Checked 11 September 2026
You followed a link about the BBC Olympics app, iPlayer, BBC Sport, ITV Player, TVCatchup, Sky's Cloud Wi-Fi, ninety-nine pence film rentals, Freeview HD or Virgin Media. The renaming is sourceable: ITV Player is ITVX, whose Play listing still carries the old package id air.ITVMobilePlayer, All 4 is Channel 4, My5 is 5, UKTV Play is U, BT Sport is TNT Sports, and its live coverage moved into HBO Max on 26 March 2026. The blunt part: twelve of the fourteen apps below carry live television, and watching or recording it needs the £180 TV Licence, as does any use of BBC iPlayer (GOV.UK, read 11 September 2026).
Two of those subjects have no documented successor. Nothing opened for this article on 10 and 11 September 2026 records what became of the 2012 BBC Olympics app or the ninety-nine pence film rentals, so this page names them and does not guess. Sky’s The Cloud is not one of them: it still runs, and Sky’s own help page, read 11 September 2026, still prints the joining instructions, Select _The Cloud from the available network list
and Sign up once and you’ll connect automatically in future wherever there’s a Sky WiFi hotspot
(Sky WiFi help). It is a public Wi-Fi network rather than one of the television apps below. Olympic coverage is traceable, though: paid live coverage sits with TNT Sports inside HBO Max, and the free BBC coverage sits in the BBC Sport app below. If the pound-a-film rental is what you came back for, no listing or help page opened for this article prices a single film rental in any of the fourteen apps below, and the movie streaming apps are where that decision now lives.
BBC iPlayer is the pick in a licensed household, U the pick without a licence, BBC Sport the free one that keeps working abroad, Pluto TV the free live one, licence permitting, HBO Max where BT Sport went, and YouTube TV the one not to install. Our answer and the table ↓
BBC iPlayer is our best pick in a licensed household because the licence fee that pays for it also keeps advertising out of it, in the BBC’s own words it allows the BBC’s UK services to remain free of advertisements
(BBC licence fee and funding, read 11 September 2026), and its rating is 4.6 from 167,094 reviews on the United Kingdom Play storefront, read 11 September 2026.
U is our best pick if you hold no TV Licence, because UKTV calls it the free on demand TV service
(u.co.uk help, read 10 September 2026). Take that pick as the on demand library and nothing more: UKTV’s terms and conditions, last updated November 2024, define the services known as U as including on demand programme services, live simulcast streams (which are live streams simultaneously available on different platforms)
and say The Digital Services can be accessed via Our Websites and the ‘U’ mobile app
(UKTV terms and conditions, read 11 September 2026), so anything the app labels live is live television and needs the £180 licence.
Pluto TV is our best pick for free live channels in a licensed household, because its listing, read 10 September 2026, says Flip to free live TV anytime with hundreds of channels
and no subscription required
.
Data checked: 11 September 2026.
Every Play figure comes from the United Kingdom English storefront (gl=GB, hl=en_GB), because Play weights the star average by country. Google Play’s Contains ads label describes advertising inside the app itself and does not track the advertising breaks inside the programmes, which is why ITVX carries no label and still funds its free tier on advertising. Nothing rests on our own use of the apps.
A TV Licence costs £180 a year. GOV.UK, read 11 September 2026, gives two triggers: you need one to watch or record live TV on any channel or service
, or to use BBC iPlayer
. It adds two rules on who pays separately: in a shared house you need your own if you have separate tenancy agreements and you watch TV in your own room
, and in university accommodation you need your own again, unless you live at another address outside term time and that address holds a licence, which then covers you at university on a device that is battery powered, unplugged and not connected to an aerial.
The same page prints a concession, read 11 September 2026: You may be able to get a free or discounted TV Licence if you’re 75 or over and get Pension Credit, or if you’re blind or in residential care.
It names the way out too, You can cancel your TV Licence or apply for a refund
. If you decide you do need one, GOV.UK sends you to a single place for buying, moving and cancelling alike: its Start now
button carries the words on the TV Licensing website
, and every buying, moving and cancelling link on that GOV.UK page points at tvlicensing.co.uk (GOV.UK, read 11 September 2026). That site itself returned an HTTP 403 error on 10 September 2026, so the address above is GOV.UK’s and nothing on this page is cited to TV Licensing. GOV.UK does print the amounts, on the page its concession sentence links to: a free licence if you are 75 or older and get Pension Credit or live with a partner who does, a licence for £7.50 if you live in an eligible residential care home, supported housing or sheltered accommodation
when you are retired and over 60 or disabled, and a 50% discount if you’re registered blind or live with someone who is
(GOV.UK, read 11 September 2026).
