Freely has announced today that it will be adding no less than 10 new channels to its subscription-free streaming platform for 2026, encompassing everything from true crime and movies to global business news and shopping.
Announced at the MIPCOM market event in Cannes, the new channels coming to Freely come from multiple content networks, and will increase the U.K. based streaming service’s channel count to more than 70, joining many live-streamed channels from Freely’s founders, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Existing Freely partner AMC Networks International UK (AMCNI UK) is responsible for five of the 10 new channels. Three of these will be the TRUE CRIME UK, Evidence Of Evil and Bloodline crime shows AMC produces through a joint venture with Paramount, while the other two will be Love After Lock Up and AMC Reality. These new channels will join AMCNI UK’s trio of previously launched Freely channels, LEGEND, True Crime and Watch Free UK.
Of the other five new channels joining Freely in 2026, the best known one is Blaze. Already a popular channel on the Freeview terrestrial broadcasting service, Blaze on Freely will essentially be a live streamed version of the broadcast channel, covering the same mix of mystery, crime, reality and UFO-focused shows.
The next new channel heading Freely’s way is Bloomberg News, bringing UK streamers all of Bloomberg TV+’s world-renowned financial and business analysis, while the eighth addition to Freely’s roster will be Talking Pictures TV, a channel devoted to classic and often rare gems from British film history, taken from the deepest, darkest vaults of Pinewood, Twickenham and Shepperton Studios.
Gemporia, meanwhile, is, as its name suggests, a shopping channel devoted to the sale of every type of pretty, shiny thing, while the final addition will be Local TV. This will give Freely viewers content based on their area, with 11 variations available including London, Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham.
Freely revealed alongside its new channel announcements national research by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates showing that the sort of live free-to-air channels carried by Freely actually score the highest with audiences for making people feel relaxed (32%) and entertained (53%), but lowest for making people feel anxious (only 2%) compared with other channels and global streaming/video services.
“This latest round of content partners marks another step forward for Freely as we scale up the platform for viewers and partners alike, “ says Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Freely owner Everyone TV. “The research we’re releasing today shows just how much audiences still value British free-to-air television – not just the flagship channels, but the wider family of channels that continue to surprise and entertain us. Freely brings all of that together in one place, for free, and it’s exciting to see the momentum behind it as we look to the year ahead.”
Background
Freely was launched in spring 2024 as a way of enabling U.K. TV viewers to live stream digital channels that had previously required a digital terrestrial aerial or satellite dish to watch. It’s currently available on smart TVs from Hisense, Bush, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, TCL, Amazon Fire TV and Metz, and recently surpassed 500,000 weekly users. With eternal set top Freely receivers also now in the pipeline, the service is forecast to be the largest TV device platform by 2030, when it’s forecast to be the primary content platform in an estimated 7 million homes.
As well as the 70-plus channels it will carry once all of the latest additions have gone rise, Freely also carries tens of thousands of hours of on-demand content from the service’s main content providers.
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