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The UK government’s proposed plan to switch-off Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals in either 2034 or 2044 as part of a wider change to move toward broadband-based TV streaming (here), such as via the new Freely service, arguably suffered a bit of a reality check last week after that very same service experienced a major outage.
Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is backed by the major UK broadcasters, is currently said to be an evolution – not yet a replacement – for the existing Freeview platform (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat). But many people do expect this platform, which already has 1 million users, to ultimately play a key role in taking over from DTT signals. The new platform is forecast to be in 10.5 million UK households by 2034, which would overtake Freeview (here).
However, if you were using Freely last week, specifically between Thursday afternoon and Friday evening, then you might have been left a bit confused by what happened and could even still be struggling to recover today. The service appeared to suffer a major outage, which for some users knocked out access to almost all of its channels, except those of the BBC (we don’t know why).