The second trigger catches more. The BBC’s own iPlayer help page, read 11 September 2026, says A valid TV Licence is required to watch or download any programmes on BBC iPlayer
, on any device, and that watching without one is a criminal offence. It settles the phone case: You are covered to use BBC iPlayer when you’re away from home as long as you have a TV Licence at your home address and the device you’re using isn’t plugged in. If the device is plugged in at a separate address, there needs to be a licence in place at that address.
Two things sit outside it. On-demand viewing on the non-BBC services needs no licence, GOV.UK says, and nor does radio: you don’t need a TV licence to listen to or download radio programmes from BBC Sounds
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026), which is why a podcast app never raises it. A third exception sits under S4C Clic below.
Best pick in a licensed household
4.6 from 167,094 reviews · Installs 10,000,000+ · free · Developer British Broadcasting Corporation · Contains ads: No · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
BBC iPlayer charges nothing, carries the BBC channels live and shows no advertising. The account is the second gate: We share some of your personal information with TV Licensing to check if you are using BBC iPlayer
(BBC iPlayer help). On a mobile network the picture is capped at 540p and an hour runs to about 700MB (BBC iPlayer help, both read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: nothing plays without both, and the account reports to the licence.
4.6 from 213,778 reviews · Installs 5,000,000+ · free · no in-app purchases · Developer British Broadcasting Corporation · Contains ads: No · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
If you arrived from a BBC Sport post, the app is still there, still free, and it asks for the same BBC account iPlayer does: Please note a network connection and a BBC Account are required to access content
(its Play listing, read 11 September 2026). It is also one of the few BBC services that keeps working outside the country, named among BBC services you can use when travelling outside of the UK
, with the caveat that some content may not be available outside the UK due to rights agreements
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: the listing promises Watch major sporting events live
, and the BBC states the rule that follows: If you’re watching live sport on any channel, streaming service or device, you need a TV Licence
(BBC licence fee and funding, read 11 September 2026).
Best free player with live ITV channels
3.9 from 157,461 reviews · Installs 10,000,000+ · free to install · in-app purchases £3.99 to £59.99 through Play billing · Developer ITV PLC · Contains ads: No · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
ITVX wants only a free ITV account, and ITV names what it streams live: The channels you can stream are ITV1, ITV2, ITVBe, ITV3 and ITV4, as well as curated channels showing a selection of ITV’s best content
(ITV help, page modified 14 October 2025, read 11 September 2026), so five named channels plus curated ones ITV does not name there. Premium at £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year adds ad-free on demand, all of BritBox and downloads (ITV help, read 10 September 2026). The blunt con, in ITV’s own footnote to that ad-free claim: Live TV plays with ads
.
4.4 from 114,959 reviews · Installs 10,000,000+ · free to install · in-app purchases £3.99 to £39.99 through Play billing · Developer Channel 4 Television Corporation · Contains ads: Yes · listing updated 5 November 2025 · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
Channel 4 asks for a free registration and no payment, and reaches furthest: Channel 4 streaming is only available in the UK and Republic of Ireland
(Channel 4, read 10 September 2026). The £3.99 upgrade neither crosses to Ireland nor reaches the live channel: Channel 4+ does not include Watch Live
(Channel 4, read 11 September 2026). Both paid plans, the £3.99 a month and the £39.99 a year, open with a 7 day free trial
, and the same page prints the catch in the same block: You’ll be billed automatically when the free trial ends unless you cancel it.
(the same page, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: the listing has not moved since 5 November 2025.
The smaller free players
2.6 from 26,703 reviews · Installs 5,000,000+ · free · Developer Channel Five · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
The Channel 5 app, formerly My5, carries live channels its listing calls not available anywhere else
and restricted to use within the UK
(its Play listing, read 10 September 2026). Channel Five ships a second listing, com.channel5.my5, and points at neither, so take the listings’ own evidence, read 10 September 2026: this one is the phone and tablet build, because its review chips read Phone, Chromebook, Tablet
while the sibling shows a TV chip only. The blunt con: 2.6 on the United Kingdom storefront, read 11 September 2026, is the lowest of the fourteen published ratings in the table above, where YouTube TV publishes none at all, and the sibling listing is lower still on the same storefront at 2.3 from 143 reviews, read the same day.
