Freeview (Australia) — BrandWiki

Freeview (Australia)

Overview

Freeview Australia Limited

type	Privately held company
foundation	24 November 2008
location city	Sydney
location country	Australia
area served	Australia
industry	Digital television
homepage	www.freeview.com.au

Freeview is the brand name of the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia intended to bring all free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters onto a consistent marketing platform, to compete against subscription television, in particular Foxtel. The strategy coincided with the expansion to 3 digital channels for each FTA network and the phasing out of analogue television in Australia. Important services from Freeview include its free-to-air channels with an enhanced EPG (electronic program guide) across all channels. Freeview also certifies televisions, set-top boxes and personal video recorders (PVR) which meet its standards.

The Freeview brand was launched in November 2008 with teaser commercials promising 15 channels in 2009. The first new "Freeview" channel started on 26 March 2009 with Network 10's One HD channel (now 10 Drama). Further advertising began on 26 April 2009, with the first Freeview certified devices appearing in retailers from May 2009. In June 2010, the second phase of devices, marked as "Freeview EPG" devices, became available in retail stores, designed to work with the newly launched interactive EPG built on MHEG-5.[1] This Freeview EPG ceased operating on 24 November 2017,[2] and Freeview is now focusing on its new Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) FreeviewPlus service which was launched in 2014 and incorporates an onscreen guide.[3]

Freeview certification standards

Part of the Freeview initiative is to certify set-top boxes as capable of receiving free-to-air digital television broadcasts (both standard and high definition). Although certification requirements have not been formally released, Phase 1 Freeview devices will be high-definition, and capable of more advanced video encoding (MPEG-4). Recorders will not be able to skip over ads, and must enforce digital rights management. Skip features were initially limited to a minimum of 10 minutes, but these restriction were eased to 3 minutes in 2015 in response to a request from a hardware manufacturer supporting FreeviewPlus.[14]

Phase 2 required Freeview devices to feature MHEG-5 technology, which Freeview used to support its interactive electronic program guide and proposed future enhancements.

The Freeview advertising for their 17-channel platform and certified products, combined with the Australian government's commercials warning of the closure of analog TV transmissions, was intended to help consumers buy appropriate devices.

Freeview has threatened PVR manufacturers such as DViCO with legal action if they include the Freeview (UK) logo (which looks very similar to the Freeview Australia logo) on their Australian packaging.[15]

Eurofins Digital Testing, is the Officially Approved Test Centre for Freeview Australia conformance testing, where manufacturers wishing to deploy devices with the Freeview Australia logo and EPG can obtain pass reports.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Australia added Freeview compatibility to the PlayStation 3's PlayTV digital television tuner in October 2009 with the 1.21 firmware update. The update disabled ad-skipping, reduced fast forward and rewind speed to 30x and removed the ability to copy recordings to other devices. Unlike other Freeview-endorsed devices, these restrictions can be easily bypassed on the PlayStation 3.[16]

High-definition

To obtain Freeview certification, devices must include at least one high-definition digital tuner, supporting the HD formats of 576p, 720p and 1080i.

Video decoding

Freeview devices must be capable of receiving and decoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, a far less data-stream hungry standard than the initial MPEG-2 standard.[17] The standard allows higher quality transmissions or more television channels. All broadcasters now use MPEG-4 for their primary channel HD services, as well as some additional channels (in HD and SD).[18]

Digital video recorders

Freeview devices can not skip an ad block. Initially they could skip 10-minute blocks, and fast forward and rewind at 30x speeds, but these were changed to 3 minutes and 32x in 2015.[14]

Online services

Through Freeview, the free-to-air broadcasters have signed a new initiative for an industry-wide video hub – details of what content will be carried is unknown. A consultant has been commissioned to advise on vendor partnerships, and ABC's iView technology is the frontrunner to deliver the service.[31] Plans for this video hub have been superseded by the FreeviewPlus service.

The ABC, SBS, Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten each offer "catch up" internet television services in Australia, allowing viewers to watch local and foreign content after it has been shown on their respective channels, while One allows online streaming of select sporting content, including live streams of Formula One.

FreeviewPlus

In September 2014, Freeview launched FreeviewPlus, its Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) service,[3] which consists of six HbbTV apps – one for each of the five major Australian free-to-air broadcasters and a sixth cross-network electronic programming guide (EPG). Each network offers access to its catch-up TV library via its apps, plus it is possible to scroll back in time through the green button on-screen guide to view catch up programs. The service won Best Enhanced TV Service at the International Interactive TV Awards 2015.[32]

FreeviewPlus is not always available when viewing channels through regional affiliates. The Freeview website lists which catch up services and EPG listings are available by postcode. Where a user cannot access the catch up service through FreeviewPlus, it may still be accessible via a third party device running the broadcaster's app.

In May 2017, Freeview announced a brand overhaul of FreeviewPlus to align it more closely with its newer Freeview FV brand. The changes would include a new logo, and a simplified user interface.[33]

Freeview FV

In November 2016, Freeview released an app for iOS and Android devices that provides access to live-streaming of Freeview channels. While also marketed as providing access to catch-up services from within the app, the app instead redirects users to the relevant catch-up apps.[34] As at 2 December 2018, the application is still not available for "Android TV" streaming platform. Neither is "SBS on Demand", and "ABC iview".