What is Freeview Play? If you live in the UK, chances are you're familiar with Freeview, the UK's free digital broadcaster. It's true! Free! Unlike paid subscription services (Netflix, Disney Plus and others), Freeview Play offers a portal to UK TV programming without you having to spend a dime. The joint venture between the UK's largest broadcasters was, when it launched in 2002, the only way to access digital television without paying a monthly cable or satellite subscription. However, 16 years later, the picture is much different, and while the platform is still as strong, there is less emphasis on people's access to digital TV (which is now the only option after the deactivation of analog in 2012). ), but more to make it easier for users to access video-on-demand services through the Freeview Play platform. It seems to be working, with Freeview Play device sales topping five million in the UK in 2018 and closing 2019 with almost 7 million users.
Start with the guide
The heart of the Freeview Play ecosystem is the same TV Guide (or Electronic Program Guide - EPG) you've been using for years. You can scroll forward to see what's happening just like you would traditionally with Freeview, but what's different with Freeview Play is that you can scroll back too. Scrolling Back allows you to stream shows over the Internet via retrieval services, though exactly how the interface is configured varies depending on the hardware you're using (more on that later).
For example, on the 2017 Panasonic TV model we were using, each day appears in columns, allowing you to scroll horizontally to quickly cover multiple days. Then scroll up and down to select the particular show you want to watch. However, depending on the hardware manufacturer you're using, the interface can work very differently, allowing you to scroll through programs from left to right and cycle up and down through different channels. . Although update services such as iPlayer currently allow you to quickly and easily restart a running program, this feature is not available through Freeview Play. However, the Freeview team told me that it was a feature they would be very interested in implementing in the future.
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According to the Freeview team, Play currently provides access to the vast majority of the most watched programs in Britain. BBC, ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5 are on board, and more recently, the UKTV suite of channels have been added, including access to UKTV Gold and Dave. That being said, there are still channels that are not included. Many of these channels are types of channels you'll never want to watch catch-up services for (such as chain stores like QVC), but are also missing pay TV channels like Sky wallet (as these are pay TV offered outside of TNT ). Ideally, it would be great to see the service cover 100% of TV in the country, but the reality of the pay-TV market means that this will probably never be the case.Much depends on the individual repair services.
Although Freeview Play aims to present a clean and unified experience, it ultimately relies on recovery services to provide its functionality. This means that when you scroll through your EPG and select a show, it will start its own update service to start reading it. While this means you still get the same great iPlayer service through Play, it means there are unhappy blind spots in programming.
It depends a lot on the manufacturers.
We explored this earlier with how different program guides are presented, but because Freeview Play is a platform rather than a single piece of software, the experience can vary greatly between different hardware components. and different manufacturers. With 19 of the top 20 manufacturers now supporting Freeview Play, that makes a world of difference. For the most part, these differences are simple changes like the look and feel of the different sections, but sometimes they can be a bit more fundamental.
Conservation and research
Beyond the EPG, Freeview Play will also try to introduce you to content you may not be immediately aware of through its Freeview Explore section. Here you'll find organized lists of shows sorted by genre, which Freeview says will let you find new content to watch, even if you're on a channel you wouldn't normally be watching. However, if you want to find content you're already familiar with, Freeview also has extended search functionality built in to make it as quick and easy as possible to find it, no matter what channel you're on. When we searched for a show we knew was available on multiple channels, Freeview Play certainly found all instances of the show, but the way it displayed that information was a bit random. This shouldn't be a problem for most shows, but if you're trying to find Great British Bake Off to watch, the amount of replays shown on different channels can confuse the software.