FREEVIEW: The Final Days...

help support amtv by becoming a patron an amtv staff member and following us over on Twitter hi there guys it's Adam Martin here and welcome back to another video and today we're going to be discussing free view and freely now we've talked about freely a few times now it's meant to be this evolution of Freeview the next step in mainstream television if you like going fully digital now ditching digital terrestrial television as it was and it's going to start rolling out later this year in 2024 now there's still a lot of speculation about this how this will work if it will work how long it's going to take to take effect but it seems like all the people involved in Freely are very much all in but there's been recent news I've saw this article on RXV as always go and check them out great site and it says the extent of project to migrate Freeview viewers to streaming becomes clear so obviously that is one of the biggest hurdles for freely it's the fact that they're going to have to migrate all these Freeview viewers over onto the new system I mean there's still millions of homes that use Freeview right and you know a lot of people said even when freely just got announced they said oh you know free view is dead there's no repri for it but I'm posing the question today could could Freeview possibly be getting some sort of a second chance here well let's have a read of this article shall we it says 16 million homes receive free viiew as their primary TV platform that's according to latest audience data that makes the digital terrestrial television platform still the dominant way of accessing traditional TV services there are just over 28 million households in the UK total wow okay so if there's that many households that's well over half then that still have free viewers their primary TV platform so it the system itself isn't very much dead you know it's the it's probably the most accessible version of Television we have on the market at the moment yes I know you can get like sky and virgin subscription packages but despite you know the cost of the set top box and debatably the license fee as well freev viiew seems to be the dominant form of how people consume their TV I'm not sure whether it's including streaming platforms into that as well it doesn't specify according to gfk data over 23 million freev viw capable TVs have been sold in the last decade many of the TVs are 3 view play compatible that's the catch-up service I believe combining terrestrial TV with on demand and live stream Services yes there you go so tens of millions sold within the last 10 years that's a lot of TVs that correct me if I'm wrong I don't think they're necessarily compatible to get the upgrade too freely but we'll we'll see we'll see as we go on broadcasters are pressing ahead with plans to launch a full streaming alternative that will force those 16 million homes to upgrade by 2035 each and every one of the 23 million freev view devices sold plus any older TVs still in use will need to be upgraded either by replacing the TV or adding an additional box so there you go the fact that these aren't inherently backwards compatible and I sort of get why you know when these TVs were made in the last decade and and Beyond going back in time here obviously the concept of freely was not even in anyone's Minds to sort of future proof freev viiew for this is quite difficult but 2035 that's only 11 years away and you know to upgrade 23 million televisions goodness me to upgrade that many TVs in that amount of time doable possibly but I'm not sure how easy it's going to be for them to do that freev viws platform manager everyone TV is planning to use its new freely platform to move viewers away from terrestrial broadcasting Tim Davey the boss of its most vocal shareholder the BBC already set out plans in 2022 that would see the broadcast to go online only and this does link to an article from Tim Davey that broadcaster it's linking to an article from the guardian who and he did say I know it's says to go online only that's over the next decade so I think over the next 10 years plus maybe I guess it's Tim Davy's ambition that the BBC will go online only how that'll work with its Public Service remit and reaching everyone and how much ofcom will allow them to do that that still sort of s to be seen in the near future in the first few years freely will combine existing terrestrial TV services with internet-based TV services the specifications for freely receivers stipulates that they will work like traditional terrestrial TV receivers when they aren't connected to the internet and this is something we mentioned before this this idea that they'll maybe have the online version of freely as the default you know connected to the internet but if the internet drops out if there's an issue then it will cut back to traditional TV reception like like it does now and there's a lot of pros and cons to that I did a video sort of addressing this last time so you can go and check that out if you want to find out more once connected broadcasters will be able to switch viewers seamlessly from terrestrial to online once enough viewers have adopted freely it's expected broadcasters including Channel 4 will start turning off smaller channels now this is something again we've talked about the prospect of broadcasters like the BBC ITV Channel 4 Etc cutting back essentially on the channels that they offer so with the BBC we already know that BBC 4 and CBBC are moving online soon possibly as early as next year bbc3 honestly I know it came back to TV in 2022 but I think in the not too distant future that's going to go online only again for a second time BBC 2 whilst it is sort of still going strong I think its days are relatively numbered I don't have much hope that it's going to see out the next 10 years as a traditional Channel I think BBC 1 is the one likely to do that because that is the original BBC channel it's