After launching in April 2024 on Hisense TVs, Freely has been expanding its reach with various deals with TV brands, and later this year, it’ll be launching its first foray into streaming devices.
But it already is on streaming devices, we hear you say? And yes while Freely is available on ‘streaming’ TVs, it’s also going to be available on devices that you plug into your TV.
Currently, Netgem is confirmed as Freely’s first ‘plug in and stream’ provider, The French entertainment tech brand enabling Freely’s presence on TVs that don’t have Freely integrated into their interface (“cough, LG, Samsung, Sony, cough”).
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There’s an argument to be made that these TV brands already have the UK catch-up apps installed and available to use, as well as their own free versions live streaming content, such as Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels. So what is Freely bringing to the table?
Well, you could point to the fact that Freely brings all the UK catch-up aps, and more such as PBS America, into one place; making it easier to hop and skip from live channel to channel rather than individual app to individual app. You can pause, rewind, and restart live content; as well as keep track of your favourite shows and films through the Freely My List feature.
You can, of course, watch programmes through the apps themselves if you want to find old episodes of, say, Eastenders or Love Island.
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Plus with the likes iPlayer and ITVX you’ve got access to films such as Blade Runner 2049, Skyfall, The Wolf of Wall Street, Live Free or Die Hard and Guardians of the Galaxy, some of which are available on free UK streamers thanks to the recent deal signed between Disney+ and ITVX.
And of course, let’s not discount the fact that there has been issues in the past between Freeview and Google TV, which has meant that support for UK apps has been spotty on some TVs (TCL goes as far as offering a streaming stick to remedy the issue). This streaming device from Netgem would make it easy to circumnavigate those issues.
There’s not much detail about the box itself other than it’s “small and modern”, or how much it’ll cost to purchase when it launches later in 2025 other than Freely stating that it’ll be affordable.
As the focus shifts from aerial broadcasts to delivering content to people’s homes via Wi-Fi streaming, expect the battle for eyes on free content to heat up even more.
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