4.0 from 30,135 reviews · Installs 1,000,000+ · free · Developer UKTV Media Ltd · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
UKTV puts it plainly: Welcome to U, the free on demand TV service
, carrying U&Dave, U&Drama, U&W and U&Yesterday (u.co.uk help), with Sign in to watch
on every card (u.co.uk, both read 10 September 2026). UKTV names a longer list elsewhere, and it is the pay-TV list rather than the app one: If you have a pay TV subscription with Sky, Virgin Media, EE or TalkTalk, you can also find content in the onscreen TV guide from all of our channels, including U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Yesterday, U&W, U&Alibi, U&Gold and U&Eden
(u.co.uk ways to watch, read 11 September 2026), so a Sky or Virgin guide reaches seven where the help page names four. No page opened for this article documents a live stream in the Android app. The blunt con: four channels is the whole of the app, against the seven UKTV puts in a pay-TV guide, and every card asks you to sign in before it plays.
4.2 from 15,178 reviews · Installs 1,000,000+ · Developer STV Central Limited · free to install · in-app purchases £3.99 to £39.99 through Play billing · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
STV Player asks for a postcode first, because rights are restricted to our broadcast regions (Central and North Scotland)
, and STV names a second use for it on the same page: We also use your postcode to show you relevant ads.
(STV help, page dated 1 April 2025, read 11 September 2026). Outside those regions you lose the live channels. Player+ at £3.99 a month or £39.99 a year lists Dramas, soaps & documentaries ad-free
and Download to your device (Android and iOS)
(STV pricing, page dated 31 August 2026, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: STV footnotes that ad-free claim Excludes live channels and select shows for contractual reasons
, so the live STV channel this section is about keeps its advertising.
2.9 from 139 reviews · Installs 50,000+ · free · Developer S4C · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
The BBC footnotes the third licence exception: Watching S4C programmes on demand does not require a licence
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026). It stops there, because the Clic listing offers programmes live or on demand
, read 10 September 2026, and that live stream is live television. The blunt con: S4C publishes no app help this article could open, so its sign-in rule, its downloads and its abroad rule are all undocumented.
3.0 from 7,959 reviews · Installs 1,000,000+ · free · Developer Everyone TV · Contains ads: No · listing updated 16 December 2025 · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
Everyone TV writes this app up in two registers. Its Play listing, read 11 September 2026, offers Watch live or on demand when it suits you
and in the same description adds Just make sure you have these apps on your device to enjoy the best Freeview experience
, so the watching happens in those apps and not in this one. Its mobile section lets you Browse great shows from BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, 5 and U, wherever you are
(Freeview), while the app’s own licence agreement, last updated 4 July 2023, names a sixth player and uses brand names the broadcasters have since replaced: In order watch content on the App you will need to download the BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My 5, STV Player and UKTV Play applications
, and that the app will require you your postcode or access to your location
, both sentences quoted as Everyone TV writes them (Everyone TV’s app terms, read 11 September 2026). The sixth is STV Player; ITV Hub is ITVX, All 4 is Channel 4, My 5 is 5 and UKTV Play is U. The blunt con: nothing here plays until the six other apps are on the phone.
The three that need an account you already pay for
4.2 from 132,002 reviews · Installs 10,000,000+ · free to install · Developer Sky UK Limited · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
Sky Go is inert without a Sky TV account, and Sky ships two builds and tells you to pick by box: If you have Glass/Stream, download Sky Go (Glass/Stream). If you have Sky Q, download Sky Go (Q/+)
(Sky, read 11 September 2026). The figures above belong to the Sky Q and Sky+ build. The Glass and Stream build is Sky Go (Glass/Stream), package com.entos.monarch.ui, released 7 September 2026, and it publishes 1,000+ installs, a Contains ads label and no rating and no review count at all on the United Kingdom storefront, read 11 September 2026, which is four days of history to judge it on. Neither build is a separate line on the bill: Sky says on that same shop page, read 11 September 2026, Sky Go is included with your Sky TV subscription
, so the app itself costs nothing beyond what the television package already costs. Downloads are the exception, and need Sky Go Extra, at £5pm extra or no extra cost to Whole Home customers
(sky.com/watch, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: it is worth nothing without the Sky TV bill this page cannot price.
