While most of the news in TV comes from new display technology, the UK’s terrestrial broadcasts could be about to see the biggest disruption yet. It all hinges on the moves coming from Freely, with the announcement that it’s going to launch a Freely set-top box.

Freely was launched in 2024, allowing you stream services like BBC and ITV live over your home internet. Prior to this, to receive Freeview broadcasts, you’d need to use an aerial connected to your TV, but Freely removes that requirement, while giving you access to BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – along with a range of other free-to-air services, with more than 40 free channels in total.

So far, access to Freely has depended on your television supporting it: sets like the Fire TV Omni from Amazon, as well as other Fire TV models like the Panasonic Z95A, Hisense models using Vidaa OS, or recent TiVo OS models.

That made Freely a great feature of a new TV, but fairly irrelevant to someone with an existing TV. Now you’ll be able to plug in a Freely box instead, instantly bringing those smarts to your older TV.

Freely has confirmed that Netgem will provide the first “streaming puck” and although the price hasn’t been confirmed, suggests that it will be “affordable”. Whether the Freely box will offer other streaming services (like Netflix or Prime Video) remains to be seen, but feasibly, a device that only offers Freely would have appeal.

While the first device is confirmed to be from Netgem, I can’t help feeling that with Amazon already supporting Freely on Fire TV OS on some of its models, that it would make sense to offer it on a Fire TV Stick too, but that’s just hopeful speculation for now.

Ditch the aerial to put your TV anywhere

The great thing about Freely is being able to cut the cable to your roof aerial. Whether that’s because you’re installing the TV in a part of the house with no aerial connection, or because you’re in an apartment block with no aerial, as long as you have access to Wi-Fi, you have access to Freely.

It means you can put the TV in any room and that makes setup a breeze. I now use Freely on a couple of TVs in my house, installed in places where there is nowhere to plug it in. Sure, if the internet connection goes down you can’t watch TV, but I’ve found that to be a rare occurrence.

Prior to the launch of Freely, I was impressed with Sky’s ability to offer the same thing via Sky Stream, allowing all those normal channels over Wi-Fi. But that comes with a subscription cost and while Sky offers access to a lot more content, Freely offers access to a core of TV channels in a simple way.

Ultimately, Freely gives people more choices in how they install their TV and the launch of a Freely box means you don’t have to buy a new TV set to cut the cord. Instead, one small puck will get you connected, so you can have that TV in your bedroom, conservatory or extension, without a piece of coax in sight.

That, to me, is really exciting and one of the big power moves in TV for 2025.