Freely, the streaming service that offers live TV without the need for an aerial or satellite dish, is coming to more TVs in 2024, Everyone TV (Freely’s owner) has announced.
The service, backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has partnered with four more TV makers to bring its service to including Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp and Metz, the last of which, one of Germany’s oldest TV brands, will be launching a new range of Freely compatible QLED TVs that support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch sizes.
When it launched back in April, Freely was first made available on Hisense TVs, which are some of the best TVs of 2023 (just see our Hisense U8K review). Support for the service was then added to Bush TVs in May and now with the likes of Panasonic, makers of some of the best OLED TVs, and world-known brands such as Toshiba and Sharp joining the ranks, it seems that Freely is gathering steam.
If you’re wondering what is Freely? It allows users to stream live TV from a range channels such as BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1 and so on in both SD and HD over Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for an aerial or satellite dish – and the need to rely on the often temperamental signal.
With the news of more brands joining the Freely family, is it only a matter of time before we see other major TV makers such as LG, Samsung, Sony and Philips joining as well?
Brining live TV into the future
Recently, I’ve been testing two Hisense TVs – the U6N and U7N, which are two 2024 mini-LED sets that both support the Freely service – and from what I’ve seen so far, I’m impressed to say the least.
After simply connecting the sets to Wi-Fi, I accessed Freely and was able to stream live TV with ease. Watching episodes of Bargain Hunt and Homes Under the Hammer was a breeze, and I didn’t need to worry about any analogue signals either.
One thing I also noticed was that when I streamed lower-resolution (SD) TV shows as opposed to over the aerial (which was available), the picture was clearer, with better textures and colours, resembling HD quality, so clearly there was some upscaling at work.
If you’re streaming live TV, there’s also no need for an account, but if you wish to stream on-demand content from the likes of BBC iPlayer, ITVX and more, you’ll need to log into these first. And, of course, you’ll still need a TV license if you’re streaming live TV or on-demand from BBC iPlayer.
Although I didn’t spend a great deal of time with Freely, from what I did see, I hope it does come to more TVs soon, as it will make the live TV experience for a lot of people much easier with no more pesky re-tuning!
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james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