4.2 from 103,083 reviews · Installs 5,000,000+ · free to install · Developer Sky UK Limited · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
NOW’s cheapest membership carries live television, which is why the licence reaches it at £7.99: its help centre names fourteen live entertainment channels plus 7 live kids’ channels
(NOW help, read 10 September 2026). NOW publishes its own minimum on that same page, read 11 September 2026, under the heading What do I need: One of the devices listed here
, Minimum 2.5Mbps broadband download speed
and A NOW account.
One live channel inside it needs no membership at all: the same help centre, read 11 September 2026, says The live Sky News channel is available in the Entertainment section. You don’t need an active membership to watch it on most devices, but on PC or Mac you’ll need an Entertainment or Entertainment & HBO Max Membership.
A free NOW account is still required, PC and Mac are the only exception NOW prints, and because Sky News is live television it needs the £180 TV Licence exactly as the paid channels do. The fully flexible prices on nowtv.com, read 11 September 2026, were Entertainment £7.99, Entertainment and HBO Max £9.99, Cinema £9.99 and Sports £34.99 a month, or £14.99 for a 24-hour Sports Day Membership. Those are the prices with no commitment attached: the same page, read the same day, also sells those memberships on minimum-term Saver plans at a lower monthly price that reverts to the flexible figure when the term ends, in NOW’s own small print After the 6-month minimum term, Entertainment Membership auto-renews at £7.99pm, unless cancelled
and Sports plan pricing based on Monthly Saver with 12-month minimum term, then £34.99pm unless cancelled
. The Saver price itself moves between reads, so this page prints the flexible figure and no promotional one. The blunt con: £7.99 buys 720p on one stream, and even with Boost at £6 more a month, You’ll still get ads on live channels, and see promotional trailers for shows, movies and events you can access.
(NOW help, read 11 September 2026), and the picture that £6 buys has a floor of its own: A minimum internet speed per individual streaming device of 12Mbps for Boost, or 30Mbps for Ultra Boost
(same page, read 11 September 2026).
2.9 from 9,683 reviews · Installs 1,000,000+ · free to install · Developer Virgin Media · Contains ads: No · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
Virgin TV Go is included with a Virgin TV subscription, and asks for a My Virgin Media sign-in and Android 6 & above with WiFi, 3G, 4G or 5G internet access in the UK
(its Play listing, read 10 September 2026). Virgin publishes the roaming rule too: Virgin TV Go won’t work while you’re roaming. If you’re using 3G, 4G or 5G, this needs to be UK mobile data.
(Virgin Media help, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: at 2.9 on the UK storefront, read 11 September 2026, only the Channel 5 app scores lower.
Where live British sport went
4.8 from 5,759,345 reviews · Installs 100,000,000+ · Developer WarnerMedia Global Digital Services, LLC · free to install · in-app purchases £2.19 to £134.99 through Play billing · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
If you arrived from a BT Sport post, this is where the football went. Warner Bros. Discovery says HBO Max becomes the new Streaming Home of TNT Sports in the UK
from its launch here on 26 March 2026, and lists the Premier League, Champions League football and the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 coming up
among what subscribers can stream (Warner Bros. Discovery, read 11 September 2026). If you were paying for TNT Sports through discovery+, the sports release publishes the route across: Customers currently watching TNT Sports through a discovery+ subscription can sign in at HBOMax.com with their existing email address and password to keep accessing all of TNT Sports’ live and non-live content
(WBD Sports, read 11 September 2026).
On hbomax.com, read 11 September 2026, the monthly row opened with Standard with Ads at £5.99, Standard at £9.99, Premium at £14.99, a Standard with Ads & TNT Sports bundle at £36.98 and, sports only, TNT Sports at £30.99, the last of those £25.99 a month on a twelve-month Saver that Then renews at the regular monthly price
. The first three of those cards, at £5.99, £9.99 and £14.99, carry no sport at all, so the TNT Sports tier is the one a BT Sport reader needs. Check what you already pay for first, because Warner Bros. Discovery footnotes both sides: TNT Sports is only available on HBO Max in the UK
and BT, EE and Virgin Media continue to be partners for TNT Sports
(Warner Bros. Discovery, read 11 September 2026). The blunt con: the TNT Sports tier at £30.99 is the dearest line on this page bar NOW Sports, and the separate TNT Sports app beside it is news and highlights only: To watch our live sports events in full, you can do so by downloading the HBO Max app
(its Play listing, read 10 September 2026).
