User:Privateeih/sandbox

Freely is a British free-to-air IPTV platform launched in 2024 by Everyone TV, a joint venture between the country's public broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The service offers the ability to watch live television and video on demand content from the main broadcasters while seamlessly switching between them in a unified electronic programme guide (EPG). Freely uses broadband internet and, other than a broadband connection, does not require a television aerial. The service is expected to gradually replace Freeview.

Background
The Freeview digital terrestrial television service was launched in 2002 by the public broadcasters and the older analogue services were switched off by 2012. Since the 2010s, the number of live television viewers has declined in favour of internet streaming services and this trend is set to continue, especially as the availability of gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure has expanded throughout the country. Due to this shift, the operating costs of traditional terrestrial broadcasts are set to outstrip usage. Most Freeview services make use of the DVB-T standard, which dates back to 1997, and only a few high-definition channels broadcast are using the more efficient and newer DVB-T2 standard.

Despite the launch of Freely, the government has stated that it is committed to Freeview digital terrestrial platform until at least 2034.

Features
Freely provides a familiar channel guide combined with recommendations and access to on demand content. All the channels are directly streamed via broadband and are not confined to their own applications (as has been the case with Freeview Play ). A stated advantage has been that it would not require setting up and logging in to user profiles for the different on demand services such as BBC iPlayer or ITVX.

A noted disadvantage has been that Freely has no recording capability as there is currently no Freely-supporting PVR on the market.

Hardware and devices
At launch, Freely is available on brand new Hisense 4K television sets. While support for other devices is under consideration, it is currently not offered in the form of a set-top box or on older television sets.

5GB
5G Broadcast (5GB) is a standard for the distribution of television and other media content via 5G networks.

5G Broadcast focuses mainly on mobile use cases like smartphones. It does not require the use of a SIM card or cellular subscription, but only a device like a smartphone capable of receiving 5G Broadcast signals, thus bypassing telecommunication and cellular operators entirely. A stated advantage has been the ability to reduce load off mobile networks during large live broadcasts, and not requiring an internet connection. In a broadcast mode, data can be sent to multiple receivers at once (point-to-multipoint) as opposed to point-to-point.

The technology has been tested in numerous countries for a number of years, and has been tipped in Europe as the potential future for digital terrestrial television, which currently are mainly based on the DVB-T2 standard. Public broadcasters of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria have signed a cooperation pact in 2023 and have stated the use of the UHF 470-694 MHz frequency band to be used for 5G Broadcast.

In September 2023 the specs of the standard was updated and published by the 3GPP organisation. It started being tested by some low-power television stations in the USA. In Germany, 5G Broadcast has been trialed and in May 2024 another pilot project is set to begin in the city of Halle.