Opinion

We need to talk about Freely. Why? Because it’s a clear pointer to the future of radio. Broadcasters are already planning for a time when TV and radio are delivered as an IP Internet stream and not a linear over-the-air transmission. Hence the BBC’s huge investment in its iPlayer and Sounds streaming services.

Fewer and fewer people, especially in the lower age groups, now use a conventional radio or TV. Virtually all new TVs are ‘smart’ and Internet-ready. Regulator Ofcom has found that the over 75s are four times more likely to rely on digital broadcasting than Gen Z youngsters who have been brought up with streaming. Over 50% of 16-24 year olds don’t watch TV. Even fewer tune into a radio station. Rather, they stream YouTube or TikTok, or Spotify or Deezer.

‘The tipping point will be when not enough people are receiving broadcasts to justify the cost of transmitters’, Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s Director of Strategy and Research, told the annual DTG (Digital TV Group) conference. Digital radio and TV broadcasting are now inextricably linked, with radio channels transmitted by Freeview TV masts and Freesat satellites.

This is no use for those listening in cars, of course, and DAB reception often drops out because no one wants to spend new money on old-style masts. So in-car IP radio, now that mobile data plans are so affordable becomes a viable alternative. Connect a smartphone to an in-car system by Bluetooth, or fit a radio with built-in cell reception.

TalkTV viewers are now referred to the station’s Internet stream

I’ve been running practical tests in an area of Sussex where DAB is near unusable. Internet reception proved far more reliable, with an hour of 128kbp/s reception notching up around 100Mb data usage. On an unlimited data tariff this costs nothing and it makes no big dent in SIM-only tariffs costing £10 per month and offering around 20GB of data.

Switching mass market listeners and viewers from linear broadcast reception to IP streaming isn’t without its issues. Recently, the struggling station TalkTV ceased normal TV broadcasting and switched to Internet delivery. Anyone tuning an ‘old and dumb’ TV to what was TalkTV’s broadcast channel gets a dark screen; anyone with a smart TV should be automatically redirected to an IP stream. But how well re-direction works depends on the TV’s computer power, software and broadband connection. Even with fibre it can take minutes. This kills channel hopping.

Freely could be the answer. This is a new system from a new company called Everyone TV, funded by the UK’s public service broadcasters, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Jonathan Thompson, Everyone/Freely’s Chief Executive, calls Freely ‘a foundation for the future’, which bundles ‘everything from the public service broadcasters – including catchup services like iPlayer – in one place, for free’. ‘All you need is Wi-Fi’, said Thompson (as long as the broadband speed is at least 10Mbp/s, he didn’t say).

The DTG event showcased a Hisense TV with Freely tech built in. It has both aerial and broadband connectors, but can be used entirely without the former, delivering live channels and on-demand streams over the Internet. Freely TVs also come from Bush, Toshiba and Panasonic, but the platform has not yet done the deals needed for a Freely device that plugs into a non-Freely set – like an Amazon Fire Stick or Roku device that connects by HDMI. It’s also unclear how broadcasters and streaming stations that are not part of the Freely/Everyone group will fit into the bundle. The Freely website simply says: ‘Freely is just going to get bigger and better’.

If it works well and the company ups its game on dongling and educating buyers, Freely could be a game-changer. Clumsily handled, it could just be another new format disaster. Time will tell.