A MAJOR festive takeover has begun on a popular free TV service backed by Channel 4.
And three different channels are getting a seasonal makeover with “non-stop Christmas specials” promised.
It’s all happening over on Freely, which is a free service that launched in 2024.
The service comes courtesy of a partnership between TV giants including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5.
And it’s built into plenty of TV models – and more recently, plug-in boxes.
Now three Freely channels are getting a festive takeover for the Christmas season.
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“4Reality, 4Homes and 4Life, the three Channel 4 streaming channels that sit exclusively on Freely, will be having a festive takeover,” Channel 4 told The Sun.
The first channel change went live back on December 10, and will run right through until January 6.
That’s 4Life, which has been rebranded as 4Christmas.
Channel 4 says it will be delivering “three weeks of non-stop Christmas Specials”.
That includes content from series like:
- The Great British Bake Off: Festive Specials
- Great Pottery Throwdown
- Kirstie’s Handmake Christmas
- The Dog House at Christmas
- Travel Man
- Jamie Cooks Christmas
- Jamie’s Christmas Shortcuts
The other two channels are rolling out Christmas content from today until Boxing Day.
First up is 4Homes, which says it has “non-stop Christmas content”, which includes:
- Chateau DIY at Christmas
- George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces Christmas Specials
- Sarah Beeney’s New Life in the Country Christmas Special
And finally there’s 4Reality, which is getting a Married at First Sight UK takeover.
What channels are on Freely?
Freely, the new free streaming service backed by Britain’s public service broadcasters will include the following channels:
- BBC One
- BBC Two
- ITV1 (England, Wales, Scottish Borders)
- STV (Scottish and Grampian)
- UTV (Northern Ireland)
- Channel 4
- S4C (Wales)
- Channel 5
- ITV2
- ITV3
- BBC ALBA
- BBC Three
- BBC Four
- BBC Scotland
- Film4
- E4
- More4
- 4seven
- ITV4
- ITVBe
- 5STAR
- 5Action
- 5USA
- 5SELECT
- BBC NEWS
- BBC Parliament
- CBBC HD
- CBeebies HD
And plenty more too.
And that includes ell episodes of series one to three, including First Dates Christmas specials.
Once the Christmas takeovers end on these channels, they’ll revert to their usual programming.
Freely is available on lots of TV models and streams television using your internet connection rather than a dish or aerial.
You can get it on new TV sets form the likes of Hisense, Bush, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, Metz and TCL.
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Here’s some bill-slashing advice from The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach…
If you’re like me, you’ll be paying out more than you’d like on subscriptions each month.
It’s easy to lose track of where all the money goes, and the fear of missing out makes it hard to bin Netflix.
But if you’re paying for several streaming services, you’re making a big mistake.
Instead, try something called stream swapping.
Cancel all of your TV subscriptions except for Netflix, then burn through all of the telly you want to watch on the app.
Then cancel that and sign up for another service, like Disney+.
Watch all of the good stuff there and then move on, perhaps to Amazon Video.
Do this with three or four apps and then cycle back to Netflix at the start.
This way, you get to watch all of the top content on each app but you’re not paying for them all at the same time.
And you might even get to take advantage of some attractive sign-up offers too.
It could save you hundreds each year if you stick to it.
And Freely also struck a deal with Amazon for its Fire TVs.
Recently, the Pleio box launched in the UK, which allowed you to plug a device into TVs to add the Freely service.
