i would suggest that will be the best.  http://www.android.com/tv/  You could plug this into your tv directly and then once you've set it up you needn't worry again for the future, or at least thats what the blub looks like.  But you can't buy it yet. 

In the meantime you can use any number of intermediate steps via computers, ipads, etc.  If you have a spare pc that you dont care about then you could leave that chained to your tv so it's less inconvenient.  Whichever way you go though, you will need a VPN connection which you can find online costing maybe 80 - 100 francs for the year.  To access online tv from any country typically you need to have an internet address which identifies itself so as to show you are living in that country because of the tv content licensing.   When you access the internet via a VPN provider's IP address, it allows you to present yourself as coming from anywhere in the world that you choose so you are then allowed to see the internet of whichever countries' tv providers you want.  Its up to you then whether you plug those VPN credentials into your ipad, computer, iphone or (in the future) android tv set top box.  If you have an apple tv tied to your tv then you can send whatever you are looking at on your ipad to your tv in HQ, but sadly the apple tv in itself wont allow you to plug in the VPN details.  That's why the android box should be so much more convenient when it finally is released as it will be seamless.  In all these instances though you will need to sign up to a high quality VPN provider.  Oh and of course that means you will need a fairly high speed internet provider at your house. 

The other thing that you can look at in the meantime in zattoo.com which offers quite a few channels online and again can be accessed through computer or ipad.

Hope that helps!

hulu . com via hola web plugin if you don't have a vpn or subcribe to playon.tv.

I've been using playon for 5 years now and hulu from time to time.

If you just use it for watching series, your best and easiest solution would be to download the shows. You can do this by getting a paid service such as Newsgroups or free as Piratebay(.se) can be used in Switzerland. New episodes aired in the US are almost always available in a matter of a few hours.

I can access my PC harddrive through a PS3 which is hooked up to the TV.

with a wifi/router, how do I install a VPN so I can trick the 'country location'.

how much does a VPN and necessary , etc. cost?

Dave G and Kim,

ThomasNL is right on. Don't bother trying to find channels, because there will be no certainty from one day/month/year to the next that your channels will still be around.

Either buy/rent/subscribe through iTunes Store and get an Apple TV or take the much simpler route of using thepiratebay.se and a Torrent program such as uTorrent or Tixati.

I have been watching weekly episodes of the Simpsons on Monday afternoons with my son for years. Takes about 5-10 minutes to download in full HD quality.

Dave,

You can find free VPN services, but I forget which ones.

HotSpot Shield is one option, i forget if it's free or premium.

You can access content on overseas websites for free and without need to set up a VPN.  Get the Google Chrome browser and download the extension Hola Better Internet.  Set Hola to whatever country you want and your computer will be recognised as if it is in that country.  I haven't tried it for US sites but it works well for UK sites such as BBC iPlayer, which normally you can't access in Switzerland.  Get an HDMI cable and hook up your computer to your TV and you're set.