What happened to YouView, the former next-gen Freeview platform?

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YouView was once thought of as Freeview’s replacement



When YouView launched in 2012, broadcasters hoped it would be the next generation of Freeview, bringing together online and digital terrestrial TV services. But shareholders BT and TalkTalk quickly dominated YouView sales with their pay TV services, with relatively few viewers choosing to get YouView from a shop just for the Freeview channels.

YouView was originally known as ‘Project Canvas‘, the first attempt by the main public broadcasters to develop a standard for internet TV. Like Freely, it was designed to target non-pay TV, i.e. Freeview viewers with broadband access.

Roll forward 12 years and broadcasters are once again pinning their hope on another next generation Freeview platform. Freely will try to do what YouView set out to do. Initially Freely will be a hybrid platform, just like YouView. Viewers will be able to combine terrestrial (or satellite, depending on receiver) with online services. In time, as terrestrial and satellite distribution comes to an end, Freely will become a pure online service. Just as the YouView-powered BT TV is already doing.

What is YouView doing these days?

Two years ago, ITV revealed it and other shareholders in YouView had signed a new funding agreement that runs until the end of March 2024. The two year agreement was much shorter than previous agreements and indicated change ahead. During this time, YouView has continued to streamline its operations, further severing the link between it and viewers, discontinuing support for older boxes and reinvented itself as a technology partner to platform operators. How shareholders will fund YouView and for how much longer remains to be disclosed.

In the meantime, many viewers may now have a YouView-powered box at home, unaware of who is behind the box. The brand has disappeared from devices and support for the devices is delivered by the companies who provide the devices to viewers.

YouView makes smart boxes dumb

YouView-branded receivers were once available in shops. And BT and TalkTalk offered YouView-branded devices to their subscribers. Support for these boxes has been ending in various ways.

From Wednesday 28th February, its T1000 boxes, manufactured by Humax have become dumb boxes, losing support for any internet services. They can continue to be used to watch or record Freeview TV services only. All features that rely on the internet have been lost.

Other older YouView boxes, including some previously offered to BT and TalkTalk customers, have also partially lost support. So when ITV relaunched its streaming service as ITVX, some YouView users missed out. And some features like Netflix Basic with Ads don’t work on some boxes. YouView has told affected viewers to contact BT/EE or TalkTalk to request a new box.

What next for YouView?

Since YouView launched in 2012, it’s viewed Freeview as a competitor, and an inferior competitor at that. To this day, its FAQ promotes some of the differences that make YouView a better choice. With Freeview set to be replaced with Freely, that tone has changed. In December, YouView self-identified as ‘proud’ to be working with the public broadcasters to launch Freely.

The company, which shares some of the same owners as Freeview and Freely platform operator Everyone TV, will act as a technology partner. YouView has already built a track record of migrating viewers online.

In the past three years, YouView has worked with BT to move its TV service online, now under the EE brand. All newer BT/EE TV boxes now have an ‘internet mode’, allowing viewers to ditch their aerial, albeit at the moment with fewer free-to-air channels as Freeview. Meanwhile, YouView’s technology platform supports targeted adverts, which ITV is utilising. That’s a technology that broadcasters want to see become more widely adopted on Freely.

It’s also supporting TalkTalk’s current TV receivers with interactive functionality. But the future of that partnership is uncertain. TalkTalk is being split into multiple standalone businesses. Its consumer business is the subject of various takeover rumours, with Virgin Media O2 the latest to investigate its options. TalkTalk sources deny the company is effectively for sale. During 2022, TalkTalk briefly broke away from YouView to launch a 4K TV box powered by Netgem. Later the same year, it returned to YouView for its current TV Hub box.

For now, what started off as a replacement to Freeview continues as a giant knowledge base and technology platform that broadcasters continue to exploit.

Marc Thornham