Freely is set to become the UK’s dominant TV platform within five years, overtaking Freeview and Freesat as traditional broadcasting methods decline – according to a bold new prediction.
The platform has already reached over half a million weekly users in its first year, with research showing that younger viewers are driving adoption, while older audiences remain sceptical.
But perhaps most tellingly, two-thirds of users have already abandoned their aerial connections entirely, choosing Freely’s limited channel selection over the fuller lineup that traditional Freeview provides.
The data comes from new research Everyone TV (the body behind Freely, Freeview and Freesat) commissioned from Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, surveying 1,500 viewers about their TV habits and trust in different platforms.
The study reveals that while YouTube grabs headlines, British viewers still spend far more time watching traditional broadcasters – they’re just increasingly doing it through streaming rather than aerials.
The numbers also reveal some pretty aggressive predictions about how British TV will look in 2030.
What Is Freely?
Freely is Everyone TV’s attempt to replace traditional Freeview (and Freesat) with something that works entirely through your internet connection.
Launched in April 2024, the platform streams live channels and catch-up content directly to your TV without needing an aerial or satellite dish.
You get BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5 and around 40 other channels, all wrapped up in one interface that jumps seamlessly between live TV and on-demand content.
However, Freely currently offers fewer channels than traditional Freeview, which provides nearly 100 free channels (depending on how you count them).
Those channels missing from Freely include many niche services, shopping channels, and smaller broadcasters who can’t afford to run their own streaming infrastructure.
The big limitation until now has been availability. You could only get Freely by buying a brand new smart TV from manufacturers like Hisense, Bush, Panasonic and others.
Got a perfectly good telly that’s a few years old? You needed to shell out hundreds of pounds for a completely new TV just to try the platform.
That changes later this year when the first standalone Freely box launches from French manufacturer Netgem, though with one major catch – it won’t have an aerial port at all.
Unlike current Freely TVs, you’ll get what’s available through streaming and nothing else.
At a later point, we may get a second, “radically simple” Freely box – that’s being considered by the BBC.
Two-Thirds Already Ditching Aerials
The new data reveals how quickly users are abandoning traditional broadcasting altogether.
Over two-thirds of Freely users are already watching purely through their internet connection, even though current Freely TVs include aerial ports for accessing traditional Freeview channels.
This means most people are choosing to stick with Freely’s more limited channel lineup rather than “topping up” with the full Freeview selection.
They’re effectively volunteering to have fewer options in exchange for the convenience of streaming – or perhaps because they have poor aerial reception at their homes and streaming provides more reliable picture quality.
It’s a telling sign of where viewing habits are heading, but it also suggests viewers are willing to sacrifice channel variety for a better streaming experience.
The Big 2030 Bet
Now here’s where things get interesting. According to to separate research by “3 Reasons”, Freely is apparently on track to become the UK’s largest TV device platform by 2030, serving as the primary platform in 7 million homes.
That sounds impressive until you realise Freeview currently reaches around 18 million homes. So how does 7 million homes make Freely the “largest” platform?
The answer may lie in what Everyone TV thinks will happen to the TV market over the next five years.
Traditional platforms like Freeview and Freesat will likely decline so sharply that the whole landscape fragments. Instead of one dominant platform, you’ll 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.
The projection assumes Freeview will lose its current dominance as terrestrial broadcasting gets phased out and the infrastructure costs become unsustainable. Whether that happens as quickly as predicted is anyone’s guess.
Supporting the optimism, nearly 8 in 10 people say they want Freely on their next TV, according to a YouGov survey from late July. But wanting it as a feature and actually using it as your main TV platform are different things entirely.
Going from half a million weekly users to being the primary platform in 7 million homes within five years is ambitious, to put it mildly. It requires not just rapid Freely adoption, but also the predicted collapse of traditional broadcasting happening on schedule.
Traditional TV Still Dominates
Traditional broadcasting isn’t disappearing overnight, according to the research. The national broadcasters – BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 – still make up 41% of all viewing time. YouTube manages 14% and Netflix just 8%.
So despite all the talk about “YouTube being the new TV,” British viewers are still overwhelmingly watching the same broadcasters they always have – they’re just increasingly doing so through streaming rather than traditional transmission.
The research also shows the lasting power of big TV moments. Mr Bates vs The Post Office was the most memorable programme when people were asked unprompted – 18 months after it first aired.
The 2025 Women’s Football Euros and Gavin & Stacey‘s Christmas finale also dominated the memorable moments list.
When it comes to news, traditional broadcasters maintain a huge lead over digital alternatives. The BBC tops trust ratings at 68%, with ITV and Channel 4 both hitting 58%.
Meanwhile, individuals posting on YouTube and TikTok scored just 29%.
The Generational Challenge
While Freely’s growth among younger viewers looks promising for its 2030 ambitions, the flip side presents a significant challenge.
Older viewers – who often watch the most TV and rely most heavily on traditional services – are the slowest to adopt streaming platforms, including Freely.
This demographic gap explains why the BBC is exploring its own simplified Freely device, as we revealed last month.
Their accessibility-focused box would offer a more traditional TV experience while delivering content through streaming, potentially bridging the gap for viewers who find modern smart TV interfaces overwhelming.
What Happens Next
The standalone Freely box launching later this year will provide the first real test of mainstream appeal beyond new TV buyers.
Unlike requiring a new TV purchase, anyone with decent broadband will be able to try Freely for an as-yet-unannounced “affordable” price.
