Freely, the streaming heir to Freeview and Freesat, just announced 10 new channels that are coming to the service, and one of them is the channel our readers have been requesting for months.
Yes, Talking Pictures TV is finally coming to Freely in 2026.
If you’re a fan of classic British cinema who’s been battling dodgy aerial reception for years, this is genuinely big news. For everyone else, it’s a sign that Freely might actually be taking the “smaller channels” problem to heart.
The announcement also brings five additional AMC channels (taking their total from three to eight), BLAZE from Hearst Networks, Bloomberg TV+, shopping channel Gemporia, and 11 Local TV variations depending on where you live (see the full list below).
These additions will push Freely’s live streaming channel count past 70 – not bad for a platform that only launched 18 months ago.
What Is Freely Again?
Quick refresher for anyone who hasn’t been following the Freely story.
Launched in April 2024, Freely is Everyone TV’s streaming platform designed to eventually replace traditional Freeview and Freesat. It delivers live channels and on-demand content through your broadband connection – no aerial or satellite dish required.
You get a unified programme guide mixing live TV with catch-up services, so you’re not constantly jumping between iPlayer, ITVX, and everything else. The BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and 5 all back it.
Right now, it offers over 60 live channels plus loads of on-demand content. The catch? You need a compatible smart TV from brands like Hisense, Bush, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, TCL, Amazon Fire TV, or METZ, though standalone boxes are coming soon (more on that later).
The Talking Pictures TV Phenomenon
The Talking Pictures TV channel launched in 2015, founded by Noel Cronin along with his daughter Sarah Cronin-Stanley and her husband Neill Stanley.
They specialise in vintage British films, classic TV series, and documentaries from the 1930s through the 1980s.
Think black and white British cinema that mainstream channels abandoned decades ago. Early ITV dramas nobody’s seen in years. Forgotten B-movies from studios that don’t exist anymore.
The remarkable bit? The entire operation runs from the family home in Hertfordshire.
Noel builds each day’s broadcast schedule by hand using paper cards in what Sarah describes as “more of an extension than a shed.”
This isn’t some corporate TV operation with banks of monitors and a fancy studio in central London. It’s a family business run from home that somehow became one of the biggest independent channels in Britain.
The numbers tell the story. Weekly viewership hit around 6 million during the 2020 lockdown. It currently pulls about 4 million viewers per month.
Those are extraordinary figures for a channel showing content most broadcasters gave up on years ago. But they prove something important – there’s still massive appetite for classic British content, particularly among older viewers who remember when terrestrial channels regularly showed black and white films on Saturday afternoons.
You can currently watch it on Freeview Channel 82, Sky 328, Virgin Media 445, Freesat 306, and YouView 82
But here’s the problem – if you’ve got rubbish aerial reception, you’ve been stuck. That’s where Freely comes in.
The channel did launch streaming apps last year for Fire TV, iOS, and Android TV. But those offered on-demand content through TPTV Encore only – no live stream of the actual channel. Fans have been requesting that for ages.
Freely will finally provide a proper live stream, solving the reception problems that have plagued some viewers for years.
Why This Actually Matters For Freely
We’ve written about this repeatedly – one of Freely’s biggest weaknesses is the absence of smaller Freeview channels that people want to watch.
That’s TV, Rewind TV, the NOW music channels – they’re all missing from Freely’s lineup. These aren’t massive broadcasters with unlimited budgets for streaming infrastructure. But they’re channels viewers genuinely care about.
Talking Pictures TV joining Freely suggests the platform is starting to address this gap. It won’t solve everything – plenty of channels remain absent – but it’s progress.
Whether other small channels eventually make the streaming transition, or simply disappear when traditional broadcasting ends, is an open question.
The economics heavily favour larger broadcasters, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for independent operators.
The Full Channel Lineup
Here’s everything else arriving on Freely in 2026:
BLAZE – Currently on Freeview Channel 64, BLAZE is the channel for people who like Ancient Aliens, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, and The Curse of Oak Island.
It’s all mysteries, UFOs, treasure hunting, and paranormal programming – the kind of stuff that’s either your cup of tea or absolutely not.
Bloomberg News – Dedicated news programming from Bloomberg.
Gemporia – Jewellery shopping channel specialising in reverse auction sales of gemstone jewellery, which is also available on Freeview and Freesat.
Local TV – 11 regional variations including London TV, Liverpool TV, Leeds TV, Birmingham TV, Latest TV, and KM TV. Local news and programming based on your location.
AMC’s Big Expansion
AMC already has three channels on Freely – LEGEND, TRUE CRIME, and WATCH FREE UK. Now they’re adding five more:
TRUE CRIME UK – Already available on Freeview and Freesat as a joint venture between AMC and Paramount. True crime documentaries and programming.
Evidence of Evil – A channel dedicated to the documentary series that examines how forensic technology and DNA testing solved criminal cases. Each episode looks at high-profile investigations where modern science revealed perpetrators decades after crimes were committed.
Bloodline Detectives – True crime focusing on genetic genealogy and familial DNA testing used to crack cold cases. Hosted by former prosecutor Nancy Grace, the show details how revolutionary DNA techniques brought justice to unsolved homicides and assaults.
Love After Lock Up – Reality series following relationships between recently released prisoners and their partners. Documents the challenges of rebuilding lives after incarceration.
