Freely - will this impact Glass and Sky Stream

[Exiled-in-HH]

Unlike Freesat which was a company owned by the BBC and ITV that was sold to Everyone TV ... Freeview is a brand part owned by Sky or have Sky sold their share?

[Jason+Golding]

Bad use of words by me. No it wasn't a collaboration between sky and Freeview but Sky clearly wanted to have a pay element within Freeview - that's my point as to why they may want to have a pay element with Freely. Anyway time will tell 

[Jason+Golding]

Freesat and Freeview are the same company - wholly owned by ITV, 4, 5 and BBC. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

Freeview was never a company it is a brand owned in part by Sky unless Sky have sold their share!

Even Freesat no longer exists as a company it changed its name to Everyone TV Devices Limited!

[Jason+Golding]

@Exiled-in-HH @That's what I just said 

[SlenderRobert]

I think we need to wait to find out exactly what form Freely takes. 

At the moment all the press releases talk about it being on next year's smart TV's. Some articles mention it simply being an app. 

It'll probably turn out to be something like the existing Samsung TV+ service or the 'live' element of Amazon Freevee or Pluto TV which incorporates an EPG with live streams of various channels. Freely will simply give you the live streams of all the main DTT channels and a Freeview Play-like experience of links to apps from the EPG to watch content that is already available on iPlayer/ITVX/Channel4/My5 etc. 

The biggest potential impact on Glass/Stream will be if Freely becomes a standalone app available on Firesticks/Roku/AppleTV etc devices. If it does then it'll be much more appealling to those of us who don't watch sport or much Sky exclusive content.

The TV Launcher app for example on Apple TV boxes is the closest thing you can get on that device to an EPG with links to third party apps to watch catch-up content. To watch live TV it still requires the individual app for that channel to open - you can't flick up and down the channels from BBC2 to ITV1 to Channel 4 for example without each app (iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4) opening first. 

A dedicated Freely app with live streams of all the free-to-air DTT channels will appeal to all those people who want to save money, can't have a dish or aerial and want a full IPTV service. 

Freely doesn't need nor want pay-TV services embedded within it. The clue is in its name. 

NOW, Prime, Netflix, Disney+ etc will always remain as separate apps. It wouldn't surprise me if some TV brands start augmenting their own OS's and adding a playlist-type option so that content can be added from the Freely EPG to it, along perhaps, with content from other apps, in much the same way as Sky Glass/Stream does. There's been a basic watchlist of sorts on Freeview Play already for years, and the Up Next rail on Apple TV is the same so it's not an exclusive to Sky Stream. 

Anyway, it's all still speculative until we find out what Freely's final form will be. But I bet Sky are watching it very closely... 

[TimmyBGood]

"The Freeview platform is managed by Digital UK Ltd and DTV Services Ltd. The companies have three common shareholders: BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.

Sky is a shareholder in DTV Services Ltd."

https://www.freeview.co.uk/about-freeview 

[Jason+Golding]

@TimmyBGood @Freeview and Freesat have merged. Now the same company. I am not sure if sky have a stake in the merged company.  All of this though adds evidence to the fact that Sky may launch channels on Freely if they own part of the company. Which was my original point 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Jason+Golding wrote:

  All of this though adds evidence to the fact that Sky may launch channels on Freely if they own part of the company. Which was my original point 

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No, it could conceivably indicate they may have their tiny number of FTA services there, if Sky News survives that long (which is looking questionable).  Any Sky shareholding is a legacy from the days before Comcast.

[Jason+Golding]

@TimmyBGood @I suspect they haven't updated their website. Freeview and Freesat have now merged in to  Everyone tv . Freely is being developed by Everyone TV, the organisation which runs free TV services Freeview and Freesat in the UK and is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

[Jason+Golding]

@TimmyBGood @Sky don't own any of the merged Freesat/Freeview company 

[Exiled-in-HH]

Freeview and Freesat never merged!

Digital UK bought Freesat from the BBC and ITV.

Subsequently Digital UK was rename Everyone TV who have renamed Freesat Limited to Everyone Devices Limited.

Freeview was never a company it is just a brand owned by DTV Services part owned by Sky who took control of three DTT muxes whe ITV Digital collapsed.

When did Sky sell their share in DTV Services, it was widely reported when Arqiva released their share of DTV Services.

[Jason+Golding]

@Exiled-in-HH @You obviously know more than there company website as they clearly use the word merged.

referenced

https://www.everyonetv.co.uk/about-us

[Jason+Golding]

@Exiled-in-HH 

[Exiled-in-HH]

I does appeared I do .... Everyone has merged only aspects of the Services not the companies unless Everyone TV now own DTV Services!