Fibrant’s TV service went wireless this week.

The City of Salisbury this week announced Fibrant subscribers could stream TV shows on their phone, tablet or computer through a third-party website called Watch TV Everywhere. Subscribers won’t be charged extra for the service. It’s automatically available for free to all subscribers regardless of the TV package.

Emails were sent to Fibrant subscribers on Tuesday announcing the Watch TV Everywhere service.

Assistant City Manager John Sofley, who oversees Fibrant, said the service is “one of the things we have been wanting to do for some time.”

All Fibrant subscribers have to register for an account on WatchTVEverywhere.com with a Fibrant account. The service gets a bit more complicated once it’s time to watch a program.

On laptops or computers, subscribers use WatchTVEverywhere.com as a portal to different websites that stream programs. Some of the options allow subscribers to watch live TV. Others, such as ABC, NBC and CBS only allow users to watch programs that have already aired. It’s similar to existing streaming services that charge a price for streaming TV shows.

Hulu, for example, charges users a monthly fee and posts TV shows from the prior day early each morning. On computers, the service functions similarly. Fibrant subscribers would use WatchTVEverywhere.com as a portal to individual websites, where programs are posted.

For tablets and smartphones, there’s no website or portal to take Fibrant subscribers to each individual site. Sofley said subscribers would need to download individual apps for each TV channel or network. For example, Fibrant subscribers would download the WatchESPN app for all ESPN channels. ESPN channels can be watched live.

In large part, the service is only an authentication. Networks regularly post full episodes of TV shows on websites already. WatchTVEverywhere.com allows users to access the shows.

The service is available anywhere Internet is available. Smartphone users, for example, can use their data plan to watch TV shows. The shows, however, would quickly consume data plans. TV shows typically stream in lower quality, or not at all, in locations where data connections are poor. Similarly, slow Internet connections hinder the quality of playback.

Similar to subscribers, Sofley said the service isn’t expensive for the City of Salisbury. He declined to provide the exact price of the service for the city, but said it was less than $250 per month.

Sofley said Fibrant’s contracts with some TV networks already included the ability to allow users to stream content online. The city needed some type of authentication, he said.

He said Fibrant subscribers may steadily have access to a larger portion of their channels through WatchTVEverywhere.com. For now, only a limited number of networks are available.

For more information on Watch TV Everywhere, visit Fibrant’s website. Go to the residential tab, click on video and click on TV Everywhere.

Fibrant’s customer service can also talk Fibrant customers through any problems, Sofley said.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246.