V20 software update brings cloud gaming to the £89.99 Freely streamer, with over 1,000 premium console and PC games from Blacknut– alongside a new TV guide for 400+ free channels, a Bluetooth remote, and eleven new free channels from 5
Manhattan TV, the British TV device specialist, today announces the most substantial software upgrade yet for the Manhattan Aero 4K TV Streamer with Freely – headlined by the arrival of cloud gaming, bringing over 1,000 premium games to the £89.99 device with no console required. The update arrives via TiVo OS, the award-winning platform that powers the Aero.
Rolling out alongside the Aero's V20 software update from 1 September, the Blacknut cloud gaming service arrives on the platform, part of Blacknut’s wider expansion across TiVo’s entertainment ecosystem. Blacknut offers a catalogue of more than 1,000 premium games from over 150 publishers including Ubisoft, Disney, Square Enix and Konami – streamed straight to the television with no console, no discs and nothing to download or install. New games are added regularly.
A single Blacknut subscription costs £12.99 a month and carries up to five player profiles, each with its own saves, progress and parental controls. Games are played with any compatible Bluetooth controller – or you can use your phone as a virtual gamepad, with the Blacknut companion app. Cloud saves allow a game started on the Aero to be picked up later on a phone, tablet or computer.
At £89.99 – with no monthly bills beyond the app subscriptions you choose – the Aero delivers more than 70 free live TV channels via Freely, the free-TV-over-broadband service from the UK’s top broadcasters. There’s also more than 75,000 hours of on-demand content from those same broadcasters, as well as the major streaming apps (subscriptions required) and, with a Blacknut subscription, a console-class games library – all from a single box connected only to your home Wi-Fi.
The V20 update brings a substantial list of further improvements. The Aero remote now wakes the device over Bluetooth rather than infrared, removing the long-standing need for line of sight and allowing the box to be placed behind a television or inside a cabinet.
TiVo Channels – Aero’s library of 400+ free ad-supported channels – now offers a proper Guide for channels delivered directly through TiVo, while the home screen section continues to bring together an even broader range of free content from across Aero.
A new sports carousel gathers live, upcoming and on-demand sport into a single view, voice search can now tune directly to a channel number, and the platform’s Audio Guidance accessibility feature moves to a considerably more natural-sounding voice.
Separately, Freely has added eleven new free streaming channels from 5, all of them now available on Aero: 5Cops (69), 5Police Interceptors (70), 5Movies (77), 5A&E (84), 5Crime (85), 5Medical (107), 5Yorkshire Vet (108), 5Bargain-Loving Brits (118), 5Trucking Hell (119), 5History (128) and Milkshake! (360).
For thirty years our whole ethos has been that you shouldn’t need a subscription to watch television. Gaming has had the opposite problem – before you could play anything decent you had to find several hundred pounds for a console, then pay again for every game. Blacknut on the Aero turns that round: over a thousand games on the box you already own, for the price of a single streaming subscription, and no console to buy. It’s ‘TV on your terms’, extended from telly to games.
— Alex Arbab-Zadeh, COO for Manhattan says
The V20 update is rolling out to all Manhattan Aero devices in stages from 1 September 2026 and installs automatically. The Manhattan Aero 4K TV Streamer with Freely is available for £89.99 from Currys, John Lewis, Argos, Richer Sounds, Hughes and Amazon.
Notes to Editors:
- The Manhattan Aero 4K TV Streamer with Freely launched on 27 January 2026, with retail availability from February 2026. Initial shipments sold out within hours of going on sale.
- Aero was named Best Streaming Device at the T3 Awards 2026, and has received 5-star reviews from T3, Tech Advisor (Editor’s Choice), Stuff (Highly Recommended), Expert Reviews (Best Buy), Cord Busters (Editor’s Choice) and AV Forums (Best Buy). The Guardian named it Best Freely TV Streamer.
- Software version V20 (v20.1182.97) began rolling out on 1 September 2026. Owners can check their version under Settings → System. Full release notes are at manhattan-tv.com/support/aero/software-updates.
- Blacknut is a separate subscription, priced at £12.99 per month. Cloud gaming requires a broadband connection and a compatible Bluetooth controller, or use your phone as a virtual gamepad with the Blacknut Companion App. Eligible games can be tried free for up to 15 minutes without creating an account.
- Blacknut’s arrival on TiVo OS was announced on 27 August 2026, adding support for TiVo OS television brands including Sharp, Metz and Thomson. The Manhattan Aero runs on TiVo OS.