Freely on Track to Overtake Freeview and be in 10.5 Million UK Homes by 2034

Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is backed by the major UK TV broadcasters and is an evolution – not (yet) a replacement – for the existing Freeview platform (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat), has revealed that they now have well over 1 million users (up from 500,000 from Sep-Dec 2025) and the number of Freeview homes in 2034 is forecast to fall to 860,000.

The latest forecasts from ‘3 Reasons’ show that the number of homes without broadband are projected to fall to 220,000 by 2034, which equates to 0.8% of TV households. Meanwhile, as audiences increasingly switch to viewing online and replace or upgrade existing TVs with Freely, the new platform is expected to be in 10.5 million UK households by 2034.

Instead of falling a predicted 10% between 2023 and 2025, the number of homes without broadband actually fell 30% and stands at 1.2 million today. The updated forecasts for homes without broadband in 2034 (220k) now represent around a quarter of the 800k originally forecast in a report for DCMS from 2024.

At the same time, data from Barb shows the number of homes connecting their TV to the internet is also growing at pace, 84% today up from 66% in 2020. “Together, the figures underline the growing readiness of UK audiences for internet-delivered television,” said Freely, just as the UK Government prepares to set out their proposed plan for switching off terrestrial TV signals in the future (here).

Key Figures

· Freeview is in 9.7m households today on main TV sets – 73% of these homes are also watching TV over the internet as well as DTT (BARB Q1 2026)

· 2.6m households rely on Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) to watch TV today either because they don’t have access to IPTV or broadband (BARB Q1 2026).

· DTT accounted for 29% of viewing in 2025 (BARB’s 2025 ‘What People Watch’ Annual Review).

· Key UK TV market dynamics that have impacted the forecasts are:

o The launch of Freely: Earlier analysis pre-dated Freely’s launch and assumed that free live TV within a traditional programme guide could only be accessed via DTT, satellite or cable. Freely delivers live TV channels over IP.

o Faster-than-expected broadband adoption: Broadband take-up in 2024 and 2025 exceeded previous projections. Earlier forecasts estimated around 1.5 million TV homes without broadband in 2025 whilst the actual figure is 1.2 million. The forecasts for non-broadband homes in 2034 were originally 0.8m vs the 0.2m now predicted on the basis of recent broadband take-up rates.

o Shifts in platform propositions: New internet-only channels have joined the Freely line-up while some existing channels have left Freeview. Earlier forecasts did not account for any change in the DTT proposition.

· The updated forecasts assume a transition to television delivered primarily over broadband by 2035 but do not assume any formal government announcement to that effect, nor any new measures to support broadband affordability or take-up. Were such interventions to be introduced, 3 Reasons assert that the number of unconnected TV homes could fall even more quickly.

· 3 Reasons and parent company MTM worked on the forecasts that were part of the Exeter University study commissioned for DCMS in H1 2024. The study was used to inform the workings of DCMS’s TV Stakeholder Forum looking at the future of TV distribution which concluded at the end of 2025.

The above is relevant because the Government have been particularly concerned about how to deal with people (particularly vulnerable TV viewers) who still aren’t connected to broadband by the time the DTT switch-off arrives (an official date for this has yet to be set). The issue is perhaps less about coverage and more about take-up (30Mbps+ broadband is expected to reach at least 99.65% of homes by 2030 – at the end of 2025 it was around 98.5%).

Jonathan Thompson, Everyone TV’s CEO, said:

“The way audiences engage with TV is changing and these updated forecasts reflect that clear direction of travel. It is vital that any future change in TV distribution is carefully planned and managed, that issues of connectivity and affordability are addressed, and that no viewer is left behind.

Freely provides simple, trusted access to live, linear channels and on-demand content from our public service broadcasters and combines this with innovation that can benefit all audiences. It can be a gateway for people to safely and easily enter into an increasingly digital society and not be excluded.”

Obviously, it should go without saying that Everyone TV has a vested interest in putting a positive spin on the challenges, while the Government ultimately have to deal with the reality of bridging any gaps in reach that may remain.

The Public Service Broadcasters’ (PSBs) currently support a transition to IPTV in the mid-2030s as it will become increasingly challenging for them to bear double costs from running multiple distribution platforms. At present the UK Government has committed to the future of DTT until 2034, although some Arqiva-based (vested interest in UK tower sites) campaign groups would like to see this extended (possibly to at least 2040).