But the streaming-only approach of the new device also forces a stark choice – accept whatever channels Freely provides through streaming, or stick with traditional Freeview.
For viewers with poor aerial reception, that might actually be a welcome trade. For those who rely on niche channels or have patchy broadband, the calculation becomes more complex.
Whether half a million weekly users can become the primary platform in 7 million homes depends largely on two factors: making streaming TV as simple and reliable as traditional broadcasting, and the speed at which traditional infrastructure actually gets switched off.
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Freely needs to release an app for the existing smart boxes from Google, Apple, Roku and the like.
It’s use would certainly then explode
What’s the incentive? Nothing yet. So why would people move over to it if they are happy with their set up.
Which could suggest two possible reasons for people adopting Freely. One, they are not happy with their current set-up. Two, they have no current set-up (perhaps after moving home).
The thought of having to watch commercials fills me with dread life is too short for that. There is no reason why they cannot build ina recording function. They know everyone will pick up there phones during the commercials as they do now.
My Humax Aura has more channels, can record and is an Android TV.
Until it breaks or I move somewhere and the landlord won’t fit an aerial I have no reason to use Freely.
I have a cat, so it’ll never be a tower block. Which I see this would be great for.
I can see it being the norm one day but we’re talking a while when millions of houses have an an aerial or sky box, with a TV already.
If you’ve got the TV and aerial already there’s no need for Freely.
“This means most people are choosing to stick with Freely’s more limited channel lineup”
This isn’t evidence people are choosing to or much more likely they don’t realise you can plug in the aerial too.
They were told it doesn’t need an aerial, so aren’t looking.
Working in IT for all of my life you quickly learn non-technical people, which is most, just do what they now firstly or secondly what they were told.
Smartphones have a tonne of features people would find useful but do they look, no.
This isn’t evidence at all they’re choosing not to plug in their aerial.
Most of the extra channels are rubbish anyway, so I expect they don’t care when the main ones are only Freely.
I have Freely built into a Panasonic OLED TV bought earlier this year that uses Fire TV as the operating system: the Freely functionality is much in need of enhancements in my experience and usage without an aerial is inadequate.
Freely channels take a minute or two to start up and is very clunky: the TV runs in “hybrid” mode with an aerial, so Freeview channels are used in combination with Freely channels where available – so Freely provides HD channels that are not available via Freeview for example.
However these channels often freeze or stutter.
I wouldn’t be at all comfortable giving a Freely TV to an elderly person: aside from broadband requirements, the major benefit of Freeview is that the broadcast channels are just “there” once tuned in and the daily usage experience is stable.
Freely needs a lot of work put into it in the next few years to get anywhere near that in my experience.
Though we watch most of our TV through freeview recorder, I’m watching Freely develppments closely. The feature which will make or break it for me is the search capability.
Having access to lots of ondemand content sounds great, the ability to look for specific items is crucial for me as this is something the currently fragmented streaming market is missing.
As someone who has been in the TV/aerial/sat business for over 50 years we have seen some movement towards Freely but also back to Freeview with customers not happy with the current offering and more importantly no option to record and fast forward through adverts.
Another consideration is you are exposing your network to a (mostly) Chinese made product, very few people know how to combat that, similar to CCTV concerns.
Freely is for the benefit of the TV industry not the consumer. Those many Freeview viewers who enjoy recording programmes to watch and keep will lose this facility if Freeview is switched off. This means TV companies can remove programmes and films from their platforms at any time, leaving the viewer unable to enjoy them again. The spin being put into Freely is hilarious.
I agree that the lack of recording is a problem. But streaming has a lot of potential, which means it is likely that there will be a lot of competition, and that can only be good for consumers.
And who knows what will happen then?
As an early adopter of Freely we couldn’t be happier. We live in an valley in an area where traditional aerial signal has always been poor, and had to rely on an aging Freesat box for our TV. We finally get decent picture quality, and can put our (Hisense) Freely TV wherever we want, and don’t have to have an aged satellite dish on the wall or cables trapsing everywhere. Wins all round.
Just maybe there is another reason why people are choosing to stream live tv rather than via an aerial those niche channels you mention shopping channels etc. could be seen as unwanted jetsom and flotsom and with the constant having to retune this is all avoided with this streaming format plus the added advantage of being to put your tv anywhere there’s wi-fi
I agree with this. I suspect most linear/traditional TV viewers have no interest in venturing beyond the channels provided by BBC, ITV, C4, and 5. Freedom to put TV anywhere you want is also a good point.
I am definitely interested in the upcoming Freely boxes. We currently have Sky Q Multiroom, which is costing us nearly £800 a year, and looking at our viewing we now only watch a very few Sky channels.
We have the main box in the lounge and 3 separate boxes upstairs in 3 bedrooms. There are no aerial connections to these TV’s so the Freely box would be a perfect fix. We could ditch Sky completely and save a lot of money. The Wife is concerned about not being able to record. But we have just tried a Firestick for a week to see if we could live with Live TV and Catch up on that. Does anybody know when the Freely puck is due to be released? I know the press release said later this year but I am waiting now to end Sky and would not want to be without any TV upstairs. Thanks in advance.
I think it’s going to be a while before puck is out with freely or a stick. As it currently stands 2029 looks like big switch that’s when carriage agreements end with QVC and Uktv channels that will in my view excelrate close down of satellite for all channels that are not PSB channels. Which will make freesat go away faster and people will assuming it’s happening to freeview as well. So they get freely.