3.8 from 806,069 reviews · Installs 100,000,000+ · free · Developer Pluto, Inc. · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
Pluto TV is the strongest answer here to watching for nothing: its listing, read 10 September 2026, says Flip to free live TV anytime with hundreds of channels
and no subscription required
. The blunt con: those channels are live television, so the £180 licence reaches them.
Almost nothing here travels. You must be in the United Kingdom to stream iPlayer, with one exception: If you download a programme when you’re in the UK, you can watch it anywhere in the world
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026). ITVX can only be used in the UK
, with Premium downloads good for seven days (ITV help); STV blocks live and most on-demand viewing abroad (STV help); you are not entitled to stream Sky outside the UK using Sky apps
(Sky help); and a NOW membership cannot travel either (NOW help, all read 10 September 2026). HBO Max, which is not one of the five just listed, does stream abroad, and only inside its own map: elsewhere you won’t be able to stream
(HBO Max help, read 11 September 2026).
A VPN is not the way round it, on two counts. It breaks the BBC’s own terms, which list under Don’t mess with our services
exactly this: Accessing content from outside the UK that you aren’t allowed to, or helping others do the same. For example: using a VPN service so you can watch BBC iPlayer when you’re outside the UK
(the BBC’s Terms of Use, read 11 September 2026). That is a breach of the terms you agreed to and not a criminal offence, and the distinction matters because the licence rules above are the part that carries a fine. It also does not work: You cannot play a programme if we detect you might be using a VPN or proxy
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026); ITV says the same of ITVX (ITV help, read 10 September 2026). If a British player refuses to start at home, turn any VPN off before you decide the app is broken, because the BBC names a work, university, hospital or business network routing your data abroad as an innocent cause of the same block, read 11 September 2026.
The legitimate route out of the country is the download made before you leave, and the BBC dates it: Programmes can only be downloaded when in the UK
, and Downloaded programmes are available for the same amount of time as they are on the BBC iPlayer website or app. If a programme is available for 30 days, you’ll have until the end of that same 30-day period to watch the download
, so the BBC asks you to keep an eye on the expiry date of each programme you download
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026). ITVX Premium downloads last seven days, and the FAQ below names the eight apps on this page that document downloads at all.
The three paid subscriptions travel the same way, and each publishes its own clock. Sky says Some Sky apps will allow you to download your favourite shows and movies over WiFi before you leave home to watch offline while you’re abroad
(Sky help, read 11 September 2026), and the Sky Go Extra small print sets the window: Content deleted from device 48 hours after viewing starts or no later than 30 days after download
(sky.com/watch, read 11 September 2026). NOW says you can still download shows and movies to your device before you travel, and watch offline outside the UK
(NOW help, read 11 September 2026), and its downloads page prints the same two figures, a download saved for 30 days
and, once viewing starts, as many times as you like for 48 hours after you start watching
(NOW help, read 11 September 2026). Virgin says Whilst Live or On Demand content is unavailable on the Virgin TV Go app when outside of the UK, you can download shows or films in advance to watch whilst you’re away
and You have 30 days in which to watch your download, and 48 hours once you’ve started watching
(Virgin Media help, read 11 September 2026).
One route survives the trip without a download, and it is the one a BBC Sport reader wants: BBC Sport is named on that same BBC page among the BBC services you can use when travelling outside of the UK
, though the BBC adds that some content may not be available outside the UK due to rights agreements
, which is the clause that covers live sports rights, so treat live coverage abroad as rights permitting rather than as a guarantee, read 11 September 2026. A VPN still has ordinary uses on a phone, on public Wi-Fi and against network-level tracking, and the VPN apps page covers those; reaching British television from abroad is not among them.
no rating and no review count published · Installs 10,000,000+ · free to install · Developer Google LLC · Contains ads: Yes · Play listing, UK storefront, read 11 September 2026
YouTube TV installs in the United Kingdom and does nothing here: Google’s help centre says YouTube TV is available throughout the United States
(Google, read 11 September 2026).
