{"id":414745,"date":"2026-02-08T14:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/414745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T14:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:51:19","slug":"uk-homes-flock-to-grab-new-sky-and-virgin-rival-that-lets-you-stream-tv-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/414745\/","title":{"rendered":"UK homes flock to grab new Sky and Virgin rival that let’s you stream TV free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homes that don’t want to face huge monthly TV bills from firms such as Virgin Media<\/a> and Sky<\/a> now have another option. Freely first launched back in 2024, with this streaming service first featuring on a limited number of new TVs. Over the past 18 months, the range of screens featuring Freely has grown, but until now, those wanting to watch live and on-demand content via the platform still needed to head to their local tech retailer and buy a new television.<\/p>\n

The smart new device, called the Aero 4K, offers instant access to over 60 live channels and on-demand content, all available for free without a subscription.<\/p>\n

There’s also full voice search, recommendations for things to watch, the ability to pause live content, and it offers access to apps such as Disney+ and Netflix<\/a> (you will have to sign up for these premium services of course).<\/p>\n

It’s priced at \u00a369.99, and it appears to be proving pretty popular.<\/p>\n

Currys is the first store to add the Manhattan Aero 4K to shelves, and the latest update shows it’s already “out of stock”.<\/p>\n

The UK retailer has confirmed that the device was available but ran out quickly – it will be returning again soon.<\/p>\n

Those wanting one can add their email address to the Currys website and get alerts once it’s back. It’s also thought that other retailers, including Amazon and John Lewis, will begin selling the device soon.<\/p>\n

Once back in stock, the Aero 4K will go head-to-head with devices such as Virgin’s Stream box and Sky Stream.<\/p>\n

These all ditch the need for an aerial or dish with shows, sports, and movies beamed into homes via the web instead.<\/p>\n

Some of the benefits of moving over to streaming include a simpler way to install things without needing an engineer to visit as well as more regular over-the-air updates.<\/p>\n

It’s certainly an interesting time for TV, with Freely recently announcing that it now has over a million users. That number looks set to grow as more of us ditch traditional ways of watching content and switch over to streaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homes that don’t want to face huge monthly TV bills from firms such as Virgin Media and Sky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,7355,1236,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-414745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-sky","tag-tech-section","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}