UK free-to-air TV service providers Freeview have announced an intention to bring their accessible business model to the online arena.
The brand have been linked with a planned introduction of a service codenamed ‘Freeview Connect‘, which will aim to provide viewers with ‘on-demand services’ that run alongside regular free-to-air channels broadcast in a traditional manner.
The Freeview Connect branding itself is planned to be the face of their operations in connected TV as a whole, with hints from some sources that Freeview could develop smart TV sets and set-top boxes of their own creation in the future as a base for their offerings.
With fellow network-supported venture YouView moving from strength to strength in the emerging UK smart TV market, Freeview appear to have realised that they need to hold a presence in the sector over the coming years in order to stay relevant to consumers.
It has been reported by The Guardian, though, that a number of YouView’s most notable backers are reducing their input into that project due to a focus in working alongside subscription-based telecommunications providers such as BT and TalkTalk, a turn of events that could prove beneficial to the fledgling Freeview Connect’s prospects. Backers believed to have been recruited for the idea already include Arqiva, BBC, ITV and Channel 4, putting a collective £100m+ into the brand, as well as free availablity of their respective services and catch-up TV apps within the system.
Technical development of the project is reportedly coming from Digital UK, whose new director Ilse Howling (formerly of Freeview) states: “I’m delighted to be joining Digital UK to lead development of the new connected service. The company is well-placed to develop the next-generation specification and work with the supply chain to support a new mass market service to make connected TV available free, for everyone.”
As the naturally most widely-covered TV service company looks to make the most of its status to tap the online market, will formal support from a consortium of key YouView backers help create an overall service that defines internet TV in the UK region?
