I could be wrong, but I thought Freeview play required a DVB-T signal? That is, you watch live TV "off air" and also have the ability to record live TV from the DVB-T tuner. The internet bit is for catch up services.
Times move on though, so things might have changed since the last time I used a relatives freeview play box. Unfortunately, I don't have a great deal of experience as I've used satellite for decades.