Roku has announced that many of its new TVs sold in the U.K. will be shipped with the Freely TV free video streaming service that’s supported by the country’s major broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
While the partnership doesn’t appear to include every single Roku TV, the Freely app will soon be pre-installed on televisions sold by brands such as Sharp, JVC, Metz and Polaroid, providing free access to tons of live TV channels streamed over the web.
The deal adds further momentum to the broader shift among TV broadcasters to deliver their content over the web, instead of using traditional over-the-air broadcasting technologies. Roku said it believes the addition of Freely will help it to strengthen its footprint in the highly comptitieve U.K. TV market, because it’s convinced that this is where the future of broadcasting lays.
“Roku believes that all TV will be streamed," said the company’s U.K. country manager, Richard Halton. “We look forward to unveiling our new Roku TV models with Freely built-in, which will be available from UK retailers this summer."
If you’re not yet familiar with Freely, the signs suggest that it won’t be long until you are. It’s an independent streaming service created by the U.K.’s major free broadcasters, set up to stream live content over broadband instead of a traditional aerial.
The service is slowly but surely going to replace the more familiar, satellite-based FreeView Play platform, offering online features such as the ability to rewind live TV shows backwards or go back in time via broadcaster’s electronic programming guides to watch older shows. Simply select the show you missed, such as last week’s episode of Coronation Street, and it will take you directly to the ITV’s streaming player – ITVX, where you can watch it. Users will be redirected to the broadcaster’s own streaming platform every time, so in the case of BBC programs it would take you to the iPlayer.
Such an enormous library of free live and on-demand TV is proving irresistible to most TV manufacturer, which is why Freely can also be found on TVs made by brands including Philips, Panasonic, TCL, Sharp, Hisense and JVC, as well as new Amazon Fire TVs and now, Roku TVs. It’s said that TiVo, creator of a new TV operating system set up to rival Roku and others, such as Google TV, is also exploring a deal with Freely.
Jonathon Thompson, chief executive of Everyone TV, the company that runs the Freely platform, said the partnership with Roku is a “major milestone” as it strives to expand the reach of its services.
“We’re delighted that such a huge global plater as Roku has recognised the importance of easy and seamless access to public service broadcast content for U.K. audiences, and I look forward to seeing Freely smart TVs with Roku in the market this summer,” he added.
