Who doesn’t like free? And who doesn’t like great iPad apps? When the two come together it’s good stuff. With that in mind, we’d like to share our Best Free iPad App of the Week here every weekend.

This week’s pick is TouchTV, which promises to bring high quality TV highlights to the iPad – and delivers nicely on the promise.

The app provides bite-sized clips from a good range of channels and popular programs. So it can serve well as a way to discover new shows and to see what you might have missed from shows you already know.

When you open the app (and any time afterwards when you hit the + button at bottom right) you’re presented with the app’s selection of channels. You can select all or just those that interest you. The channels include Facebook, eNews, ESPN, National Geographic, Oprah Winfrey Network, Conan, Discovery Channel, NBC, Animal Planet, CBS Sports, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Nat Geo Wild, Bloomberg Television, Cartoon Network, and HLN.

You can share to your own Facebook timeline (or opt out of this in settings) and see clips your FB friends have shared in the Facebook channel.

TouchTV has support for the new iPad’s retina display and also AirPlay support so you can watch its clips on your big HDTV if you’ve got an Apple TV.

It’s an easy app to spend a lot of time with, partly because it’s got a very slick UI. Everything feels as if it’s just a quick swipe or tap away. You just swipe left and right to move between channels and also to move between individual items within a channel.