Freeview, operator of the U.K.’s biggest free TV content provider, Freeview Play, has racked up yet another impressive milestone, selling almost 23 million televisions since 2024, according to data from GfK’s PTV panel. Freeview said that’s enough TVs to cater to the entire combined population of the U.K’s five biggest cities – London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester. 

Readers may note of course that Freeview doesn’t actually sell TVs itself. Rather, the statistic relates to televisions that integrate the service. Freeview is a TV content provider that’s beamed directly into people’s homes via their aerials, providing access to more than 70 channels free of charge. Along with these traditional broadcasts, the company also operates the Freeview Play service, which is a streaming service that delivers content over broadband WiFi, giving viewers access to over 60,000 hours of on-demand content and more than 1,500 boxsets. 

Its platform offers content from BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, UKTV Play, Watch Free UK, PBS America, Great! player, S4C Clic1, STV Player, POP Player and BBC Sounds.  

The Freeview platform is run by an entity called Everyone TV, previously known as Digital U.K., which has three shareholders, namely the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Sky is also a shareholder of Freeview, while Channel 5 owns shared in Everyone TV. 

“Since launch, Freeview has continued to grow and bring the best of free TV into people’s homes,” said Owen Jenkinson, Director of Freeview, in relation to the new milestone. “This new milestone cements the appetite for free, accessible TV in the UK as new players and channels continue to be added to the service every year at no cost to viewers.”

The milestone comes as Freeview’s parent company is set to launch a new, free-to-view hybrid IP and broadcast platform called Freely, which will go online sometime within the next couple of months. Freely will bring a set-top box-like experience to web-enabled Smart TVs, and stream both live and on-demand content over the internet, similar to what Freeview Play already does. 

Freely is set to go up against alternatives such as Sky’s Glass TVs and Stream Box devices, which rely on WiFi to deliver premium content from Sky, including movies, live sports and entertainment. However, Freely will have a big advantage over Sky when it launches, as the service will be entirely free to access.