A brand new service, Freely, will permit viewers entry to stay TV from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 instantly over the Web from 2024

Developed by Everybody TV (the brand new identify for the organisation who ship FreeView and FreeSat), Freely is a brand new free service giving entry to stay TV by way of broadband. No aerial or dish required (so long as you’re within the UK). You may examine it right here — New service from UK public service broadcasters will ship stay free TV by way of IP. It reads effectively, however we needed to dig just a little deeper.

Is that this something new, and why would I exploit it?

You may already get to stay TV (usually in increased definition) by way of numerous broadcaster particular apps — iPlayer, ITVX, and so forth. All of them work, however aren’t equivalent, every preferring a particular account, and in actuality it could possibly take considerable time to maneuver between programmes and much longer to maneuver between channels. If entry to a whole lot of channels is essential (eg when browsing stay sport throughout a significant match) there are advantages.

We assume (there are not any particulars) there can be an interface just like the EPG we already get with FreeView Play (for example), however permitting quicker number of stay tv. This brings us to an essential level…

What isn’t it?

It’s stay tv. Whereas we anticipate the standard pause / rewind choices will exist, there can be no questioning again by means of the information to catch a present from yesterday or shopping for different boxsets. We suspect it’ll nonetheless be essential to go by way of the identical set of apps we already use. We hope the expertise can be seamless, however it’ll nonetheless contain a couple of steps.

It’s additionally price noting the necessity for broadband. OFCOM stories good progress on broadband rollout within the UK however we additionally word ITX has this new article — What’s the new internet-based Freely television platform and the way will it work? It’s price a watch (simply over 90 seconds) and comes with a warning — low-speed web will imply a poor expertise. Whereas the brand new service is well-defined for its target market, we do marvel about these being left behind and what occurs sooner or later when demand for broadcast tv drops. When TV was initially deployed, it was all the time backwards appropriate by way of color vs black and white and backbone. These days are lengthy gone and it appears TV aerials themselves might quickly even be a factor of the previous.