Freely doubles weekly viewership over festive period

The new data shows accelerated growth for the platform, with the number of viewers doubling since the half a million users previously announced in September. According to Everyone TV, this makes Freely the fastest-growing TV platform in the UK in 2025.

Jonathan Thompson, CEO, Everyone TV, said: “Surpassing one million weekly users is an exciting milestone for Freely, signalling that there is audience demand for a simple way to stream live British TV and discover great on-demand shows – all in one place. Freely was the fastest growing TV platform in 2025, showing the power of the UK’s public service broadcasters working together to make brilliant British TV easy to discover and stream. It’s a great start to 2026 as we continue to build momentum, putting the nation’s favourite channels and stories front and centre in the streaming age.”

Backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, the free streaming platform saw strong daily engagement over the festive period, with more than half (55%) of its one million weekly users returning every day to stream their favourite Christmas TV.

For Freely users, two-thirds of whom stream all their TV content, the public service broadcasters’ (PSBs) flagship linear channels remain popular, particularly BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4, 5 and ITV2.

Audiences also took advantage of access to the PSBs’ on-demand libraries through Freely over the festive period. Viewing spiked on Christmas Day, with on-demand streaming dominated by soaps, Christmas specials and classic festive films.

BBC One was the most popular channel on Christmas Day, with BBC’s total share bigger than the whole SVOD market combined. The most popular BBC show on Christmas Day was The King’s Speech, closely followed by The Scarecrow’s Wedding with 4.3m viewers.

ITV saw increases in share of viewing year-on-year on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with Coronation Street, Emmerdale, The Royal Variety Performance and The 1% Club as the most popular titles.

Channel 4 recorded its biggest Christmas week for linear share since 2012 (7.3%), whilst also celebrating its biggest ever Christmas Eve for 16-34 share (15.9%), biggest ever Christmas Day ABC1 share (11.3%), and, Channel 4’s biggest Boxing Day share (9.2%) since 2002. Across Channel 4, streaming viewer minutes grew +48% YoY for Christmas week. The record festive viewing was driven by a range of hits including Big Fat Quiz of The Year, 24 Hours in Police Custody, The Great British Bake Off’s festive specials and Taskmaster Champion of Champions.

Channel 5 delivered record festive viewing with All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special drawing 2.9m consolidated viewers on 24 December. Christmas Day share hit 6.4%, its highest since 2020, boosted by Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. New Year’s Eve saw the channel’s biggest audience since records began, with 6.1% share (+23% YOY), and in Kids & Family, Milkshake! was the top destination for 4–7-year-olds in the final week of the year, at 22.1% share, led by favourites like Milo, Dora and Peppa Pig. In on-demand, 5 streaming grew a record 34% year-on-year thanks to a slate of original drama and range of boxsets.