Start with the licence, because it decides more than any app does. At £180 a year it costs more than twelve months of every monthly membership priced on this page except two, NOW Sports at £34.99 a month and TNT Sports on HBO Max at £30.99 (both read 11 September 2026), and the margin at the top of the rest is thin: HBO Max Premium at £14.99 a month comes to £179.88 a year, twelve pence under the licence. Where two of these overlap, compare what each buys before you pick: NOW prices its Entertainment and HBO Max Membership at £9.99 a month, and HBO Max footnotes that it includes HBO Max Basic with Ads
rather than the £5.99 Standard with Ads tier HBO Max sells directly (both read 11 September 2026). The Sky and Virgin apps sit inside television bills this page does not price. If you hold a licence, the free apps here cost you nothing further. If you do not, stay on the on-demand libraries and leave every live channel closed, because the trigger is the live channel and not the app it sits in.
Then check the phone. Eight of the fifteen listings in the table above publish an Android minimum on the United Kingdom storefront, read 11 September 2026: 5.0 for the 5 app, STV Player, Freeview and Pluto TV, 7.0 for Sky Go, YouTube TV, BBC Sport and Virgin TV Go. Virgin publishes three different minimums for that one app, all read 11 September 2026: 7.0 in the Play minimum Android field, Android 6 & above
in its own listing description, and Android 6.1 or later
on its help page (Virgin Media help). Take 7.0, the highest of the three and the only one Play itself publishes. The other seven publish none, so take the broadcaster’s own figure where there is one. ITV states Our app works on Android devices running Android OS version 7.0 and later
and rules out Nexus 7, Lenovo M10, Hudl tablets and Kindle 3rd generation and older
(ITV help, page modified 7 October 2025, read 11 September 2026), and Channel 4 needs Android OS 7.0 and above
and For security reasons, rooted devices are not supported
(Channel 4, read 11 September 2026). That leaves five listings with no Android version on any page opened for this article: BBC iPlayer, NOW, U, S4C Clic and HBO Max. NOW is the one with a documented substitute, naming a supported device list and a connection speed rather than an Android version, and its 2.5Mbps floor is quoted in the NOW section above.
Then check what you need to hear or read, because the players do not document it equally. BBC iPlayer puts subtitles, audio description and sign language behind the speech bubble on the playback screen of its Android app, keeps subtitles on programmes you have downloaded, and publishes the limit: Subtitles are available on all live BBC channels, although there may be some exceptions on our non-English speaking channels (BBC Alba and S4C)
(BBC iPlayer help, read 11 September 2026). ITV publishes its own guidance for ITVX: subtitles on well over 90% of programmes
, audio description on our mobile apps
, and Subtitles are available on all live and FAST channels on all platforms except for Freeview and Chromecast
(ITV help, page modified 13 May, with no year printed on it, read 11 September 2026). Channel 4 runs an accessibility hub covering Subtitled, Audio Described and Signed programming
and lists a separate Channel 4 Streaming Android App Accessibility Statement (Channel 4, read 11 September 2026). Two limits are worth knowing before you install: UKTV scopes its subtitles page to the u.co.uk website
and not the U Android app (U, read 11 September 2026), and the Freeview Accessible TV Guide on channel 555 is Available at Channel 555 on the majority of Freeview Play devices
, which means televisions and boxes rather than the phone app (Freeview, read 11 September 2026). For the 5 app, NOW, Sky Go, S4C Clic and Pluto TV, no page opened for this article documents subtitles, audio description or signed programmes inside the Android app, which is a gap in what those companies publish and not a finding that the features are missing.
Then count the screens. Sky says You can register up to six compatible devices
and that Sky Go and Sky Go Extra customers can stream on two devices at a time
(Sky help), while the Sky Go Extra small print on the page carrying the £5pm price says Concurrent online viewing on 4 devices
(sky.com/watch), so Sky publishes both figures and this page does not choose between them; Virgin registers five and streams on two (Virgin Media help, all read 11 September 2026). ITV publishes one flat figure, You can stream ITVX on up to 4 separate devices at the same time using the same account
(ITV help, page modified 14 October 2025, read 11 September 2026), and HBO Max sets it by tier on its own plan cards, read 11 September 2026: Stream on 2 devices at once in Full HD
on Standard with Ads and on TNT Sports, Stream on 4 devices at once
on Premium (hbomax.com). BBC iPlayer, the 5 app, U and S4C Clic publish no device count on any page opened for this article. For films rather than channels, the movie streaming apps are the better start, and if the plan is to put any of this on the television set, screen mirroring is its own separate problem.
