As it reports what it calls a solid beginning to the year, the UK subscription-free service Freesat is claiming to be benefiting from enhancing its content offering and building international partnerships.

Freesat 11 May 2016At the end of Q1 2016 ended 31 March, the ITV/BBC joint venture company says that the number of homes connected to its service Freesat remains steady at 1.93 million, with those connected by both satellite and broadband is up 54% year-on-year. Sales of connected set-top boxes were up 18% year-on-year.

The company added that more than four million viewers tune into the platform each week, where they can access over 200 TV and radio channels, and attributed growth mainly to customers choosing to complement linear free-to-air TV viewing with on-demand offering. The latter include Wuaki.tv – which provides the latest films on a pay-as-you-watch basis – together with the major free catch-up players, BBC iPlayer, All4, My5 and ITV Hub. In April 2016, the BBC Trust allowed Freesat to offer live pay sports services.

“By adding more quality channels and on-demand services to our subscription-free platform, we’re able to offer consumers an attractive alternative to expensive TV contracts and hefty bills,” commented Freesat managing director Alistair Thom. “As always, we’re focusing on giving customers choice to watch the TV they want and plan to bring even more channels and players to the platform in the near future.”