probably the one that most audiences engage with out of the BBC's catalog and I think it's going to be the one as I said that they're going to have the most trouble moving online in terms of battling with ofcom and you know their remits as a public service broadcaster and these issues might be faced by you know itv1 Channel 4 as well with ITV you know they have several smaller channels and it wouldn't surprise me if they start going online only very soon things like ITB maybe the smaller ones like itv4 and 3 itv2 as well I think should move online especially since that attracts a younger audience you know teenagers young adults Channel 4 again like more four and all the other stipulations of it I think they'll go online only gradually and I think they're moving towards that as quickly as they can but it's saying that's once enough enough viewers have adopted freely so that's the expectation that they're not going to do this until freely adoption has been taken up to a significant level that's what that implies so that could be you know that could be well into the 2030s by that point it all depends how much people are willing to with their cash get a new TV and a new setup what's in it for the viewer it asks well the BBC and ITV will use HD broadcasts as a character to attract viewers to freely with both broadcasters to offer all of their channels in HD whereas free view is only guaranteed to offer a small number of HD channels until 2026 well okay well that could be a carrot definitely because if it's only guaranteed to offer them until 2026 is it implying there that come that year they'll just drop HD support and they'll go standard definition only but then aren't a lot of broadcasters turning off their standard definition signals in the UK as well so that could be quite interesting so maybe when freely gets rolled out this year the numbers might be quite small but then come 2026 you know if all these HD channels disappear off review maybe I'm just saying maybe maybe that ownership or freely May Skyrocket additionally broadcasters will be able to offer more popup streaming channels such as those carried in the live section of ITX that aren't available on traditional TV services yes you know these channels that Focus say on a specific program or a specific theme and that is you know I think that's a very good modern adaptation it's tailored more to what people want if they want that certain program or theming as their own separate little streaming Channel and even though ITX you know as we've discussed it has its problems it's not the most perfect service but I think the fact that it offers something like that is definitely something people are using more and more gradually and for freely to do this as well you know working with the broadcasters to offer these pop-up streaming Channels cuz I think some of them already kind of do it on their services I don't think it's a bbci player doesn't have like a streaming one I don't think but it has you know collections of episodes of its programs and stuff like that so I think having these popup channels can only be a good thing at present 15% of homes are already Broadband only in terms of TV either choosing to access TV via apps or through dedicated streaming TV platforms like Sky stream by 2030 Broadband only TV homes are expected to be in the majority so you're giving that a sixe time frame to move over 50% when it's already at 15 I think we've discussed this before as well but the adoption of that the the rate of that going up is hugely dependent on a number of factors not the least that you know Broadband or decent Broadband is still not accessible in 100% of the UK and you know countless governments ministers whatever of all kinds have said oh you know we'll promise to we'll get Broadband in every part of the UK no problem but you know that's been mentioned for years and it's still hasn't happened I'm not denying that it will be a big operation for them to do but it seems like the wheels aren't even turning so if you're trying to tell me that you want everyone to be Broadband only TV within the next 10 years then we need to start we need to start getting those balls rolling on a migration to streaming by 2035 Freeview was given a reprieve at the end of 2030 when the frequencies used for the service were safeguarded at the world radio communications conference in Dubai as part of the international agreement broadcasters across the UK and Europe will have primary rights to the frequencies nevertheless the government expects streaming to become dominant with licenses to broadcast terrestrial Services only to run until 2035 so again that's implying that the government firmly believes that by that point in just over 10 years will be a majority streaming only television Nation if you like and that may happen but I feel like we need a few more contingencies cuz I think 2030 was the original goal I think they then realized there was no way in hell they were going to make that so 2035 you know again 11 years away this I'll talk more about this in a second when we finish up on the article but I'm a bit dubious this gives the broadcasters just 11 years to encourage enough of the current 16 million freev viiew homes to switch to streaming based TV services rendering all of the 23 million free viiew capable devices sold in the last 10 years as obsolete existing TVs won't be upward compatible with freely and there's also a wider issue regarding availability of full fiber broadband Services there you go especially in areas where commercial incentives to build and extend networks aren't present this is the thing so upgrading 16 million homes to switch to internet-based TV services I guarantee you now a swath of the population mainly the older population and I'm just saying this because it's likely true a lot of the older population are likely not bothered about streaming TV they're not bothered about internet Based Services I can imagine my