The Netgem Pleio – the UK’s first standalone Freely streaming box – has had its June content drop, and Netgem has timed this one squarely around the summer of sport.
There’s a new World Cup hub built into the interface, a no-login live sports channel, six more games, and an on-demand home for one of reality TV’s most chaotic families.
It arrives at a busy moment for Freely boxes in general. Two weeks ago the rival Manhattan Aero finally got HBO Max, closing one of the Pleio’s clearer advantages.
And this week the government published its green paper on switching off Freeview, naming a preferred date of December 31, 2034 – which puts standalone boxes like the Pleio more in the spotlight than ever, as one of the main ways onto Freely without buying a new TV.
So this month’s update is worth a proper look. Here’s everything that’s new, plus an update on a NOW app message that’s worried a few Pleio owners this week.
A Quick Reminder: What Is The Pleio?
Freely is Everyone TV’s streaming platform – the organisation behind Freeview and Freesat – designed to eventually replace both.
Rather than pulling channels in through an aerial or a dish, it delivers them over your broadband connection, with BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5 and 60-plus other channels in a single programme guide, and seven days of catch-up built in.
Until November 2025, you could only get Freely by buying a new smart TV. The Pleio changed that. It’s a small streaming puck that plugs into any TV’s HDMI port and brings Freely to screens that would otherwise never see it – no aerial, no new television required.
On top of Freely, it runs Android TV 14 with full Google Play Store access, so Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video and hundreds of other apps sit alongside your live channels. It also comes with a wireless gamepad and access to 300-plus cloud games through the Pleio Extra subscription – free for 12 months with the device, and £9.99/month after that. All for a permanent £99.
I reviewed the Pleio back in November and gave it 4 out of 5 stars – a useful first attempt with some rough edges, and clear room to grow. The core Freely service, as always, remains free forever.
What Was New In May
For anyone who missed last month’s drop, May was headlined by NBA Bounce, an arcade basketball game that landed neatly alongside the NBA Playoffs streaming on BBC iPlayer.
It was joined by Backpack Hero, Dome Keeper, Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart and The Patrick Star Game, plus four new FAST channels – The Osbournes, Baby Shark TV, Adrenaline+ and Unbeaten.
The pattern, by now, is a familiar one. Netgem treats the Pleio as an ongoing platform rather than a one-and-done piece of hardware, with a fresh batch of games, channels and features arriving every month.
June keeps that going, with a clear theme this time.
The FanZone: A World Cup Hub Built Into The Pleio
The centrepiece of the June update is the FanZone, a curated football area built directly into the Pleio’s interface and timed for the World Cup (similar to what Roku did this year).
It pulls a few things together. In partnership with DAZN, viewers get access to full match highlights, classic matches and football documentaries via FIFA+.
There are also World Cup-themed casual games that drop into the UI during half-time breaks, and a Pleio 2026 Sweepstake – an in-UI competition where you predict the tournament winner for a chance to win an official national jersey.
A “Flag Row” feature, letting you click your country’s flag to surface nation-specific content, is listed as coming soon.
Furthermore, the FanZone doesn’t just gather classic matches and documentaries – it surfaces the real BBC and ITV World Cup coverage directly, with rows of live match tiles and highlights that deep-link you straight into BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
The BBC’s “Official Broadcaster” banner sits front and centre, with a “Watch on iPlayer” link right there. So the live games stay with the BBC and ITV, as they always have in the UK – both already part of Freely – but the FanZone pulls that coverage into one place alongside the highlights, documentaries and games, rather than sending you off to find it yourself.
A New Free Live Sports Channel
Alongside the FanZone, Netgem has added a Free Live Sports channel to the Pleio’s FAST lineup. The pitch is zero friction – no login and no subscription – giving every viewer instant access to sport including the World Cup, athletics, tennis and cricket.
Of course, a free, ad-supported channel like this isn’t going to be carrying live Premier League or live World Cup matches, which sit behind broadcast rights deals elsewhere.
What it offers is a rolling mix of sports content you can dip into without signing up to anything, which has its place when there’s a gap in the live schedule.
The Osbournes, Now On Demand
The Osbournes arrived as a FAST channel back in May, and this month it also moves into the Pleio’s On Demand row. So as well as the live channel, you can now pick individual episodes of the show that followed Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack around their famously disorderly household, and watch them on your own schedule.
It’s a small addition rather than a headline one, but it’s the kind of catalogue depth that makes the FAST side of the Pleio more useful over time.
Six New Games
The cloud gaming library gets six more titles this month, and it’s a varied bunch:
- Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion
- DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace
- Bee Simulator
- The Hong Kong Massacre
- Jewel Match Solitaire Seasons (Collector’s Edition)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Final Answer DLC
Most of these sit comfortably with what Netgem’s own data tells us about Pleio gamers – casual, family-friendly, pick-up-and-put-down stuff.
That NOW App Message: What’s Going On
Finally, something a few of you have written to me about this week. The NOW app on the Pleio has started showing an alert on startup, headed “We’re saying goodbye to this device,” and stating that NOW will not be supported on the device from 28 July 2026.
Understandably, that’s caused some concern. NOW is the route to Sky’s content – Sky Atlantic shows, Sky Cinema, Sky Sports – and losing it would be a real blow to anyone relying on the Pleio for it (especially with Manhattan’s Aero ALSO not yet supporting NOW).
I went to Netgem to find out what’s happening. Their response is that this is a technical glitch on Sky’s side, that they’re working through it with Sky, and that the app is not going to be withdrawn from the Pleio.
In other words, the message is an error rather than an actual retirement, and NOW is staying put according to them.
If you’re a Pleio owner seeing that screen, you can press OK and carry on as normal for now. I’ll keep updating if anything changes.
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