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Freely has achieved a major milestone: It was the fastest-growing TV platform in 2025.
Everyone TV, the organisation behind the new platform and its predecessors, Freeview and Freesat, confirmed that it achieved one million weekly users during the Christmas period. The last time Everyone TV shared an update about the number of people watching on Freely was September 2025, with a total of 500,000 users.
That shows the dramatic acceleration seen on the Wi-Fi-only platform in the last few months of the year, with the number of users doubling in just a few months.
For those who missed the announcement, Everyone TV — backed by some of the biggest free-to-air broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and 5 – launched Freely back in April 2024. It lets you watch some of the most popular free-to-air channels in the UK and on-demand boxsets via a Wi-Fi connection.
With Freely, the redesigned Mini Guide offers extra information on the programme you're watching, a shortcut to additional episodes from catch-up services, and the ability to restart from the beginning with a single tap | FREELY PRESS OFFICE | GBN With no aerial, you can position a Freely-powered TV anywhere with a minimum of a 10Mbps broadband connection. Built from the ground up, the team behind Freely has introduced a slew of functionality that you'd usually associate with paid-for television services, like Sky Glass Gen 2 or Sky Stream, rather than free-to-air channels.
For example, Freely lets you pause and rewind live television with the tap of a button on the remote. You can also revisit the complete back catalogue of episodes of a show from the TV Guide with a few clicks — regardless of whether those earlier series are available to stream on BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, or U (formerly UKTV Play).
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
While there aren't quite as many channels available on Freely as its predecessor, Freeview, that looks set to change in the coming months. Everyone TV has signed deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and CNN that'll bring seven new channels to its streaming-only service in the coming weeks, taking the total offering to more than 70 live channels.
At launch, Freely was only available on a new custom-designed Smart TV that was built to accommodate the new software — this was not an update to existing Freeview TVs. In other words, if you weren't due to upgrade to a new flatscreen... then you'd miss out on the new Freely features.
With the PLEIO box connected to your telly, you can stream 75,000 hours of content from the most popular free-to-air broadcasters in the UK | NETGEM PRESS OFFICE That changed with the launch of the Pleio set-top box in the final few weeks of 2025, allowing anyone who spent £99 to add the latest Freely features to any television via a HDMI port. Nifty, eh?
The box was a hit — and immediately sold-out on Amazon.
It's unclear whether the ability to upgrade existing televisions to the Freely platform is one of the reasons this fledgling streamer has managed to achieve such an incredible milestone.
Freely recorded strong daily engagement throughout the festive period, with more than half (55%) of its one million weekly users returning every day to stream their favourite Christmas telly from the biggest free-to-air broadcasters, including GB News.
Viewing spiked on Christmas Day, with on-demand streaming dominated by soaps, Christmas specials and classic festive films, as UK households continue to turn to the TV set for family entertainment. Classic British programming held the top streaming spots.
Among the most‑watched were Emmerdale, Coronation Street, EastEnders, The King’s Speech, Finding Father Christmas, Home Alone, Only Fools & Horses: Greatest Christmas Moments, Mrs Brown’s Boys – 2025 Specials, Strictly Come Dancing, and Amandaland: Christmas Special.
Everyone TV CEO Jonathan Thompson commented on the milestone for his firm's latest platform, Freely
|EVERYONE TV PRESS OFFICE
Jonathan Thompson, who runs Everyone TV, commented on the latest figures, stating: "Surpassing one million weekly users is anexciting milestone for Freely, signalling that there is audience demand for a simple way tostream live British TV and discover great on demand shows – all in one place.
"Freely was thefastest growing TV platform in 2025, showing the power of the UK’s public service broadcastersworking together to make brilliant British TV easy to discover and stream. It’s a great start to 2026 as we continue to build momentum, putting the nation’s favourite channels and storiesfront and centre in the streaming age.”
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