[simpfeld]

You'd hope not as there was not a precursor to Freely like ITV Digital and Freeview. Although the soft launch is reminiscent of the Freeview launch. the fact it's launched with limited vendors (and TIVO ain't what it used to be) suggests there is not much appetite in the market at the moment. Its not really got a killer app or any advantage over the alternatives.

I guess the advantages are (potentially) all channels in HD.
And giving the full range (or even potentially larger than Freeview range) of channels especially in areas served by relay transmitters.

I think a biggest mistake here is not launching with apps on the key streaming platforms, Amazon Fire, Apple TV etc
Maybe just because they want a really soft launch, until they get all the Freeview channels out there, iron out bugs and maybe their CDN isn't fully capable of supporting this yet...