TVCatchup was an Internet television service for viewing free-to-air UK channels.

[4] TVCatchup retransmitted free-to-air channels appearing on Freeview and Freesat within the UK.

The app can be set to receive only via WiFi, to avoid incurring potentially high streaming costs.

There was also an Adobe AIR desktop application released in Beta mode on 28 April 2009 for the Ubuntu 8.10 operating system, which was to be gradually updated to include features such as a full TV guide and PVR.

It is claimed that GZero used TVCatchup's IP to create and launch their own app, ToView Live TV which offers a similar service using both an advertising and subscription model.

[21] TVCatchup retransmits free-to-air channels over the Internet on the basis of section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988), which allows for the retransmission of 'qualifying services'.

TVCatchup was also required to deposit an amount of £200,000 in lieu of costs[24] and ordered to cease retransmission by mobile broadband, although it has been granted leave to appeal this decision.

On the same day, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport published an open consultation on the balance of payments between television platforms and public service broadcasters within which the department stated the government's intention to repeal section 73.

[26] Although the Welsh public service broadcaster S4C is covered under the provisions of the CDPA 1988, the channel entered into a formal carriage agreement with TVCatchup in August 2013.

[27] The site was initially conceived as an online PVR service, where users could select shows from one of 30 free-to-air channels to record up to one week in advance of their broadcast.