Hours of hugely popular shows will soon be blocked from some Freeview devices with ITV confirming that a major shake-up of its online streaming service will see certain TVs and set-top boxes losing compatibility. The major change is taking place on Thursday, September 29 and affects a swathe of Freeview-powered products including those made by Samsung, Panasonic and Hisense.
Most of the TVs that are losing access to ITV Hub are older models but more recent devices are also being hit by the block including some Panasonic and Hisense screens that were only launched back in 2018. Considering most manufacturers expect their TVs to last around eight years this is a huge blow for owners.
Along with televisions losing ITV Hub, popular Humax set-top boxes were also recently added to the incompatibility list with gadgets including the Humax 4000t and more recent Humax 5000t (which remains on sale in stores) losing the option to watch content from the streaming service.
Confirming the block, Freeview said: “From the end of September ITV is making changes to the ITV Hub app. As a result, the ITV Hub app will no longer be available on some devices, including some Freeview Play devices. This is due to ITV working to deliver improvements and upgrade their app. The technology required to carry out these improvements is not supported by some devices.”
If you are concerned that you might be losing ITV Hub, here is the full and most recent list of all Freeview devices that are losing ITV Hub access:
Avtex • released 2016+
CVTE • released 2013+
Hisense TVs • released 2016/2018
Humax 4000t • released 2016
Humax 5000t • released 2017
Panasonic TV C range • released 2015
Panasonic TV D range models • released 2016
Panasonic TV F range models • released 2017
Sharp UMC • released 2017
Sharp UMC • released 2018
TCL 6 Series • released 2018
Samsung • All TVs prior to 2015 Orsay (Linux) OS
If you own one of these TVs or set-top boxes and want to carry on watching ITV Hub you will either need to upgrade your device or buy a compatible streaming stick such as Roku or Fire TV.
These start from around £20 so are not expensive.
It could be a wise investment with ITV promising a major overhaul of its Hub service before the end of the year.
This online platform is about to be replaced by a new service called ITV X which is promising even more shows and boxsets with some being made available before they are shown on terrestrial TV. In fact, whilst ITV Hub has 4,000 hours of content the new ITVX platform is boasting that it will have around 11,000 hours more.
ITVX will be entirely free to watch via an ad-supported plan, but a paid-for package which bundles in BritBox will also be available that removes ads as well.
There’s no word on an official launch for ITVX but it’s expected to arrive on TVs within the next few months.
