Rewind TV, the retro channel that has been digging treasured British shows out of the archives since 2024, is finally arriving on Freesat \u2013 and in doing so, it ticks off a box that some of you have been asking about since the channel first launched.<\/p>\n
From June 25, 2026, Rewind TV will be available on Freesat Channel 164, bringing its mix of classic comedy, drama, factual and children\u2019s programming to the roughly one million UK homes that watch their free TV via a satellite dish.<\/p>\n
With Freesat added, Rewind TV now reaches every major over-the-air free-to-air platform in the UK. And it arrives at a moment when Freesat fans have suddenly, after a somewhat bleak stretch, got a couple of things to feel good about (more on that further down).<\/p>\n
There is still one notable gap, mind \u2013 and it is the same one we have flagged before. But first, for anyone meeting the channel for the first time, here is what Rewind TV actually is.<\/p>\n
Looking Back At Rewind TV <\/p>\n
Rewind TV is an independent channel built around a simple idea: classic British television from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, pulled out of the archives and put back on air.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It has spent the past two years carving out a niche as a home for programmes that would otherwise stay locked away.<\/p>\n
Its calling card is rarity. Rewind TV has made its name unearthing material that has not been seen in decades, in some cases since it first aired.<\/p>\n
Last year, it dug up rare Doctor Who documentaries<\/a> and Tony Hancock comedy from 1956 that had been missing for seventy years. It has aired a 1950s children\u2019s show, Hank The Cowboy, that had been lost for more than sixty years, and the wonderfully odd 1970s sci-fi series Star Maidens, set on a planet where women rule and men serve.<\/p>\n The channel is not afraid to push a bit further than its rivals, either. Last autumn it launched an \u201cAfter Hours\u201d season of late-night<\/a> cult films from the 1960s and 70s \u2013 cheeky, adults-only material from a freer era of British cinema, including titles that had never been shown on British television.<\/p>\n That willingness to take a risk is notable for a smaller broadcaster, given how cautious channels tend to be around Ofcom guidelines.<\/p>\n If you are tuning in for the first time when it lands on Freesat, June is a good month<\/a> to start.<\/p>\n The current lineup leans into classic comedy and cult drama: there is The New Statesman, with Rik Mayall as the gloriously corrupt MP Alan B\u2019Stard, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), the cult detective series with a ghost for a sidekick.<\/p>\n There is also Doctor at Large, notable for an episode written by John Cleese that is widely regarded as a prototype for Fawlty Towers, plus Only When I Laugh from the writer of Rising Damp, and a showcase of the inimitable Frankie Howerd.<\/p>\n One quick note to avoid confusion: this is a UK channel, and not the same as the American \u201cRewind TV\u201d brand owned by Nexstar Media Group.<\/p>\n From Sky To Freeview To Freesat <\/p>\n Rewind TV\u2019s arrival on Freesat is the latest step in a steady, platform-by-platform expansion that has been going on for two years now.<\/p>\n It started on Sky in May 2024<\/a>, launching on the satellite platform\u2019s Channel 190 (it has since moved to 182), but only on Sky\u2019s traditional satellite boxes such as Sky Q.<\/p>\n Freeview came that September<\/a>, when Rewind TV joined the platform on its monthly retune day. That was the big one, opening the channel up to millions more homes without a subscription, and it has since settled on Freeview Channel 81.<\/p>\n A Freely listing followed too, though with an asterisk \u2013 it appears on Channel 141, but only on the aerial-connected version of Freely.<\/p>\n And throughout all of it, the one platform that kept being raised by readers, and kept not happening, was Freesat. That is the box this June 25 launch finally ticks.<\/p>\n Where You Can Watch Rewind TV <\/p>\n From June 25, here is where you will be able to find it:<\/p>\n Freeview Channel 81 Sky Channel 182 (satellite only) Freely Channel 141 (aerial-connected version only) Freesat Channel 164 (new) <\/p>\n Rewind TV co-founder Jonathan Moore said the satellite audience is a natural fit: \u201cWe are delighted to bring Rewind TV to Freesat viewers from 25th June.<\/p>\n \u201cFreesat\u2019s audience is a natural fit for the channel, with many viewers having a strong affinity for the classic programmes and television personalities that define Rewind TV.\u201d<\/p>\n The One Thing Still Missing: Proper Streaming <\/p>\n Here is the caveat. While Rewind TV now covers every major over-the-air platform, it still has no proper streaming presence \u2013 and no standalone app.<\/p>\n The Freely listing on Channel 141 might look like an exception, but it is not really. That slot only works on the aerial-connected version of Freely, where it is the Freeview broadcast surfacing through the Freely guide, rather than a true streamed channel.<\/p>\n If you are on a Freely box (either the Aero or the Pleio) or TV without an aerial plugged in \u2013 which is rather the whole point of Freely \u2013 you will not find Rewind TV there at all.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a gap worth pointing out because the channel\u2019s most direct rival has already closed it. Talking Pictures TV has its own streaming app, and is already on the streaming version of Freely<\/a>. Rewind TV remains a broadcast-only operation for now.<\/p>\n You could argue the audience minds less about this than most. Rewind TV viewers tend to lean old-school, watching over an aerial or a dish rather than over broadband, so satellite reach is arguably the more valuable addition for them.<\/p>\n But as more viewers drift towards internet-delivered TV \u2013 and as Freely is positioned as the long-term successor to both Freeview and Freesat<\/a> \u2013 a streaming option feels like something Rewind TV will need eventually.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Good Summer For Freesat, At Last <\/p>\n It has not been a cheerful year or so for Freesat. The Commscope Freesat 4K recorders were discontinued<\/a>, leaving fans with nowhere to turn for a new recording box (for a few months).<\/p>\n And the older Humax boxes that preceded them spent years quietly losing features<\/a>, from ITVX support to remote control functionality.<\/p>\n And hanging over all of it is the bigger question of Freesat\u2019s long-term future \u2013 an Ofcom report flagged that a decision<\/a> on the platform was due around now, with options ranging from a stripped-back service to phasing it out altogether in favour of Freely.<\/p>\n So a bit of good news is welcome. In April, Manhattan TV announced the S4-R<\/a>, the first new Freesat recorder to hit the market since 2020, and it went on sale in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stock has been trickling out in the staggered way we have come to expect from the free TV hardware market lately \u2013 the 500GB model has been in and out of availability, the 1TB is only just starting to appear in some retailers, and the 2TB version is not here yet \u2013 but it is a proper, modern recorder, and its arrival mattered to a platform that had been starved of hardware.<\/p>\n Add a popular channel on top of a new recorder, and Freesat fans have had more to smile about this summer than in a long while.<\/p>\n None of this resolves the platform\u2019s longer-term uncertainty, of course \u2013 the satellite deal with Sky runs to 2029, and the strategic questions remain. But for now, the mood around Freesat is the brightest it has been in a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rewind TV, the retro channel that has been digging treasured British shows out of the archives since 2024,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-639387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639387","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=639387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Netgem Pleio \/ Manhattan Aero <\/p>\n
Manhattan S4-R <\/p>\n