CONNECTED VISION
Sky advises turning off terrestrial television
Pay television provider Sky has published research suggesting that the United Kingdom can move fully to online television in the 2030s. It says that only about a third of a million households will be left, if the government sets a clear timetable and invests in targeted help for those most at risk of digital exclusion. Sky has little interest in digital terrestrial television but does face its own challenge in migrating satellite television subscribers to its own Sky Glass and Sky Stream online platform.
The Sky research was commissioned from Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, which previously produced a report for Everyone TV that projected that Freely would be the biggest television device platform in the country by the end of the decade.
Its latest report Stream On: The future of UK TV concludes that every household in the United Kingdom could have access to online television by the mid-2030s. It suggests that a ‘nightlight’ digital terrestrial television or satellite service would be costly and little used, with minimal audience demand.
It says consumers would prefer the government to focus on digital inclusion than maintaining a legacy broadcast system.
The report notes that 94% of homes in the United Kingdom had home internet access in 2024 and 76% have a smart television.
However, that does not mean that most homes receive television channels online. In fact, the report notes that in 2023, only 3.7% of homes exclusively used online linear television channels on their primary television set, while two thirds of homes used some form of hybrid reception.
The government is currently considering options for the future of television distribution in the United Kingdom and is due to report soon.
Nick Herm, the group chief operating officer at Sky, said: “This research shows that modern TV and social inclusion can go hand in hand. A full move to internet-delivered TV in the 2030s is achievable — and it can help close the digital divide rather than deepen it.”
He said government investment in skills and affordable connectivity for the relatively small number of households who still need help to get online will have benefits far beyond television, while saving hundreds of millions on maintaining legacy systems.
One might wonder what Sky, as a subscription service provider, could possibly gain from turning off terrestrial transmitters and encouraging people to migrate to online alternatives.
Perhaps the more pressing question for Sky is how it plans to migrate the rest of its subscribers from satellite services to its online platform without losing them to alternative providers.
A campaign backed by the government to support a second digital switchover might help.
Stream On: The future of UK TV by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates is available from its web site.
BBC announces interim director general
The BBC has confirmed that Tim Davie will leave the board as director general in April, following his resignation last November. Former BBC director of nations Rhodri Talfan Davies will take over as interim director general and the process to appoint a replacement is under way.
“There will be a time to celebrate Tim and thank him for his extraordinary contribution to the BBC nearer his departure date,” wrote BBC Chair Samir Shah in a note to staff. “Until then, Tim continues to lead the corporation through this critical period as we prepare our response to the government’s consultation on its Green Paper on the future of the BBC Charter.”
He described Rhodri as “an outstanding leader who brings deep editorial experience and a passionate commitment to the power of public service broadcasting to reach and represent audiences across all parts of the UK”. Currently on secondment in a role exploring generative artificial intelligence, he will join the BBC board as an executive director as he prepares to take on the responsibilities of interim director general.
As director of nations, Davies had responsibility for nations and local audiences in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. Born in Cardiff, He was previously director of BBC Cymru Wales, of which his father was a former controller. From grammar school he gained a degree in history at Oxford and went on to study journalism at Cardiff University.
His interim appointment comes at a time that the BBC will be negotiating its future as the government reviews future funding options. The current BBC charter is due to expire at the end of 2027.
Speaking to The Guardian, Tim Davie said the BBC will face “profound jeopardy” over its future unless it embraces significant changes to its funding. He has opposed the idea of advertising or subscription, or to splitting up the BBC by genre. “That would be the end of public service broadcasting,” he said.
The BBC chair Samir Shar has previously suggested switching to a household levy that could be collected through council tax.
Tim Davie resigned in November 2025 in the fallout over the editing of a Panorama programme that led to a defamation lawsuit for $5 billion from President Trump, which the BBC is seeking to have thrown out.
The search for his replacement continues.
Manhattan Aero Freely box
A new online-only Freely box has been launched by Manhattan. With a recommended retail priced of £69.99, it provides an inexpensive plugin option for any television with an HDMI connection. No aerial is required as the services are delivered online over a fixed or wireless connection.
Until now, Freely has only been available on certain new television models. Notably, market leaders Samsung and LG do not support Freely and may never do so.
The small Freely box will convert a television to use Freely through an HDMI input, bypassing any existing connected television user interface.
It works over the internet, so can be used in homes or rooms without a traditional television antenna connection. It just needs a power socket and a wired or wireless internet connection, with support for Wi-Fi 6..
The Freely platform, supported by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, now offers over 60 television channels, 35 of which are in high definition. It provides on demand services through the separate applications of the respective broadcasters.
You can pause live channels for up to 15 minutes, but they cannot be recorded, although programmes on some channels can be restarted from the beginning.
The £69.99 price point significantly undercuts the cost of a similar PLEIO box from Netgem, which was launched at £99 but has varied in price from anything up to £130 since.
It still costs more than inexpensive streaming sticks that can also be used to upgrade existing televisions, but which do not generally support broadcast channels.
Devices like this will be important if Freely is to be widely adopted by the millions of homes in the United Kingdom that are currently dependent on Freeview digital terrestrial television.
The Manhattan Aero uses the TiVo OS, which includes TiVo+ with access to 400 online channels, as well as apps from YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and others. It includes a remote control that supports voice interaction.
This could be a game changer for Freely, which reached a million weekly users over the Christmas period. That represents a market penetration of around 3-4% in the 18 months since it launched in May 2024.