Freeview, Freeplay, Freely, YouView

[gspearson]

My boxes are now giving me a message that YouView support will end this month.  More widely, most suppliers seem to be out of stock of all recorders.  The info suggests that Freely will launch later this year but will not be recordable.  This may mean that I need a fibre connection which BT cannot yet provide.

Does anyone know what is happening?

[Les-Gibson · Accepted solution]

Support for the T1000 box is being dropped, if you're under contract then I would expect BT to replace your box F.O.C.

When Freely is going to become available is anyone's guess but, if it helps, you might want to google 'Freevee' it's a free (ad supported) streaming service from Amazon

[NigelB72]

If you have a retail Youview box, you'll no longer receive support once the Youviews retail platform ends. If you have your Youview box as part of a BT/EE TV subscription, support will continue through BT/EE. 

[gspearson]

Thanks, I've just found the other strand on here. We watch hardly any TV except recorded stuff so this is a snag.  We are out of contract and there is a national absence of Free/View/Play boxes.

[Les-Gibson]

Whilst the axe is hovering over Freeview it's not going to fall anytime soon. See this link for an expected timeline

[NigelB72]

@gspearson I suspect they're running down the retail Freeview boxes so they can start producing and rolling out Freely which seems to be an brand new OS which incorporates IP Delivery of Freeview and deeper integration of non subscription apps. No word on whether paid apps will make an appearance though as far as I'm aware..

[gspearson]

The rundown is my reading too.  Argos has a box in stock in Oban - I'm in Edinburgh.  Meanwhile I'm in the street that OpenReach forgot.  100 metres in any direction takes me to streets festooned with overhead OR fibre systems.  While we wait, CityFibre has pushed fibre up the gardens of most of my neighbours homes - so tempting.  But after 50 years with BT I can wait a little longer.  

My YouView page is badged as BT even though I was out of a sub before I bought the Humax box.  I guess that will end on 28 February.  The TV has FreePlay - I might be able to attach a hardrive to it.

[stereohaven]

@gspearson 

 Most TVs have some form of PVR functionality, but can only usually record 1 channel at a time.

The next available Freeview Play PVR is the Manhattan T4-R, which has been delayed twice already and is expected in March, but could be delayed again.

If you don’t want a new contract but like the general UX, there are many G4 YouView and Pro Boxes on eBay right now.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Les-Gibson 

Freevee is just some ad-supported Amazon Prime stuff you can have without a subscription (and you still get the ads on Freevee stuff even if you have a Prime subscription!).

But it doesn’t provide any of our UK terrestrial channels, as Freely is going to 😢

[Midnight_Voice]

@NigelB72 

Sort of correct; but all YouView are actually stopping at the moment is support for the original black T1000 box (and probably the slightly later T1010).

YouView retail T2000 boxes continue to be supported, as do the BT Retail boxes, and even BT subscription boxes now being used outside of EE TV.

YouView or BT-supplied T1000s will stop working as internet boxes, even on an EE TV subscription - though they will continue as non-internet recording and playback boxes still capable of handling linear (broadcast live) terrestrial broadcasting.

But in the unlikely event someone is still running a T100, and only a T1000, on an EE TV subscription, EE will likely replace it for them.