Yes. The BBC's own iPlayer help page, read 11 September 2026, says a valid TV Licence is required to watch or download any programmes on BBC iPlayer, on any device including a phone, and that doing so without one is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to £1000.
GOV.UK, read 11 September 2026, says you do not need a TV Licence to watch on-demand TV, and its own examples are All 4, which is now Channel 4, and Amazon Prime Video. On this page that covers U, the catch-up libraries of ITVX, Channel 4, the Channel 5 app, STV Player and S4C Clic, and the on-demand side of Pluto TV, whose listing, read 11 September 2026, says its on-demand library gives you instant access to blockbuster films, binge-worthy shows and hidden gems, at no cost. Open a live channel in any of them, the hundreds Pluto TV carries included, and the rule applies again.
Eight document it, read 10 or 11 September 2026: BBC iPlayer, whose UK downloads play anywhere but expire with the programme; ITVX on Premium at £5.99 a month, for seven days; STV Player on Player+ at £3.99 a month; Sky Go with Sky Go Extra at £5 a month; Virgin TV Go; Channel 4, in the free app not the £3.99 upgrade; NOW, which says you can download before you travel, for up to 30 days; and HBO Max. The 5 app, U and S4C Clic publish nothing.
It is gone, and no page opened for this article dates the switch-off itself. Companies House, read 10 September 2026, records the two companies behind it as dissolved on 20 October 2016 and 16 May 2018, and tvcatchup.com returned an HTTP 403 error the same day. For free broadcast channels on a phone, BBC iPlayer carries the BBC ones and ITVX the ITV ones.
Freeview Play is the successor, and Freely is a different platform. Freeview, read 11 September 2026, says Freeview Play needs an aerial and broadband of at least 2Mbps. Freely is broadband only and needs a Freely television or streaming box, from £89.00 on freely.co.uk, read the same day. Freely has no Google Play listing and no phone or tablet app; the Freely app that exists is on the Amazon Appstore, for Freely-certified devices. Freeview Play's companion app is on Google Play as Freeview, in the table above.
No, and both broadcasters say so themselves. The BBC, read 11 September 2026, says you cannot play a programme if it detects you might be using a VPN or a proxy, and ITV says the same of ITVX, read 10 September 2026. Turn the VPN off before you decide the app is broken. What does travel is a download made inside the United Kingdom: a BBC iPlayer programme, which the BBC says you can then watch anywhere in the world, and an ITVX Premium download, for seven days.
Its United Kingdom listing published no rating and no review count when it was read on 11 September 2026, and that fits what Google publishes about the service: YouTube TV is available throughout the United States, read 11 September 2026. The app installs on a British phone and gives you nothing to watch here, which is why it sits in the table as the one row not to act on.
Checked 11 September 2026: first publication. Every rating, review count, ads label and in-app-purchase range was read from Google Play’s United Kingdom English storefront (gl=GB, hl=en_GB) on 11 September 2026; the listing prose quoted above was read on 10 September 2026. Also recorded here: discovery+ was considered and carried no further, because Warner Bros. Discovery says HBO Max replaced it as the streaming home of TNT Sports here; BBC Sport was read separately on 11 September 2026 with the same tool as every other app here, tools/playfacts.py against the United Kingdom English storefront, and its record appended to that fact sheet, because the sheet had recorded an HTTP 404 against two BBC Sport package names that do not exist while uk.co.bbc.android.sportdomestic, the package its Play listing actually uses, resolves; the second Sky Go build, com.entos.monarch.ui, was read the same way on 11 September 2026 after Sky’s own shop page named it, and it is recorded here because it is not in that sheet; Samsung TV Plus was dropped, because Samsung limits it to Galaxy devices on Android 11.0 or higher; TV Licensing’s own site returned HTTP 403 on 10 September 2026 and is cited nowhere above; Channel 5’s help pages returned HTTP 403 the same day, so neither of its apps has a sign-in rule printed here.