The new, free-to-watch video streaming service Freely is winging its way to smart televisions powered by Amazon’s Fire TV OS, accelerating the rapid expansion of the new service.
As a result of its new partnership with Amazon, Freely will come pre-installed on most new TVs that run the Fire TV operating system in the U.K. That means it will launch on various Amazon-branded Fire TVs, as well as those sold by TCL and Panasonic.
The Freely app will launch on Amazon Fire TVs this autumn, in what Freely’s creator Everyone TV says is a “landmark deal” that will massively expand the availability of its app.
Freely launched earlier this year as a brand new, free-to-watch video streaming service. Everyone TV, the company behind the app, is a joint venture owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
The app provides access to both live and on-demand content from those broadcasters, and it’s entirely free to watch, with the only requirements being a compatible TV and an internet connection. In many ways it’s similar to the Freeview Play service, which already provides access to an enormous catalogue of U.K content, albeit via traditional terrestrial airwaves. Indeed, the Freely app will actually replace the Freeview Play app on some TVs.
Since launching in April, the Freely service has already made a positive impact, with What HiFi saying it provides a “significant upgrade” to Freeview Play thanks to its streamlined user interface and navigation.
Everyone TV Chief Executive Jonathan Thompson enthused that he’s excited to see the momentum behind Freely building so rapidly and that the “breakthrough deal” with Amazon Fire TV is little short of “remarkable”.
Although he may have overemphasised just how big of an announcement this really is, he insisted it’s a “significant development in widening the availability of Freely and therefore ensuring UK audiences can access free TV well into the future.”
Under the arrangement, all new Amazon Fire TVs, and many TCL smart and Panasonic smart TVs, including that company’s new flagship OLED models, will get the Freely app when they go on sale in the coming weeks.
Emma Gilmartin, who is Amazon’s director of Fire TV Europe, said she’s thrilled to bring Freely to Fire TV customers in the U.K., adding that the platform expands the value it’s able to deliver to its customers. Meanwhile, Panasonic UK’s managing director Gareth Rayworth weighed in, saying the partnership is a “great result for viewers” that combines a highly-regarded TV brand and intuitive operating system with the best free live and on-demand TV experience.
The Freely TV app is already available on various models from Hisense, Bush and Toshiba, which launched earlier this year, as well as the new Panasonic with Tivo OS televisions.
You can watch HDTVTest's review of the new Panasonic Z95A MLA OLED TV powered by Fire TV here:
