Freeview and Vestel sign new 5-year partnership

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020
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UK’s Biggest TV Platform and Europe’s Biggest TV Set Maker Sign New 5-Year Partnership

As part of its continuing work to ensure that public-service television shows are easily available to consumers using the latest TV sets, Freeview is today announcing that it has renewed its contract with Vestel, the biggest manufacturer of TV sets in Europe, for a further five years.

The deal means that the Freeview Play service, home to the UK’s most-watched content from Bake Off to Strictly to Love Island, will be not just present, but have prominence on all new Vestel manufactured TV sets.

As well as being Europe’s largest set manufacturer, Vestel is a market leader in the UK, producing TVs for more than 20 brands, including JVC, Hitachi and Toshiba.

Freeview Play is already incredibly popular with owners of Vestel manufactured sets and under the new agreement the company will be providing new ways of helping customers enjoy the digital platform, enhancing its support of British viewers and retailers.

This includes a new introduction video to show viewers how Freeview Play works and how they can make the most of it. Vestel’s 2021 TV packaging will also showcase the Freeview Play offering and its core apps, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5 and STV Player.

Bringing together the best of live and on demand TV in one place, Freeview Play is home to the nation’s favourite content, with over 85 channels and nine on demand players; BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5, UKTV Play, CBS Catchup Channels UK, Horror Bites, STV Player, and BBC Sounds.

Giving viewers access to over 20,000 hours of on demand content, including over 750 boxsets, all for free, Freeview Play is the UK’s fastest growing TV platform, with over 10 million sales and 5 million users to date.

Simon Hunt, Director of Business Development and Strategy for Freeview Play commented “It is great to see this continued commitment to UK viewers from the Europe’s biggest TV manufacturer. As we have seen over the past year, whether it is the latest news or boxset, ensuring that we can all easily access public service broadcasting is so important to our society. Freeview Play delivers this to millions of viewers and we are delighted to be partnering with Vestel to enhance the viewing experience in new and exciting ways.”

Barış Altınkaya, Deputy General Manager of Marketing and Product Management for Vestel, added “We’re excited to extend and build on our long-standing partnership with Freeview Play. Freeview Play adds a great value to all our Smart TVs and raises the bar for the everyday viewing experience. Packed full of cutting-edge features such as embedded Alexa voice assistant, our vast ranges of 4K HDR and Full HD Smart TVs offer high audio-visual quality for all live and on demand content, but also easier, and more intuitive, hands-free voice control for our consumers.’