PlayStation Vue Now Available on Apple TV

[jlc1978]

The data cap is bogus. It serves no purpose but to gouge customers of money. It is designed to limit competition. And the mere fact they will remove it if you subscribe to a higher tv package is alarming.

I agree it is used to limit competition, something every company tries to do. They need to replace revenue lost from cord cutters, so it makes sense from a business standpoint to establish caps. They can't afford to be just a dumb pipe and not get paid to deliver data, so to expect them to sit by and watch their revenue decline while helping competitors make money is not realistic. I don't like the model but it is the reality. If the would be forced to provide service with no caps you could expect them to, in some cases, leave markets all together, raise prices to unrealistic levels, and provide even worse customer service.

 

[TurboPGT!]

Have you used it on a PS3/4 or fireTV, you can navigate a lot faster. Hold one button and you get quick option to last channel and guide.

With ATV brings you to last screen...50% of time I'm clicking between two shows, other 35% to guide...not nearly as fast, just count the clicks...

I'm not interested in controlling my AppleTV with a video game controller. The Vue App experience is no different from the rest of the AppleTV experience...which there is also nothing wrong with.

 

[quagski]

This is what I've been waiting for, but I'm still confused by some of the posts I read. All I'm worried about is if Vue has the ability to steam LIVE sports. For instance, Steelers play at 4:25pm on my local FOX network. Can I tune into FOX on Vue at 4:25 to catch the game live?

I would be considered the NJ/NY area.

 

[714reyesj]

This is what I've been waiting for, but I'm still confused by some of the posts I read. All I'm worried about is if Vue has the ability to steam LIVE sports. For instance, Steelers play at 4:25pm on my local FOX network. Can I tune into FOX on Vue at 4:25 to catch the game live?

I would be considered the NJ/NY area.

Yes you can.

 

[CarlJ]

But don't they offer Amazon Prime on Roku?

Yes they do. But the Roku has been around longer than (the 3rd-party app capable iteration of) the Apple TV. The Roku has been around since before the Amazon Fire TV debuted. They're not withdrawing support from the Roku, just as they're not pulling the Amazon Instant Video app from iOS - because in taking either of those steps, it would be hard not to be seen as the bad guy (and iOS itself doesn't compete with the Fire TV, just with their Fire tablets and phones, and the average consumer is not going to work out AirPlaying from Amazon's iOS app to the Apple TV). In fact, in the past, they've provided Amazon Instant Video for a ton of different devices. But not only have they not made an Apple TV app, they've stopped selling the Apple TV and Google Chromecast, and their stated reason? "Amazon is citing compatibility with its Prime Video streaming service, which is not available on devices from Google and Apple." If Amazon simply chose not to offer the Apple TV direct from Amazon, it'd be one thing, but forbidding 3rd-party sellers from selling it is quite another. That's not simply choosing not to help a competitor, that's trying to hurt the competition. But they know that if they didn't sell the Apple TV themselves without forbidding "marketplace" sellers from selling it, it'd do well, and then it would appear in their "top electronic devices" sales lists, and would get review scores that could be compared on amazon.com against Fire TV scores, and Amazon doesn't want Fire TV to have to compete like that. (I actually have a Fire TV, from a Black Friday sale - I rarely use it, even though it's hooked up, because the interface is so clunky, and it freely intermixes content you already own or have free access to, with buttons to purchase new things - nowhere near as nice an experience as the Apple TV.)

It's very politician-y - they don't step up and say "we're getting rid of the Apple TV to make our Fire TV more attractive" (which would be understandable but make them look bad), they choose not to port to their iOS app to the Apple TV - despite their "watch anywhere" message and the long list of devices they've put their service on - and then claim the lack of their service there is why they won't sell the devices, as if it's someone else's failing, rather than a deliberate, calculated, move on their part.

