Thousands of Britons ditched their traditional television aerial to watch the World Cup via a broadband connection, new data from BARB, the organisation responsible for measuring UK television and streaming audiences, reveals.
Four times as many households watched England’s Group Stage matches via broadband compared to the last World Cup tournament just four years ago. Everyone TV — the organisation behind Freeview, Freesat, and most recently, Freely — believes the latest statistics from BARB reflect rapidly-changing viewing habits across the UK, with more audiences choosing to stream live TV over the traditional terrestrial channels delivered via aerial or satellite.
Streaming live television via Wi-Fi means you’re not tethered to your aerial socket, letting you place your flatscreen anywhere with a decent wireless signal. This is similar to solutions like Sky Glass, Sky Stream, Virgin Media Stream, and rebooted EE TV launched in late 2023.
Not only that, but delivering television over Wi-Fi instead of airwaves unlocks several features for free-to-air channels that were previously only available on paid-for boxes, like Sky Glass, including pausing live television.
Freely was first launched in 2024 and provides live and on-demand TV over broadband, replacing the need for a traditional TV aerial or satellite dish | EVERYONE TV
Freely is the successor to Freeview, switching from an aerial to an internet connection to deliver new features, like the ability to restart a show that’s already in progress or scroll back in time via the TV Guide to find on-demand episodes of your favourite shows. Freely is already watched by over 1 million people across the UK, having doubled its growth from 500,000 viewers in roughly three months between September and December 2025.
What makes that so remarkable is Freely isn’t a software update for the approximately 16 million households in the UK that watch via Freeview. For the first year after its launch, Freely was only available when viewers bought a new Smart TV designed from the ground-up for the new streaming platform. That’s improved a little, with three standalone set-top boxes now allowing you to add Freely to any television via the HDMI port.
The FIFA World Cup marked a series of milestones for the up-and-coming streamer, Freely.
During the tournament, the platform grew to more than two million monthly active users and recorded its biggest viewing day since launch, highlighting its progress towards becoming the UK’s largest TV device platform by 2030.
Compared with last year, Freely has also seen a rise in the proportion of users returning to the platform daily, reflecting increasing loyalty to the platform, Everyone TV has confirmed to GB News.
Everyone TV, the organisation that developed Freely and Freeview, has struck deals with a variety of manufacturers to use Freely as the default way to watch on newer flatscreen models | EVERYONE TV PRESS OFFICE
Discussing the BARB data, Everyone TV Chief Executive, Jonathan Thompson told GB News: “Major sporting events like the World Cup bring millions of people together for a shared live viewing experience.
“As one of the UK’s biggest TV events, it offers a clear picture of how audiences are choosing to watch. Compared with 2022, significantly more viewing took place over the internet, highlighting the growing role of broadband in delivering free television and the changing ways audiences are watching live TV.”
It comes a few weeks after forecasts from 3 Reasons, independent analysts who specialise in research about TV platform dynamics, suggest that Freely’s popularity will continue to skyrocket, reaching 10.5 million UK households by 2034.
That date is extremely important since current UK Government policy only guarantees traditional over-the-air broadcasts until 2034. Regulator Ofcom is reviewing whether this cut-off date should be extended.
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is the method of delivering the digital signals for free-to-air television channels via rooftop or indoor aerials. But to most of us, it’s just called “Freeview”
| OPENAI | GB NEWS
As part of its research, 3 Reasons discovered that rather than falling a predicted 10% between 2023 and 2025, the number of homes without broadband actually fell a whopping 30% and stands at 1.2 million today.
However, even with widespread adoption of broadband connections fast enough to stream live television, the switch remains controversial. Aside from the mandatory £180 annual TV licence fee, there is no cost to connecting to an aerial and watching linear television. Likewise, if you own a satellite dish, Freesat lets you watch dozens of free-to-air channels at no cost.
But this isn’t the case for broadband-based television, which requires an internet connection in your home.
You’ll need a minimum speed of 10Mbps to watch via Freely, the successor to Freeview and Freesat, developed by the same team, with most broadband companies charging at least £10 to £15 a month for the sorts of speed you’ll need to watch at a decent picture quality. If streaming became the only way to watch free-to-air channels in the UK, millions of UK viewers could be “forced into paying for broadband”.
While that might seem reasonable, these costs add up over time – adding a £120 bill via Direct Debit that might’ve otherwise been unnecessary for those who don’t already require internet at home.
Rob Collier of 3 Reasons commented: “In a debate this important, we need to approach the issue as objectively as possible. Our role at 3 Reasons is to provide robust, well-considered and independent forecasts grounded in the best available data, which can be used to inform critical TV infrastructure decisions.”
Broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, have backed a transition to internet-based telly, stating that it costs them vast sums to maintain broadcast signals used by a declining number of people.
The BBC has teased plans to build its own Roku or Fire TV Stick competitor to make streaming more accessible to UK households.
A spokesperson for the Broadcast 2040+ campaign, which brings together over 30 organisations, including the Digital Poverty Alliance and Rural Services Network, and hopes to safeguard broadcast TV and radio, told GB News: “Forcing households onto broadband simply to watch basic TV would impose new costs and create new exclusions. If the Government were to underwrite the cost for those who cannot pay, it could easily cost £1billion per year – an ongoing liability, with people losing their TV if it were ever withdrawn.”
