We’ve explored this above with the way different program guides are laid out, but because Freeview Play is a platform rather than a single piece of software, the experience can vary a lot between different pieces of hardware and different manufacturers. LG's TVs support Freeview Play A lot depends on manufacturers You’re not missing out on content that’s available to stream for free elsewhere, but it’s a problem that could cause some confusion for people in your household. While this is easy to overlook while looking at iPlayer through its usual interface, the way Freeview Play lays out its programming chronologically makes these blind spots a little more obvious. You’re probably familiar with occasions when the BBC might show a popular movie on one of its channels, only to have it never appear on its catch-up services. While this means that you still get the same great iPlayer service through Play, it does mean that there are some unfortunate blind spots in programming.
This means that when you scroll back through your EPG and select a program, it will then launch its own catch-up service to begin playing it. Individual catch-up services can still be accessed directly A lot depends on individual catch-up servicesĪlthough Freeview Play is aiming to present a clean unified experience, it ultimately relies on catch-up services to provide its functionality. However, the Freeview team told me it was a feature they’d be very interested in implementing in the future.Ī new accessible TV guide is also coming in late 2020, adding text-to-speech functionality, screen magnification (zoom), a high contrast UI, and content filtering for subtitled, signed, or audio-described content. However, depending on the manufacturer of the hardware you’re using the interface could work much differently, instead allowing you to scroll through programs by going left and right, and scroll through different channels by heading up and down.Īlthough catch-up services like iPlayer currently allow you to quickly and easily restart a program that’s currently running, this functionality isn’t available through Freeview Play. You then scroll up and down to pick the particular program you want to watch. For example, on the 2017 model Panasonic television we were using, each day is listed in columns, allowing you to scroll back horizontally to quickly cover multiple days.
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