FreeV: all Australian free TV content in one place
FreeV provides access to all Australian free TV content in one place – it’s a meta-guide to free TV which you can stream from the Internet. All the shows are available on the networks own sites of course, but Freev explains itself like this:
The motivation for this site came from leading a busy life. There is a simple joy in coming home after a hard day to enjoy some viewing escapism or having a few minutes to chill out and watch stuff. We got sick of being at the mercy of the TV guide and didn’t like the hassle of browsing multiple network sites for content, not to mention sifting through the mountain of episodes on each site to try to find out what was actually good.
When we had an hour to spare to watch something, we didn’t want the hassle of all that. Once we talked to some friends, neither did they. Access to everything in one place with content sorted and rated by people with similar interests seemed to be the ultimate solution to our common conundrum. Thus FreeV was born.
The site is in beta but seems to work well already. There’s a lot of potential in the crowd-sourcing of being able to up-vote and down-vote a show although it will depend a lot on whether the ‘crowd’ likes the same sort of stuff you do.
The search engine is one thing that will need improving as time goes by – at the moment it’s brutal. Search for ‘Dr Who’ and you get a myriad of hits including any title that uses the words ‘whole’, ‘whose’, etc. Also, If I were running the site I might think twice about the pale yellow colour scheme. Outside of those comments, I can only say the site does exactly what it advertises, and does it well.
Right now, if you do watch TV shows via the Internet, FreeV is worth your time. And, given its early potential, FreeV is itself worth watching as it develops.