Since its launch in 2024, Freely has been adding to its roster of TV partners in the UK, and it’s announced another one. And it’s a pretty big partner.
Freely has partnered with Roku to bring its free streaming platform to Roku TVs from June onwards.
This aggreement will see Freely available on Roku-branded TVs from Sharp, JVC and Metz; while it’ll be on Polaroid TVs for the first time. They join a sizeable list of already announced TVs from Amazon, Bush, Hisense, JVC, Metz, Panasonic, Philips, Sharp, TCL, and Toshiba; while also being available on Titan OS, TiVo and VIDAA platforms.
Where you won’t find Freely is on TVs from Samsung, which has its own TV Plus service, while LG has cut short its aggreement with Freeview Play to develop its own LG Channels streaming platform. Freely, meanwhile, has failed to come to an aggreement with Google TV which means a raft of models don’t support all the catch-up and on-demand apps in the UK.
This makes the continuing evolution of the at-home TV experience as it moves towards delivering content over the Internet rather than broadcasts through the antennae. You can use an antennae with TVs that support Freely, but really it’s more of a backup than the way to watch.
The likes of BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX and others are all available through Freely, live streams that can be paused, with rewind functionality for those who want to catch up on things they missed.
More features are being added on a regular basis with its ‘backwards TV guide’ and ‘Never Miss’ features two that were added in the previous update.
Competition or just sharing the streaming love?
To me it’s something of a surprise to see Freely become available on Roku TVs as I would have expected it be a competitor to Roku in the streaming space.
After all, Roku doesn’t struggle in terms of its support for the UK on-demand apps; and Roku has its own free streaming platform embedded within its interface.
But free content that’s more easily accessible is proving to be an attractive selling point for many TVs. Given the likes of Netflix and HBO Max (when it launches) are among the more expensive streaming services, free models such as Tubi and Pluto TV offer an alternative.
And if you wait long enough, the shows that were available on Disney+ and Paramount+ tend to come to free services… eventually.
