The company behind the new Freely service has confirmed how services will be arranged on the new TV platform when it launches later this year.
- Freely will group channels in multiple genres, including Entertainment, News, Children’s, Music, Shopping, Faith & International
- Channels can be paired, so that sister channels owned by a broadcaster are more likely to sit together in the channel list.
- The new TV guide will cater for terrestrial, satellite and IP-delivered channels, so viewers can benefit from much more choice.
A new TV platform offers the opportunity to reconsider how channels are grouped together.
Freeview, which launched in 2002 and inherited some channel numbering from the period of time between the demise of ITV Digital and its launch, was left with shopping channel in the middle of entertainment channels.
Freesat’s channel list was created so that channel families and +1’s could sit together, but now timeshift channels are increasingly either being cancelled or moved to sit in a separate area.
Ahead of the launch of Freely this year, Everyone TV (formerly Digital UK) consulted with industry to determine how the new service will be presented to viewers in terms of where different types of service can be found.
Channel grouping
Everyone TV, the platform operator behind both Freeview, Freesat and now Freely has decided the channels will be grouped as follows:
| Category Name | First channel number | Last channel number |
|---|---|---|
| Entertainment | 1 | 30 |
| Reserved for promotional use | 31 | |
| Entertainment (continued) | 32 | 89 |
| Reserved for promotional use | 90 | 99 |
| Freely Information | 100 | |
| Entertainment (continued) | 101 | 249 |
| Timeshift (+1) | 250 | 299 |
| News | 300 | 349 |
| Children’s | 350 | 399 |
| Music | 400 | 449 |
| Shopping | 450 | 499 |
| Faith & International | 500 | 549 |
| Hybrid Streamed & Text | 550 | 554 |
| Accessible EPG | 555 | |
| Hybrid Streamed & Text | 556 | 599 |
| Radio | 600 | 739 |
| Adult | 740 | 749 |
| Regional Variants | 750 | 799 |
| for Manufacturer’s use | 800 | 999 |
| Reserved to mark end of Everyone TV/Freely range | 1000 | |
| IP channels delivered by manufacturers | 1001 | 9999 |
For Freely, the channel numbering structure will be loosly based on the current Freeview EPG, with an information channel on 100 and an accessible EPG on channel 555.
Channels in some genres, including Shopping and Adult channels will be ordered in the same order as they appear on Freeview. For example, on Freeview, the first two shopping channels are QVC (channel 16) and TJC (channel 22). Therefore, on Freely, QVC will be the first shopping channel in the shopping section on 450, followed by TJC on 451.
But pressure from broadcasters during the consultation means there will be no separate sports and movie sections, as you’d find currently on Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media.
Which channels will I receive on Freely?
The full list of channel names is yet to be confirmed.
However, what you’ll receive will depend on how your Freely TV is connected. (Freely TVs will hit the shops later this year; your existing Freeview or Freesat TV won’t work with Freely.)
The new TV channel list has options based on terrestrial, IP and satellite reception. In other words, a Freely TV will show a mixture of channels from different sources. If the TV is only connected to the internet, some channels that aren’t yet streamed may not be available to you.
This may be relevant in the early days of Freely – just like Sky Stream, the service will launch with some channels not streamed. Unlike Sky Stream, Freely is hybrid, so can still include channels not yet streaming.
The first 12 channel slots
- Channels 1-5 will contain the main five channels in each nation.
- Channels 6 and 7 are reserved for commercial channels, which could include ITV2 and 3.
- Channel 8 will be allocated to Channel 4 in Wales, either BBC Scotland or BBC Alba in Scotland and to local TV in England.
- Channel 9 will be allocated to local TV in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Channel 10-12 will be allocated to the BBC for BBC Three, BBC Four and either BBC Alba or Scotland (depending on what the BBC wants to put on channel 8 in Scotland).
Irish broadcasters unhappy
Irish broadcasters RTÉ and TG4 fear the new allocations mean they’ll be allocated channel numbers right at the bottom of the entertainment list in Northern Ireland, because they are not designated as public service broadcasters in the UK and do not have BARB ratings data. BARB ratings data will be used to order channels in some of the genres.
There are moves afoot to give at least TG4 some recognition as a public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland. But that’s unlikely to happen before Freely launches.
Marc Thornham