AMC Reality: Reality programming channel featuring shows like Growing Up Hip Hop, Amazing Wedding Cakes, Million Dollar Matchmaker, and LA Hair. It’s a mix of lifestyle, wedding, matchmaking, and general reality content (and it’s also available on ITVX).
Channel 4’s Exclusive Channels Are Live
Today’s announcement follows Channel 4 finally launching their three new streaming channels on Freely in early October – delivering on promises made back in April.
The three channels – 4Reality (channel 67), 4Homes (channel 68), and 4Life (channel 82) – are exclusive to Freely, at least for now.
4Reality features Channel 4’s reality programming like Married at First Sight and First Dates. 4Homes brings together property shows like Grand Designs. 4Life covers travel, food, and animal programmes.
Worth noting though – other channels promised in April still haven’t materialised. ITV’s “The Chase” and “Saturday Night Every Night” channels, plus 11 new channels from Channel 5, were all announced seven months ago as coming “later this year.”
Freely’s Reality Check
So, where does Freely actually stand as a Freeview replacement? The picture is mixed.
If you’ve got terrible aerial reception, Freely genuinely solves problems.
No more pixelated pictures when it rains. No more fiddling with aerials trying to get better signal. No more missing channels because you live somewhere with rubbish coverage.
Decent broadband gives you reliable picture quality regardless of weather or geography (though, of course, if your broadband goes down, so does your TV).
The interface beats traditional Freeview in some ways too. The unified programme guide mixing live and on-demand content makes sense.
Personalised recommendations are useful. Seamless switching between live TV and catch-up services (without having to open separate apps) works well.
For households where traditional Freeview has never worked properly, Freely could be genuinely liberating.
The Problems
The channel lineup remains more limited than traditional Freeview. It’s restricted to broadcasters who can afford their own streaming infrastructure, which leaves gaps.
Oh, and recording? Forget it.
The upcoming streaming-only boxes (that we know about) won’t support recording at all, forcing complete dependence on broadcaster-controlled catch-up services.
Miss something? Hope it’s on iPlayer. Want to skip adverts on ITV content? Not happening. But the biggest issue is internet dependency. Freely makes television completely reliant on broadband. No internet means no TV at all.
For emergency broadcasting during major incidents, that’s potentially problematic.
There’s also the cost consideration. Traditional Freeview is genuinely free once you’ve bought the equipment – just plug in an aerial and you’re done. Freely requires ongoing broadband, which averages nearly £27 per month in the UK.
That’s not trivial for lower-income households. Discounted social tariffs exist, but only 220,000 homes use them despite 4.3 million being eligible.
The Freely Box Situation
Freely’s biggest limitation continues to be availability. You still need a new smart TV from specific manufacturers. Got a perfectly good three-year-old television? Tough luck – you’re buying a new one or you’re not using Freely.
However, standalone boxes are supposed to fix this. French company Netgem announced theirs earlier this year, promising a launch “later this year.” We’re still waiting for an actual release date, but it should be coming soon.
When it arrives, the Netgem box will be streaming-only – no aerial port at all. It marks a clear statement about where Freely is heading. No traditional broadcasting support, no recording, pure streaming or nothing.
The BBC is also exploring a second, “radically simplified” Freely box designed for people who find modern streaming technology overwhelming.
This accessibility-focused device would offer a more traditional TV-like experience while delivering content through broadband.
Most intriguingly, a mysterious Humax device surfaced on retailer websites last month – the FHR-6000T Freely PVR.
With 1,000 hours of storage, 4-channel recording capability, and an aerial port, this could be the hybrid solution many viewers actually want. Traditional Freeview recording with Freely streaming on the side.
The catch? Nobody knows if it can record from Freely’s streaming channels or just traditional aerial-based Freeview.
Given how aggressively the industry has moved against recording functionality – we’ve seen BT/EE TV neuter their recording features, redirecting BBC and ITV recordings to catch-up services where you can’t skip adverts – streaming recording seems unlikely.
The 2030 Vision
Everyone TV continues positioning Freely as the future of UK television, with independent research forecasting it will become “the largest TV device platform in the UK within five years.”
The specific prediction: Freely will be the primary platform in 7 million homes by 2030.
That sounds impressive until you realise Freeview currently reaches around 18 million homes. But the answer lies in what Everyone TV expects will happen to traditional broadcasting.
If Freeview and Freesat decline sharply over the next five years, the market fragments. Instead of one dominant platform, you’d have lots of smaller ones competing.
In that scenario, Freely’s 7 million homes would make it the biggest single chunk of a much more divided market.
It’s ambitious though. Freely currently has around 500,000 weekly users. Getting to 7 million homes as the primary platform means massive growth – and requires traditional broadcasting to collapse on schedule.
Whether that happens depends on several factors. Can streaming TV become as simple and reliable as traditional broadcasting? How quickly will traditional infrastructure actually get switched off? Will viewers accept the trade-offs that come with streaming-only television?
For viewers, today’s announcement represents both progress and a reminder of what’s being left behind.
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My guess is provided it is reasonably/sensibly priced launched in time for Christmas sales of the anticipated Netgem Freely streamer will be a good indicator as to the popularity this new service. People have requested such a device or app for a while now but having to purchase a new TV I feel has only served to put people off trying the service. Time will tell.