[Former Member 2410]

It's OK to speculate, opine and debate on a discussion forum. If one wants to be critical, that's fine. If someone wants to stick their neck out and predict an outcome - that's fine. Of course there's every chance one's predictions might not turn out to be correct, but that's half the fun.

So long as we're not definitively stating an opinion as a truth, I'm not sure I see the problem; nor the merit in waiting to actually see what the outcome is before declaring one's opinion on what the outcome might be.

I think it's interesting to see what people think of stuff, both in advance of important product launches (now) but also years down the line when one looks back over past innovations. Provided they stay online, discussion forums are a really rich resource in terms of understanding a snapshot of opinions which existed during a moment in time - just the other day I found myself on a Google search binge looking for information about the former Ftn channel, which then sent me down a wormhole of rediscovering the rich range of opinions which existed about Freeview in general in those early months.

None of this would be possible if everyone just obeyed a 'wait and see before opining' instruction.

Don't disagree with you at all. Opinions and views are what make up life, and, so long as they're respectful, crack-on. My point is more that people are writing Freely off before it's even got going, and before we really have any decent information to go on. I'm not at all saying people can't say what they think, or that they have to wait and see. But what I am saying is that people are judging the whole thing based on one announcement. I certainly don't expect people to 'wait and see'; but perhaps not to be too quick to judge and write it off entirely. It will take time to come into being, just as Freeview did.

Which is a big part of the problem, from my perspective. One TV manufacturer - we don't even know how many Freely compatible models Hisense are working on. Unlike Freeview/Freesat, a somewhat walled garden which you can't just tap in to with a generic receiver. No app, no STB, nor any plans for either.

We don't know if there are plans. We didn't know there was a deal with Hisense until recently. There may be more on the way. Same for apps, boxes, sticks, dongles etc. We simply don't know and can't conclusively say they have no plans.

Contrast that to Freeview - who started with a captive market of up to however many subscribers ITV Digital had, with no requirement for them to change anything at all. Anyone else who saw/read/heard about the launch could walk in to their local electrical retailer and buy either an intended-for-ONdigital box, a Pace DTV Adapter or if they were really all-in an expensive IDTV; and it was clear that a plethora of other (better!) options were just around the corner, including all those categories and also DVD/HDD recorders.

Freeview yes had the advantage of being more 'open', though as has been pointed out, this had some disadvantages at times with the split-NIT issues. However, it was also always going to be built-into TV's as the transition to digital carried through. There literally wasn't a choice. In the same vain, had OnDigital continued, it too would likely have been built into TV's. The difference now is that we have a whole world of streaming options. People, rightly, expect a similar level of service from Freely, which may well occur. However, it has to start somewhere. Starting with one manufacturer to prove the user interface, technology, ensure it all works etc., before any wider roll-outs (possibly to include, sticks, dongles, boxes etc.) is a fair way to go about it, and is a proven way to sensibly roll-out a product. I suspect we may end up with a situation more like Sky Glass; Freely is built-into some / all TV's, but there will be boxes or apps for older TVs, at least until its well-established. The principle is, we just don't know, so let's not write the whole thing off before it's even getting going.

Compare instead to Sky Glass - which despite a comprehensive marketing push far greater than anything we might realistically expect from Everyone TV or Hisense - is widely understood to have underperformed vs expectations. And in fairness, we knew from launch that Sky had a 'puck' product ready to go, they just made a choice to not make it available standalone straight away.

It just feels like there is lesson from history which is being missed here.

Yes, agree with your point entirely. But again, we can't conclusively say, nor can we jump to conclusions. As above, I'm not saying we can't discuss until we know for sure, but also the service is being unfairly judged on the back of a single announcement. It has to start somewhere, and it will grow. How it grows remains to be seen, but we can't write it off before it begins; that's just madness.