Freely is a British

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

service launched in 2024 by

Everyone TV Everyone TV Limited (formerly known as Switchco Limited from 2005–2006 and Digital UK Limited from 2006–2023) is a British television communications company owned by the BBC, ITV (TV network), ITV, Channel Four Television Corporation, Chann ...

, a joint venture between the country's public broadcasters

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, ITV,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

and 5. The service offers the ability to watch

live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television where all viewers watch the same stream simultaneously, rather than watching vide ...

and

on demand On-demand or on demand may refer to: Manufacturing * Build-on-demand * Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production * Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until ...

media from the main broadcasters while seamlessly switching between them in a unified

electronic programme guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information fo ...

(EPG). Freely

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

television over a

broadband internet In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide- bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Internet access. The transmission m ...

connection and therefore does not require a television aerial, although an aerial can be additionally used to create a hybrid platform and allow the viewing of DTT channels not yet available on Freely. The service is expected to gradually replace

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

(although

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

, which has some free channels in DTT, is not part of Freely).

Background

The Freeview

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

service was launched in 2002 by the public broadcasters and the older analogue services were switched off by 2012. Since the 2010s, the number of live television viewers has declined in favour of internet

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

services and this trend is set to continue, especially as the availability of gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure has expanded throughout the country. Due to this shift, audiences for the British public service broadcasters' media have been increasingly eroded by major global streaming services. Furthermore, the operating costs of traditional terrestrial broadcasts would outstrip usage as more viewers opt to move to broadband-only solutions delivered over IP (the internet). Most Freeview services make use of the

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Fe ...

standard, which dates back to 1997, and only a few high-definition channels broadcast using the more efficient and newer

DVB-T2 DVB-T2 is an abbreviation for "Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial"; it is the extension of the television standard DVB-T, issued by the consortium DVB, devised for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial telev ...

standard. Despite the creation of Freely, the government has stated that it is committed to the Freeview digital terrestrial platform until at least 2034. The service was first publicised as the ''Next Generation Platform'' (NGP) in May 2023. Freely was unveiled in September 2023 and the first products implementing it launched on 30 April 2024, with the advertising campaign headlined "Set yourself Freely".

Features

All the Freely linear channels are directly streamed via broadband and have their own channel numbers in a familiar

guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Exp ...

, as is the case with other traditional TV platforms, instead of being confined to their individual apps (as has been the case with Freeview Play and a phenomenon sometimes called "walled gardens"). A stated advantage has been that it would not require setting up and logging in to user profiles for the different on demand services such as

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...

, thus simplifying the process. Live pause and programme restarting are also offered. At launch, the service only provided channels from the four stated public broadcasters and lacked other channels offered through Freeview. Freely has since expanded the service by adding channels such as

U&Dave U&Dave is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It is known for broadcasting mainly 21st-century comedy and factual programming, with both original production and repeats. Launched in October 19 ...

and QVC UK, although a TV aerial remains a requirement for the fullest possible range of channels. A noted disadvantage has been that Freely has no recording capability as there is currently no Freely-supporting PVR on the market.

Hardware and devices

Freely has launched integrated on new TV sets from

Hisense Hisense Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong province. Television sets are its main product, and it has been the largest TV manufacturer in China by market ...

, Bush,

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

, Sharp,

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

and

TCL TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company ** TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited ...

. In a deal with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

announced in October 2024, Freely is also to be integrated in new smart TVs based on

Fire OS Fire OS is an Android (operating system), Android-based operating system developed by Amazon (company), Amazon for their hardware #Devices, devices. Fire OS includes a customized Graphical user interface, user interface primarily centered on con ...

as the main TV guide. It is currently not offered in the form of a

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

dongle A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality. In computing, the term was initially synony ...

for existing or older TVs. New TVs continue to have terrestrial Freeview receivers so they can be connected to an aerial and receive the remaining channels offered on Freeview.

Technical

Freely is based on

HbbTV Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) is both an industry standard ( European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) TS 102 796) and promotional initiative for hybrid digital television to harmonise the broadcast, Internet Protocol Televi ...

Operator Application specifications. It has not been publicly stated by Freely whether the streams originate from in-house servers or directly from each broadcaster's servers.

Comparison

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , list1= {{BBC {{ITV {{Media in the United Kingdom, television {{Telecommunications Digital television in the United Kingdom 2024 establishments in the United Kingdom