Launching a New Freely Channel with JWP

JWP’s end-to-end solution for the Freely platform, allows broadcasters and content providers to onboard and distribute their programming quickly onto Freely.

The streaming service interface displays "Platform 7," a thrilling series, alongside options for other shows like "The Traitors" and "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" As the timestamp reads 9:09 PM, an announcement banner reveals they’re launching a new freely channel with JWP.
The word "Freely" in black text with a logo above it featuring two pink dots and a curved pink line, symbolizing the New Freely Channel's launch.

Freely is a new streaming service launched by Everyone TV (ETV), a UK entity which also owns and operates the Freeview and Freesat and Freely in the UK. Everyone TV is owned by BBC, Channel4, Channel5 and ITV. 

Logo with a stylized red "W" next to the black letters "JWP" on a white background.

JWP is a proven supplier for live channel streaming services on Freely providing the ingest and encoding of live feeds; the storage, live origin and CDN delivery of live feeds onto the Freely platform. JWP also manages the curation and delivery of stream metadata that drives the Freely user interface and experience.

JWP Workflow for Freely

How Launching a Freely Channel with JWP Works:

Once a Broadcaster has an agreement with Everyone TV then JWP can significantly decrease time to live by providing the following capabilities:

Broadcaster Specific Ingest

The JWP Professional services team can work with you to design an ingest mechanism for live channels. JWP can provide live transcoding in the cloud or even take pre-encoded feeds into our Broadcast Live platform.

Live Encoding, Origin and Distribution

The Broadcast Live platform manages the ingest, live multi-bitrate encoding, the storage and packaging of live streams into Freely approved formats that are ready for immediate distribution on the Freely platform. Broadcasters can use these streams and have them packaged for delivery to other platforms such as Web, Mobile Apps, Connected TV Applications, etc.

Content Protection

JWP’s Studio DRM product provides Freely approved DRM protection. JWP's Studio DRM offers PlayReady, Widevine, and FairPlay Streaming DRM protection over HLS, MPEG-Dash, and DVB-Dash. For Freely, JWP encrypts the DVB-Dash stream with PlayReady DRM. JWP, by using DRM and the CDN, can geographically restrict streams to the UK if desired.

Channel Delivery

JWP offers a MediaSelector API as a service specifically for Freely that enables metadata to be retrieved for delivery of channels onto the Freely device. This API will provide stream and DRM information as specified by ETV in their “Content Provider IP Delivery Media Selector Guidelines” document, and this functionality will be maintained in line with any changes/updates made by ETV to their specification. This API will be extended to support other features of the Freely specification as they become available.

Testing

The JWP platform automatically prepares streams that adhere to the Freely specification including, but not limited to, DRM, subtitling, metadata, accessibility and DVR. The JWP team of Infrastructure Engineers, together with the Solution Architect, will support the testing process with ETV. JWP is familiar with the process and has a good understanding of the requirements that need to be met. This will significantly reduce the number of testing rounds required to get the streams approved.

Support

JWP’s global support team provides 24×7 support and has received a Customer Satisfaction score of 90% in 2024. All of our customers have access to our Support team for day-to-day technical support. In addition to that, all our customers have an assigned Account Management team composed of:

  • An Account Executive that takes the lead on the business side, especially as it relates to onboarding new products.
  • A Project Manager to assist with the migration and the onboarding phase.
  • An Account Manager that handles the day-to-day contact, understands your goals, and helps facilitate success with JW Player. This person is your first point of contact, managing your relationship with JW Player, and ensuring success throughout.
  • A Solutions Engineer that supports the technical implementation of new products and betas, and helps to problem solve any more complex questions that come up.

Live Event Monitoring

24/7 proactive monitoring of your live channels by an in-house NOC team, backed up by a second level of support engineers. Live Event Monitoring is an additional chargeable service where the JWP Technical Support team monitors customers 24/7 live channels and one-off live events. This service is intended to simulate the end viewer experience and proactively monitor for early indicators of issues with the live stream. The monitoring is done at the point of egress. Our team deploys a combination of market-leading automated tools as well as providing eyes-on-glass live event monitoring via the JWP dashboards to guarantee the optimum health of JWP’s video delivery. Our team ensures the availability, performance and quality of the JWP products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year worldwide.

Dashboard interface showing a TV broadcast of "Trigger Point" on itv1 with statistics, including 21,423 active viewers. Multiple analytics charts and channel details are displayed. This visual is part of the strategy for launching a new freely channel with JWP.

Future Capabilities

We are working closely with Everyone TV to prepare for future specifications to increase our offerings to you such as SSAI, Identity Management and DRM Optimization.

Ready to Launch a Freely Channel with JWP​?

We’re happy to take you through how we adhere to the ETV specifications and get you on your path to delivery on Freely.