The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
Freely’s success will depend on good hardware
F
reely is the key to switching
the UK from traditional, linear
TV broadcasting to IP/Internet
TV. But what is Freely? The official
Freely website (www.freely.co.uk/
how-freely-works) is aimed at those
with a short attention span, with next
to no nitty-gritty:
Less scrrrrrrrrolling, more streaming. No more getting your detective
on to track down your next fave
across different apps. Save loads
of time by finding everything in
one place. Use the new MiniGuide
to whizz from the latest season of
The Traitors, to Love Island, or even
The Great British Bake Off. If you
needed an excuse to get out of going
out, it’s this!
I have done my best to get more
details and noted the obstacles, if
only for easy reference if – I fear
when – things go wrong. Although
Freely is clever, there looks to be
plenty of room for that.
The technology bundles Freeview
Digital Terrestrial broadcast TV channels with a selection of streamed
channels. The company behind the
technology is Everyone TV, until
2023 known as Digital UK. This is a
joint venture owned and supported
by the UK’s leading public service
broadcasters: the BBC, ITV, Channel
4 and Channel 5.
Some 20 years ago, Digital UK
handled the huge tasks of digital
switchover and launching Freeview
from digital terrestrial masts and
Freesat, the same satellites used by
Sky for pay viewing.
At that time, Digital UK saw the
value of providing technical journalists with solid facts on the issues and
answers to technical questions. So
Digital UK employed an ex-technical
journalist who understood what
technical journalists needed to know
and where to find technically solid
answers to questions.
The switchover went more smoothly than anyone dared hope, and David
Scott, then CEO of Digital UK, was
justly knighted in 2013.
Everyone/Freely launched in
2024 with a speech by current CEO
Jonathan Thompson at the Digital
Television Group (DTG) Conference
and now describes itself as “the
Practical Electronics | May | 2026
organisation leading the evolution
of free TV in the UK”.
Sadly, there has been little communication between Everyone/Freely
and the technical press. Freely employs a publicity agency, which
describes itself as specialising in
entertainment, arts and culture.
Freely’s own press staff appear to
have little interest in, or understanding of, the technology that makes
Freely tick. Some of the companies
selling Freely hardware are equally
difficult to talk to.
Viewers are used to near-instant
switching between live broadcast
channels. However, some delay is
inevitable when streaming live TV
because the incoming IP stream
must be buffered and processed.
Freely combines both broadcast
and IP delivery, so delays may be
uncomfortably obvious.
The amount of memory and processing power inside Freely hardware is inevitably fixed at the time
of manufacture. The software and
firmware can be updated, but not the
electronics. This is why smart TVs
and HDMI bolt-on streaming devices,
like Roku and Amazon Fire sticks,
become obsolete. The saving grace
is that these sticks have generally
been relatively cheap.
So far, at least, Freely bolt-on
devices are expensive. The first
to appear, Netgem’s Pleio ‘puck’,
costs around £100, largely because
it has gaming features not everyone needs.
The ‘cheaper’ Aero from Manhattan
costs around £70. The Humax AuraEZ
4K Recorder with “Built-in Freely”
costs £250 (https://humaxdirect.
co.uk/products/humax-auraez-4kfreely-recorder). Humax’s advertising says:
Just plug in and Aura EZ is ready
to watch in minutes. Record up
to four channels at a time while
watching a fifth live, when connected to an aerial..Generous 2TB
hard drive stores up to 1,000 hours
of recordings.
The Humax Aura EZ app will
make it simple for Aura EZ owners to navigate, plan and schedule
recordings remotely from anywhere,
so the shows and movies they love
most will always be available to
watch – even on the go...no aerial
or dish required.
However, the ‘small print’ warns:
“The recording feature on Aura
EZ requires an aerial.....Recording
is not compatible with the Freely
platform.”
Humax has a tech-savvy spokeswoman who explains: “The recording function is via the aerial and the
Freely part is a separate interface.
They do overlap in that you can be
in the Freely interface and press the
record button, which then brings
up a guide overlaid on the top, so
it’s integrated in that way. But you
cannot record any Freely channels”.
Although Freely’s website is frustratingly fluffy, it promises clearly:
“All you need is Wi-Fi”.
Will customers read the Humax
small print carefully? Or will they
buy a Humax-with-Freely recorder,
try unsuccessfully to record a stream,
and return the box for a refund? The
telltale will be whether Amazon
sells the Aura but adds the standard
customer warning about “high return
rates”.
Manhattan, a company which also
has a tech-savvy spokesperson, explains: “There is no aerial input..
(on the Aura)...our view is that when
you’re buying a Freely box, you’re
specifically choosing streaming-first
TV. Including an aerial socket would
have...created a less optimal experience, because Freely TVs with both
options prioritise the aerial signal
– meaning you lose the ability to
pause live TV...”
So far, the only radio stations on
Freely are from the BBC. However,
as Manhattan explains, “if you go
to ‘all apps’ on the Manhattan Aero,
‘Radioline’ is included and it has a
wide range of stations. It’s a global
network but knows you’re in the UK
and provides accordingly. There are
also apps like Capital FM, Classic
FM, Heart and others on the Manhattan Aero.”
This is all starting to sound rather
complicated...
The BBC uses a wide variety of
data rates for different applications.
The main BBC stations (inside the
UK with HQ Geoblock, via internet
continued on page 25...
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