Freely is off to the races. The newly launched streaming platform for the UK market—a collaboration between the top four British broadcasters—has signed up four additional smart TV OEMs to provide an imperative hardware push behind a joint venture which has arguably been overhyped before and since its recent launch in May 2024. Such was the hysteria around Freely’s unveiling last year, that overseas dispatches have been rushing to create copycat services – but it might be wise to wait until Freely has bedded in, lest it end up like Salto, the crestfallen French broadcast collaborative. Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, and Metz are the four new TV brands to have signed up to distribute Freely, a product of the BBC, ITV,…