The BBC has published its annual plan outlining its strategic and creative priorities for the coming year. This also provides background context on the media market in which the BBC operates. The report notes that “we are well on the way to digital transition” although we might observe that television has been completely digital since 2012. There is only a very brief mention of Freely, the online television platform launched last year.

The BBC and other public service broadcasting partners launched Freely in 2024, which it describes as an IP-delivered TV service offering live and on-demand content to help ease the transition for audiences.

The report says: “Freely has gained traction in the UK market, and it is forecast to grow at a compounded annual rate of 66% between 2024-2033, making up 48% of primary sets in 2033.”

“Freely is projected to account for c45% of total Linear IP viewing (watching live, scheduled content via Internet Protocol) in 2029,” it continues, citing a forecast from MTM 3 Reasons.

The projected adoption of Freely is worthy of closer examination. It implies that the number of homes adopting Freely will more than double every year and a half.

Freely launched just under a year ago at the end of April 2024. It was positioned as the natural successor to Freeview. No sales or adoption figures have been published, but indications are that they are underwhelming.

Although Hisense was a launch partner, and the Freely app is available on some sets from Bush, Panasonic, Sharp, TCL, and Toshiba, with an integration on sets using Amazon Fire OS announced. Big names like Samsung and LG, which between them account for about half of the market, have yet to show their support. Others, including Sony, have yet to support Freely.

A quick check of the leading electrical retailer Currys shows that they range 547 television models from 13 brands, including 161 from LG and 125 from Samsung. There are 64 Freely models, of which 34 are from Hisense, 26 from Panasonic, and 4 from TCL. The most popular is good value Hisense 55″ model for £289. The most expensive is a Hisense 110″ model for an extraordinary £18,999.

So, is it likely that Freely will make up nearly half of primary television sets in homes across the United Kingdom in 2033?

At the time of the Freely launch in April 2024, there were an estimated 28.73 million households in the United Kingdom. Of these, around 26.88 million, or 94%, were estimated to have a television.

Assuming no growth in population, which seems unlikely, for Freely to make up 48% of primary sets in 2033, would mean 12.90 million homes in the United Kingdom. Working backwards from that, with a 66% CAGR between 2024 and 2033, implies about 135,000 homes with Freely at end of 2024, or about 190,000 a year after launch. That is not a significant number of homes in television terms.

For the forecast to be correct, over 5 million Freely television sets would need to be sold in 2033.

We estimate that between 6-8 million television sets are sold annually in the United Kingdom. Peak sales were reached during the pandemic.

In order to reach the projected penetration, the majority of sets towards the end of the period would need to support Freely. Even if that were the case, it would represent a penetration of less than half of television households in that time frame.

In comparison, almost all televisions sold in the United Kingdom support Freeview and the digital terrestrial television platform.

Freeview reached about 50% penetration within four years of launch, but that was driven by a number of factors. Digital terrestrial television made available many more channels, in widescreen, and there was a clear indication that the analogue television channels that it replaced would be switched off. There was also retail industry alignment and relatively little market competition.

Freely lacks these drivers and is entering a fragmented and saturated market.

In the current absence of a clear policy change to turn off digital terrestrial transmissions, or a clearly differentiated value proposition to consumers, the projected level of growth for Freely appears hard to justify.

Some may remember that YouView was launched back in 2012 as the previous successor to Freeview. After more than a dozen years, there are about 0.2 million YouView households and about another 1.1 million BT Vision and TalkTalk homes.

A key question for the BBC and other broadcasters is what is different about Freely?

The BBC Annual Plan 2025/26 is available for download from the BBC web site.

www.bbc.co.uk
www.freely.co.uk

The largest owner of low-power television stations in the United States has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to allow the use of 5G Broadcast as a voluntary alternative to ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 transmission standards. It sees an opportunity to repurpose valuable UHF spectrum for use with 5G networks.

HC2 Broadcast Holdings owns 200 low-power television stations across the United States. It currently carries programming from over 60 networks.

The company, which is part of Innovate Corp, has been conducting experimental 5G Broadcast transmissions in Fort Wayne in Indiana under an experimental authorisation.

The company says that tests confirm strong signal reception for up to 20 miles from the transmitter, even while travelling at more than 60 miles an hour on the highway.

The petition proposes that low-power television stations be permitted to use the 5G Broadcast transmission standard on a voluntary basis.

While the proposal includes a requirement to deliver at least one free-to-air standard definition signal, it calls for the commission to examine whether to allow all 6 MHz of low-power television spectrum to be exclusively devoted to datacasting.

The proposal is limited to low-power television stations, mitigating any impact on the rollout of ATSC 3.0 by full power stations.

“For too long, broadcasters have been restricted by the Commission from making market-based decisions that will allow their businesses to be more viable and benefit the public,” the petition says.

The proposal acknowledges that televisions capable of receiving 5G Broadcast signals without the use of additional equipment are not yet available, although they might be eventually, depending on market conditions.

It goes on to say that “even though the concept of solely ‘in the home’ TV viewing may now be considered quaint, the marketplace of TV ‘receivers’ in today’s world is now essentially anyone with a handheld compatible 5G device, in any location”.

“5G Broadcast will over time be available to the hundreds of millions of mobile screens that already receive 5G signals, and thus consumers will already have the built-in capability to access the content that 5G LPTV broadcasters will provide.”

Effectively, HC2 is asking for permission to cease ATSC 1.0 television channels and use the spectrum for 5G Broadcast, on the assumption that this will make more valuable use of allocated spectrum.

In the current political climate, there is the possibility that such a petition could be favourably received.

The petition Authorizing permissive use of 5G Broadcast as a transmission standard for Low Power Television Stations is available on the FCC web site.

hc2broadcasting.com
www.fcc.gov

Comcast Media360 aims to streamline video operations for broadcasters and media providers. Announced in advance of the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Comcast Technology Solutions is offering a solution to consolidate video management workflows, increase efficiency, and lower costs across live and on-demand delivery.

In recent decades, broadcast operations have become increasingly complex, with multiple internal and external systems, workflows, and vendors all required to reach viewers. New back-end systems were bolted onto legacy systems, creating increased complexity, duplicating effort and increasing cost.

We see this all the time, where online operations have developed separately to the main media operations of traditional broadcasters.

Comcast Media360 was designed to simplify and address these opportunities, with a 24/7 managed service.

The inputs can be live events, studio shows, or stored media. The outputs can include linear channels, including new online platforms, video on demand services, and branded applications.

By providing a single point of ingest for any video title, and its associated files, the service enables broadcasters and media owners to streamline content processing, title management, channel origination, playout, and delivery.

“Broadcasters and content owners around the globe recognize the need to make their video operations less duplicative and more cost-efficient, but so many remain trapped by the complexity of their legacy back-end systems,” observed Bart Spriester of Comcast Technology Solutions.

“Efforts to effectively streamline broadcast and streaming operations have been a holy grail for broadcasters and content owners for some time,” said Maria Rua Aguete of research company Omdia. “Now, however, it’s becoming an economic necessity. Media companies must adopt a consumer-first strategy that is equally effective at reaching viewers across online video and traditional TV, via social, mobile, and home entertainment devices.”

The solution comprises Comcast MediaExpress, a newly launched video on demand management and distribution services, the CTS Cloud Video Platform, and Comcast MediaOrigination channel management system.

Comcast Technology Solutions is a division of Comcast Corporation, which owns NBCUniversal and the Sky Group.

www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com