IBC Conference: Collaborating for the future of public service broadcast

Had the UK’s regulator not blocked a proposed ‘Freeview for the internet’ from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 all the way back in 2009 the country’s media landscape might look a lot different today.

As it was, Project Kangaroo never got off the ground. It was kicked into touch for being anti-competitive after the government’s Office of Fair Trading ironically voiced fears ‘that the platform could become too powerful.’

Fifteen years on and YouTube and the international streamers threaten to swamp public service broadcast (PSB).

Is Freely, the latest attempt by UK free-to-air content providers to ensure the future of public service TV, too little too late?

“I hope not! We believe our timing is right,” says Jonathan Thompson, Chief Executive of Everyone TV, the organisation leading the evolution of free-to-view TV in the UK. He was at Channel 4 when Project Kangaroo was killed and says Freely is different in two main ways.

“One is that we are particularly focussed on bringing a live TV experience together in one place in the way that Freeview has always offered, but as a streaming experience,” he adds.

“The other difference is that we’re trying to go with the grain of where the market is going in terms of working in partnership with Connected TV vendors. Viewers are still watching TV on the bigger screen in their home but that screen happens to be a Smart TV. Those Smart TVs are getting better in terms of how they aggregate content and we’re partnering with Smart TV vendors to offer Freely as part of their experience in a way that brings together live and on-demand content from the PSBs, but not interfere in the Smart TV’s wider ecosystem and their user experience.” IBC