FREELY. Live TV over broadband 2024

It doesn’t surprise me, virtually everyone I know tends to watch mostly Terrestrial TV with on demand for stuff they missed.

A good Freely or similar streaming alternative would quickly change that.

Everyone who wants to give you their opinion on this will tell you how they stream everything and never watch the mainstream live channels.
The masses stick to watching live terrestrial TV just as they have done for decades, with the addition of catchup for those who are bothered.

Kids/teens being the exception, doing everything on apps, until they get more settled and then end up doing the same. (no surprise to see BBC3 back on Freeview).

Until a simpler option exists I can't see it changing. IPTV should be everywhere by now but it's still mired in licensing issues I suppose, both here and abroad.

My recording box was disconnected some years ago following the discovery that using OpenDNS for the tv with a few selective entries would remove the adverts from streaming shows - well they have done for some years until the tv companies fix the issue.

Only* with a specific ISP with an additional upgrade using specific hardware.
Hardly the universal solution that many are looking for.

I think you fail to see outside of your box, hence continually banging your head against it.

Can Freely be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority? Their blurb keeps saying that "All you need is Wi-Fi" when it should really say "All you need is Wi-Fi and a brand new Hisense TV"

If you can be arsed

Disappointing that Freely isn’t delivering.

When will it actually be ‘Freely’ available, to say a Samsung Tv owner??

I need to move a Tv to a spot that is a pita to get an aerial to!

I'm not sure that broadcast is any different, it can be done fine over IP. And it should and will be, and is. It's just a question of when they take the masts down.

There have been the equivalents of what freely is trying to do and BT have done similarly (with noted issues) for a long time in other countries. I used to work on similar hybrid IP and DVB-T/S systems that sold around the world about 15-20 years ago. The technical foundation is there, but it's the content owners trying to control distribution (and perhaps vice versa these days) that screws it.

If I were in charge there would be regulation to separate the two. I'd probably even have split iPlayer out and forced other UK TV channels onto it in return for their licence fee share. But maybe I'd be causing more problems.

You'll be pleased to hear it's a free service.

The broadcasters are being a little coy about it, but CTV (Connected TV) is where media agencies and brands (ie 'the money) are moving. CTV allows more precise ad targeting and can be bought in a similar way to online media., priced on an accurate CPM basis, for example.

Broadcasters are currently limiting the inventory available to buy in this way as tighter/more efficient targeting means smaller buys - however it also helps smaller brands onto TV where they wouldn't be for the larger linear TV geographic regions.

It's also interesting that there is an emergence of 'gate-keeper' tech... for example, if you watch an ad on a Samsung TV, Samsung get a salami slice of the ad revenue... it's part of the reason SKY have their own TV product to enable them to keep all of the ad revenue. It's a bit like the Apple App Store model - Apple get a cut from the revenues. HiSense and Freely would be operating this model.