Summary
- Google TV’s Freeplay service has removed three free television channels, including a couple of holiday-themed channels.
- At the same time, the service has brought back two previously removed channels into the mix.
- This reshuffling means the total number of available free channels on Google TV Freeplay is significantly fewer than in December.
Google TV users in the US have one key perk that the rest of the world doesn’t — Freeplay. This dedicated app on the Google TV platform allows users to watch free live television channels. Although the list of channels was limited initially, Freeplay had over 150 free channels to choose from in a short time. However, not all channels are available throughout, with Google removing some and adding new ones from time to time. The same has happened now, with Google TV Freeplay removing three channels. But it’s not all bad news.
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According to 9to5Google, Google TV Freeplay has removed three channels — Xumo Holiday Movie Channel, Xumo Holiday Classics, and Xumo Christian Christmas. These channels were added a couple of months ago for the holiday season, so their removal isn’t very surprising. In the meantime, Freeplay has brought back two channels that were removed earlier this month — Out TV Proud and Shades of Black. But as the site notes, the rest of the channels that disappeared haven’t come back yet.
Google has a support page that lists all the available channels under Freeplay, and we’re already seeing some of the aforementioned channels gone from the list, though Xumo Holiday Classics is still listed at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, we couldn’t locate Out TV Proud on the list either, so it’s possible that Google hasn’t updated its support page yet.
A small price to pay for free TV channels
This is the second instance of Google TV deciding to rearrange its free channel catalog this month, which is annoying if you’re a frequent viewer of the affected channels. Naturally, there’s always the likelihood that Google will add some of these channels (while removing others) over the coming weeks and months, though we’ll never know for sure. Google rarely acknowledges any of these removals or additions, so the company’s support page is the only official resource for knowing which channels are still up.
While Google TV Freeplay had over 170 channels a couple of months ago, that number dwindled to 162 earlier this month. This recent change means the total number of channels continues to hover around the 160 mark. It’s challenging to get an accurate count of the free channels available on Freeplay, given the frequent additions and removals. However, as it stands, the service has fewer free, ad-supported channels than it did a couple of months ago.
