Freely: a great idea but rubbish execution!
Freely: A Great Idea, But Rubbish Execution!
Earlier this year, Freely—a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5—launched to not a lot of fanfare. While I love the concept behind it, they have completely botched the delivery of the platform.
I’ve written a couple of posts in relation to Freely and internet broadcasting in general before; if you’d like to have a read, you can check them out here.
Internet broadcasting is nothing new. It has been around for years in various forms, and now anyone has the ability to put out a live stream by simply clicking a button in the YouTube app. What is new, though, is bringing all the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) Live TV feeds together in one place—here in the UK, at least.
The Cord-Cutter's Dream?
As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, the Freely service has the potential to be amazing for cord-cutters like myself. No aerials or satellite dishes—just a Wi-Fi connection and a Freely-enabled TV.
And that, in my opinion, is where Everyone TV failed massively.
Unlike other tech gadgets like smartphones, consumers are highly unlikely to replace their TV every year. If manufacturers are lucky, a consumer might replace their TV once every five years. Most people I’ve spoken to regarding television hardware will only replace their TV when their current one has given up the ghost entirely.
The Smart TV Reality: One thing all these people have in common is that when they last replaced their TVs, they bought smart TVs because the feature came as standard.
The creation of a simple app would roll Freely out to practically every smart TV set in the UK overnight. It would also massively reduce the cost to broadcast for the major PSBs—eliminating the need to pay for physical transmitters, transmitter sites, and radio frequency licensing. Don't get me wrong, I know there's a cost to setting up and maintaining a streaming server, but it is significantly cheaper than the traditional over-the-air method.
Missing the Open-Source & App Openings
Rather than forcing a hardware upgrade, another brilliant option would be to publish a public list of video streams for the various channels. Then, users with a bit of technical knowledge could add them to an IPTV app, or use free, open-source software like xTeVe to import the feeds directly into Plex. They could even form an official partnership with Plex to include the Freely channels as part of Plex’s live streaming offering, complete with the Freely branding.
As much as I’d love that last option, I don’t think it will ever officially happen. But a dedicated app for Smart TVs or streaming boxes—such as the Apple TV—would absolutely have been the right way to go.
I may be in the market for a new TV soon, but I can almost guarantee a TV with Freely integrated out of the box will be well outside of our budget for the foreseeable future.
I’d love to know what you think! Please do either post a comment below or on the socials that brought you here.
