Everyone TV has announced that Freely TV is coming to more TV brands, including Panasonic.
Freely launched in April 2024 exclusively to Hisense TVs. It then came to Bush models in May, with the service available on the brand’s 2024 4K smart TVs. Now Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, and Metz TVs will also be getting in on the action.
For those who don’t know, Freely is a new and free streaming service that allows users to watch live TV channels and access on-demand content on smart TVs without needing an aerial. It was developed by Everyone TV, a joint venture between BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 and only requires an internet connection to access. Freely also offers a few significant upgrades from Freeview Play, the current iteration of free terrestrial TV in the UK.
Some of the latest additions to the Freely roster include Panasonic’s new line-up of 4K OLED, QLED, and LED TVs. We have reached out for more information on the specific models that will come with support for Freely. There’s also Sharp’s new range of smart TVs, including the GK4 4K and GM6 4K QLED models. Toshiba and Metz are also releasing new models featuring Fleely TV, including some QLED+ models from Metz which will range from 43 to 65 inches in screen size.
We got to try Freely TV out back in April and were impressed with how much of an upgrade from Freeview Play it appears to be. User interfaces and navigational tools are much more streamlined and in line with what you would expect from a full subscription service like Sky or Virgin.
The main goal of Freely is to make free TV more accessible to everyone across the UK. Over four million homes in the country don’t have a TV aerial, meaning watching Freeview is currently impossible for those viewers. Using Freely doesn’t mean you’ll have to ditch your aerial, however, as it can be used to scan channels and assist in the set-up process.
Freely offers a few functions which are ‘firsts’ for a free TV service. This includes the ability to ‘pause’ and ‘restart’ live content on certain channels. Users will have a 15-minute pause buffer, which should be plenty of time for a quick pit stop. There won’t be any options for ‘rewinding’ or ‘fast-forwarding’ shows yet, however, these functions could be added later as Freely TV is upgradable, unlike the various iterations of Freeview we've seen over the years.
The network download speed recommended to use Freely smoothly was quoted as low as just 10Mbps, meaning Freely should be a breeze for almost anyone in the UK with an internet connection to access. In April 2023, Ofcom reported the average download speed in the UK at around 70Mbps, for reference.
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