Watching TV without an aerial

Problem

Until recently my upstairs TV was near to an aerial socket.  I have moved it to a room without an aerial but still want to watch programmes which are available through DVB (Digital Video Broadcast).  I have a Samsung Smart TV which has an ethernet/internet connection so I figure there should be a good way to stream "broadcast" channels to the TV.  My preference is for a solution which doesn't require extra hardware purchase or a subscription and it must be simple / non-technical to use.

Approaches

1 Use a (free) app on the smart TV

2 Cast programmes from an Android/IoS device

3 Play in a TV web browser session - tortuous

4 Use an extra hardware box - not that interesting

5 Use an RPI to send a stream to the TV

App (Smart IPTV)

My TV has about 100 apps which can be used to watch content.  iPlayer, all4 etc are very good but only when you want to watch a particular programme or channel.  I want a more general ability to change between any available channel.  Many of the apps such as Amazon, Netflix require a subscription and provide access to premium content; as the TV is used only occasionally this is not appropriate for me.  There are many more specialist apps which are of no interest.

Google pointed me to tvplayer which works on Samsung and shows a good range of channels.  It works well on an iPad or in a PC browser window.  Unfortunately it is not supported by my Samsung TV(s).

After further investigation I settled on using the Smart IPTV app.  It doesn't actually provide any IPTV channels but allows you to create and save your own list of channels which you can then play.  It has a nice interface so that you can see whats on using an EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) and you can surf channels using the TV program button.  It is available for both my Samsung TVs.  There is a one-off £5 subscription per device so that you can upload your channel list to their website and then download it to the TV based on Mac address.  However you can try it for a week to see if it works before paying up.

I found streaming URLs (google online tv stream url)  without too much difficulty.  

Casting

I tried casting from my (old) iPad and Samsung S5 Neo.  Both of them allowed youtube to cast (the old large Samsung TV was very temperamental) but I didn't find other apps. On the S5 you connect using Quick Connect and you are then able to play local videos and music from the phone. 

I also have an apple cable to connect my iPad to a TV.  That works when playing xvid or hdtv films with vlc.  It also works quite well playing TVplayer on the iPad and allows iPlayer and youtube. I foresee few occasions to use this in practice.