Freeview streaming portal has confirmed the addition of new services during the past month.
Channelbox is now providing Freeview viewers with compatible devices access to additional news channels. Euronews and Africanews have been added to the platform during the past month, providing viewers with a broader range of news sources.
Euronews is being offered in both English and Russian. Sister channel Africanews is presented in English.
Channelbox is available on Freeview channel 271 and requires a TV to be connected to the internet. The portal has been busy adding new services during 2021, including new services from Stingray.
During April, Channelbox has been spotted setting up an HbbTV version of its service. This means that a broader range of TVs will soon be compatible with the service. Other similar services on Freeview are also being encouraged to make a HbbTV version available to overcome compatibility issues. From a broadcast point of view, a second data PID is added to the service: A new one for HbbTV and one for the legacy MHEG-IC service. Depending on the device, either the HbbTV or MHEG-IC version is presented to the viewer. A dwindling number of devices support MHEG-IC, but all new Freeview Play TVs and boxes support HbbTV.