The service provides consumer access via an aerial to the seven DTT multiplexes covering the United Kingdom.

Reception of Freeview requires a DVB-T/DVB-T2 tuner, either in a separate set-top box or built into the TV set.

Freeview Play is a more recent addition which adds direct access to catch-up services via the Internet.

DMOL (DTT Multiplex Operators Ltd.), a company owned by the operators of the six DTT multiplexes (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Arqiva) is responsible for technical platform management and policy, including the electronic programme guide and channel numbering.

The founding members of DTV Services, who trade as Freeview, were the BBC, Crown Castle UK and British Sky Broadcasting.

The eighth stream was left unused until April 2004 when the shopping channel Ideal World launched on Freeview.

[citation needed] On 10 August 2021, the 315-metre (1033') Bilsdale transmitter caught fire leaving up to a million homes in the North East of England without a TV or radio signal.

[20] Work is ongoing to restore services, but delays to the granting of planning permission for an 80-metre (300') temporary mast sited at Bilsdale, and the lack of safe access to the site, have left up to half a million homes without a service as of 8 September 2021.

In addition, channels from other commercial operators, such as Sky and UKTV, are available, as well as radio services from a number of broadcasters.

These channels, although available only to subscribers with appropriate equipment, are listed in the on-screen electronic programme guides displayed by many Freeview receivers but cannot be viewed.

[24] As the signal degrades, the analogue picture degrades gradually, but the digital picture holds up well then suddenly becomes unwatchable; an aerial which gave poor analogue viewing may give unwatchable, rather than poor, digital viewing, and need replacing, at a cost of typically £80 to £180, most of which is fitting cost.

There is no additional charge to receive Freeview but it is a legal obligation to hold a current television licence to watch or record TV as it is being broadcast.

The service also worked with existing ex-ONdigital / ITV Digital boxes that received the Freeview package; subscribers with those boxes had to insert their TopUp TV card into the slot which was originally used for inserting ONdigital / ITV Digital smartcards.

The Freeview logo certification for standard definition (SD) receivers and recorders was withdrawn in January 2017.

[42] On 15 December 2011, Channel 5 dropped its bid to take the fifth slot after being unable to resolve "issues of commercial importance".

[46] On 13 June 2013, the BBC temporarily launched a high-definition red button stream in the vacant space.

[47] On 16 July 2013, Ofcom announced that up to 10 new HD channels would be launched by early 2014, using new capacity made available by the digital switchover.

Services are statistically multiplexed – bandwidth is dynamically allocated between channels, depending on the complexity of the images – with the aim of maintaining a consistent quality, rather than a specific bit rate.

Transcoding from AAC to Dolby Digital or DTS and multi-channel output via HDMI was not originally necessary for Freeview HD certification.

As of June 2010 the DTG D-Book includes the requirement for mandatory transcoding when sending audio via S/PDIF, and for either transcoding or multi-channel PCM audio when sending it via HDMI in order for manufacturers to gain Freeview HD certification from April 2011.

[62] In August 2009, the BBC wrote to Ofcom after third-party content owners asked the BBC to undertake measures to ensure that all Freeview HD boxes would include copy protection systems as required by the Digital TV Group's D-Book, which sets technical standards for digital terrestrial television in the UK.

[63] The BBC proposed to ensure compliance with copy-protection standards on the upgraded Freeview HD multiplex by compressing the service information (SI) data, which receivers need to understand the TV services in the data stream.

To encourage boxes to adopt copy protection, the BBC made its own look-up tables and decompression algorithm, necessary for decoding the EPG data on high-definition channels, available without charge only to manufacturers who implement the copy-protection technology.

This technology would control the way HD films and TV shows are copied onto, for example Blu-ray discs, and shared with others over the internet.

In a formal written response, Ofcom principal advisor Greg Bensberg said that wording of the licence would probably need to be changed to reflect the fact that this new arrangement is permitted.

The BBC had suggested that as an alternative to the SI compression scheme, the Freeview HD multiplex may have to adopt encryption.

[64] Ofcom concluded that the decision to accept the BBC's request will deliver net benefits to licence-holders by ensuring they have access to the widest possible range of HD television content on DTT.

[67] Freeview Play combines the existing live television service with catch-up TV (BBC iPlayer, ITVX, STV Player, Channel 4, S4C Clic, My5, U, Pop Player, CBS Catchup Channels UK, Legend) [68] on a variety of compatible TV and set-top boxes via the user's standard broadband Internet connection.

Its main purpose is to provide easy access to catch-up services by scrolling backwards on the traditional electronic programming guide (EPG); YouView is a similar but competing combination of live Freeview and catch-up using the EPG.

The service launched in October 2015, on compliant equipment, initially 2015 Panasonic TV receivers and Humax set-top boxes, including existing models with a software update.