A new service, Freely, will allow viewers access to live TV from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 directly over the Internet from 2024

Developed by Everyone TV (the new name for the organisation who deliver FreeView and FreeSat), Freely is a new free service giving access to live TV via broadband. No aerial or dish required (as long as you’re in the UK). You can read about it here — New service from UK public service broadcasters will deliver live free TV via IP. It reads well, but we wanted to dig a little deeper.

Is this anything new, and why would I use it?

You can already get to live TV (often in higher definition) via various broadcaster specific apps — iPlayer, ITVX, and so on. They all work, but are not identical, each preferring a specific account, and in reality it can take appreciable time to move between programmes and far longer to move between channels. If access to a lot of channels is important (eg when surfing live sport during a major tournament) there are benefits.

We assume (there are no details) there will be an interface similar to the EPG we already get with FreeView Play (as an example), but allowing faster selection of live television. This brings us to an important point…

What isn’t it?

It’s live television. While we expect the usual pause / rewind options will exist, there will be no wondering back through the guide to catch a show from yesterday or browsing for other boxsets. We suspect it will still be necessary to go via the same set of apps we already use. We hope the experience will be seamless, but it will still involve a few steps.

It’s also worth noting the need for broadband. OFCOM reports good progress on broadband rollout in the UK but we also note ITX has this new article — What is the new internet-based Freely tv platform and how will it work? It’s worth a watch (just over 90 seconds) and comes with a warning — low-speed internet will mean a poor experience. While the new service is well-defined for its target audience, we do wonder about those being left behind and what happens in the future when demand for broadcast television drops. When TV was originally deployed, it was always backwards compatible in terms of colour vs black and white and resolution. Those days are long gone and it seems TV aerials themselves may soon also be a thing of the past.