Freely moves onto streaming devices
Everyone TV – the organisation leading the evolution of free TV in the UK – is expanding into streaming devices. Freely, the free streaming platform backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, will launch on Netgem devices later in 2025, giving audiences the freedom to‘ plug-in and stream’ live and on demand TV all in one place.
Following a successful launch on new smart TVs in April 2024, the move to streaming devices will make Freely accessible to even more UK households, enabling them to stream live channels from the nation’ s biggest broadcasters, all in one place, for free.
French entertainment technology company Netgem is confirmed as Freely’ s first‘ plug-in user experience, integrating the Freely interface at its core and giving easy access to stream live TV and on demand free-to-air shows, sitting alongside access to popular global and local streaming applications.
This development continues Freely’ s strong growth trajectory, coming on the heels of its major integration deal with Roku Smart TVs, plus the growing line-up of TV manufacturing partners including Hisense, Bush, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, Philips, JVC, TCL, Panasonic, Amazon Fire TV and METZ, as well as feature updates announced earlier in 2025.
“ Freely was created to make free TV work for everyone,” commented Jonathan Thompson, CEO, Everyone TV.“ Expanding to‘ plug-in and stream’ devices is an important and natural next step to ensure even more homes can enjoy the full Freely experience without the need for a TV upgrade or paid subscription. In partnership with Netgem, we’ re launching streaming devices to make it easier than ever for UK audiences to enjoy the nation’ s favourite TV, for free, on the TV you already have.”
“ Netgem is delighted to introduce the first Freely streaming device to the market with Everyone TV,” added Sylvain Thevenot,
Report: Shifting media quality, performance trends
DoubleVerify( DV), the software platform to verify media quality, optimise ad performance, and prove campaign outcomes, has released its 2025 Global Insights: EMEA Report, spotlighting key advertising trends and media quality benchmarks.
Global highlights include:
• Brand Suitability: Violation rates fell 15 % year-over-year, with Unsuitable Category violations still comprising the majority( 65 %) of all incidents.
• Fraud and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic( SIVT): Global fraud / SIVT dropped 7 % year-over-year, but bot fraud increased sharply, particularly in mobile app environments.
• Viewability: The global Authentic Viewable Rate rose 3 % to 70 %, supported by industry efforts to address‘ TV Off’ issues in CTV.
• Attention Metrics: APAC led all regions with a 14 % higher Attention Index than the global benchmark of 100, while North America trailed by 4 %. and stream’ device partner and will enable Freely to run on televisions that do not have the platform built-in, via a simple and affordable plug-in puck.
According to Everyone TV, the move represents a significant step forward in its long-term strategy to ensure that free-to-view content remains easily accessible and visible in a streaming era.“ Whether built into your next-generation smart TV or plugged into your current one, Freely will offer the same trusted experience – all in one place, for free,” it says.
As a leading provider of digital entertainment services, Netgem has designed the device to provide a seamless and intuitive managing director of Netgem UK.“ This innovation represents a game-changer for viewers who seek a streamlined TV and entertainment experience delivered over Wi- Fi. The integration of Freely with Netgem’ s entertainment service positions this streaming puck as the optimal choice for all households and breathes a second life to all TV sets at an affordable price.”
Freely‘ plug-in and stream’ devices will launch later in 2025 from Netgem in selected retail outlets. Further details including availability, pricing, additional functionality, content and more partners are to be announced.
Key Trends across EMEA and the UK include:
• Brand Suitability: EMEA Violations declined by 24 % year-over-year to 7.1 %, with the UK being the primary driver of the overall decrease, resulting in a 21 % drop in brand suitability violations in the country. Despite this improvement, EMEA has the second-highest violation rate among regions, 37 % higher than the global benchmark.
• Fraud and SIVT: The rate decreased by 33 % year-over-year to 0.7 %, with a notable decline of 34 % in the UK. Fraud / SIVT in EMEA sat 27 % below the global benchmark, making it the lowest rate globally.
• Viewability: The Authentic Viewable Rate rose to 71 % in the UK, driven by gains in the UK’ s mobile web display ads and improved onscreen standards.
• Attention Metrics: The EMEA Attention Index was 8 % above global norms. At the same time, UK consumers are spending an average of 3.3 hours per day with online content, led by social media.
EUROMEDIA 5