grandmother for instance you know if I said to her gr you know how do you feel about upgrading your TV to get this streaming based TV this internet based TV well I mean for starter she doesn't even have internet in the house so so that's a nogo but the thing is you know a lot of people like my grandmother of people of that generation will not be bothered as long if they can access their TV you know via the current freev viiew model and stuff like that that's all they need that's literally all they need and some will say oh well you know if they close down freev view or if eventually get shuts off then they'll have no choice yeah they'll have no choice but I bet you some of them will just bother not having TV at all maybe stick with the radio or the newspaper or whatever and some yeah will be forced to adopt it but I mean is forced adoption really what you want for your brand also the devices is obsolete you know I know we've gotten a lot better at recycling old technological materials now but that's a lot of TVs that aren't going to serve much of a purpose and of course they can serve a purpose you could use them as like you know a medium for a games console for example most of those TVs probably have HDMI ports amongst other things so they're not completely useless but the fact they're not compatible with freely in the event that free view does get shut down then that's tough it did mention earlier that you might have to buy an additional box implying that you know if your TV doesn't have freely built in these newer TVs that are coming out then you can buy another set top box which seems counterproductive because I thought the whole point of freely was to move away from having these from having these boxes I don't know but then it says these TVs can't be upgraded I don't know I bet the wording on this is a bit tricky I'm implying it means you can't update the television itself maybe you can buy a box for freely who's to say and then this thing again of full fiber Broadband Services areas where you know the commercial incentives to build an extend networks aren't present well that's true there are some areas where there won't be that commercial incentive arguably that shouldn't be the reason we should just build it so everyone has access but you know this world does revolve around money despite Freeview days and its current format being numbered jenkinson the director of freev viiew was upbeat at the latest figures he commented this new Milestone cements the appetite for free accessible TV in the UK as new players and channels continue to be added to the service every year at no cost to viewers the channel now is to convert the appetite to free streaming in a way that justifies viewers having to buy the new equipment that is a big challenge indeed and yes free view is still very much being used as a service as those new figures show new channels are being added to it while some channels are also being taken away let's let's not forget that but this is it free streaming sounds great but you got to buy a new Telly and you might have to buy a new set top box and you probably should have broadband internet you know it's all these all these caveats and even if you're just even if all you have to do is buy a new TV with the way technology is now those new TVs that's going to be what at least a couple of hundred pounds and I'm sure for some people they'll be like I can afford that no problem but you know people are tightening their belts at the minute so for a lot of people get just getting a new TV just like that isn't going to be a top priority which might then make the uptake of freely a lot more slow so to round it off is free View getting this reprieve has it been saved no all it has it's had this extension where you know it's going to be around until at least 2035 another 11 years but the aim of the industry seems very much to be we're going to streaming only TV we don't need digital terrestrial anymore that's the way it's going and the first chance we get to cut free view off entirely we're do it and again they're not going to do that until the number of owners at least goes up to past 50% I think they even won't do it if it hits 60 70 i' I'd like to think they'd want the VA as they call the vast majority so maybe like 90 even 95% plus once they get to there then I think they'll start cutting off freev viiew and those left will have to do the forced adoption but it's going to take some time and in terms of the adoption of like all these new TVs you know these new mediums to access freely that's going to going to take time as well again 16 million homes that ain't going to happen overnight and as I said different families different households will have different priorities the TV might not be top of the list at first I think you might have to subsidize these TVs or offer discounts and stuff like that if it gets really slow it all depends what happens doesn't it because that there could be more God forbid there isn't but there could be more economic hardships that come in the future that further and further push this back so whilst they're saying free view is good until 2035 I can somehow seeing it like even beyond that that's just my rough prediction but we'll see do you think free view has a life beyond 2035 or do you really think that is it that's the cut off point let me know in the comments down below if you enjoyed the video please leave a like on it it does really help us out and subscribe to the channel as well we'd love to have you aboard here with us in the meantime I've been Adam Martin from amtv thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time thank you to our patrons for helping to support the show and a special thank you to MRA Ethan cbury halt Bruce Danton globe of reviews Derek Chambers Shan KN Dodd Khan Liam demain Trev Hughes AJ m217 deck kp20 Simon Harrison Evan Hart 41 Jen Ted Elliot Tim Ripley Mr Eurovision 1986 and Robert olifant our amtv staff members