There's really only two possible explanations for Amazon's behavior in this: 1) they want to hurt Apple TV sales in order to promote the Amazon Fire TV in its place (rather than having it compete on its own merits), or 2) they want to put pressure on Apple to get more favorable terms for the situation where someone subscribes to Amazon Prime video via an Apple TV. (These two explanations are not mutually exclusive.) The first paints Amazon in unfavorable light, given that they want to be everybody's favorite store for everything. The second is particularly galling given that there's no need to give Apple any money whatsoever - simply don't offer a subscription option in the app. I use the Kindle app on my iPhone and iPad all the time, but I don't spend any money in the app (you can't), it's simply a target/output device for books I buy on the Amazon website - I buy books from Amazon because I can't read them on my iPhone. The Apple TV could be used in exactly the same way. If I could watch movies that Amazon sells, on my Apple TV, I'd be much more likely to buy movies from Amazon. As it stands now? There's no way I'll buy video from Amazon.

It's all very frustrating - I've had Amazon Prime for many years, I like Amazon, this is ... bad behavior on their part.

Anyway, Playstation Vue looks quite interesting, in part because it apparently offers login access to lots of the individual TV network's apps, which I dropped when I "cut the cord" last spring. Might be an attractive alternative to Hulu, especially in conjunction with Apple's new "TV" app, if that works out well.

 

[714reyesj]

I've been using PS Vue on my PS4 for about 7 months now. We converted over from Time Warner Cable. It took a little getting used to the U/I and I was worried my wife would have trouble using it but we absolutely love it. It has 90 percent of the channels we need and the cloud DVR feature is fantastic. I had my PS4 setup in the living room and an Apple TV in the bedroom. I kept holding off buying a Roku or Amazon FireTV and just sucked it up using the Apple TV and downloading each channel separately but not no more! So glad it's on Apple TV now! $80 for Vue + Time Warner internet!

 

[CarlJ]

They need to replace revenue lost from cord cutters, so it makes sense from a business standpoint to establish caps. They can't afford to be just a dumb pipe and not get paid to deliver data, so to expect them to sit by and watch their revenue decline while helping competitors make money is not realistic. I don't like the model but it is the reality. If the would be forced to provide service with no caps you could expect them to, in some cases, leave markets all together, raise prices to unrealistic levels, and provide even worse customer service.

Or they could work out what it actually cost them to deliver, say, 100GB of data (at a given speed), including all the amortized infrastructure and support costs, apply a reasonable markup, and charge that. Sell data transport in blocks of 50 or 100 GB. So that providing data transport is a self-sustainable business (people's need/desire for data transport is not going to go down, only up). Rather than treating their customers as cash machines, making a guess at how much money they can extract from each one, and then inventing some package of services to sell to them, regardless of whether those services are wanted or not.

 

[jlc1978]

Or they could work out what it actually cost them to deliver, say, 100GB of data (at a given speed), including all the amortized infrastructure and support costs, apply a reasonable markup, and charge that. Sell data transport in blocks of 50 or 100 GB. So that providing data transport is a self-sustainable business (people's need/desire for data transport is not going to go down, only up).

The question is what is a reasonable markup?

Rather than treating their customers as cash machines, making a guess at how much money they can extract from each one, and then inventing some package of services to sell to them, regardless of whether those services are wanted or not.

A compnsy's goal is to extract as much value from its offerings. I sell my services based on what the market will bear, not on my cost to produce them. To do othereise leaves money on he table yhat I could get.

 

[jeffjank33]

I'm not interested in controlling my AppleTV with a video game controller. The Vue App experience is no different from the rest of the AppleTV experience...which there is also nothing wrong with.

FireTV and with PS3/4 I don't use game control I use their remotes...guess you haven't tried it that...even with fireTV you hold one button down and get shortcut to last viewed channel and to guide...better UX hope they improve on the ATV app
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Yes you can.

Only problem I've had is NFL network Thursday night games, does not air, channel is blacked out during game...sucks!

 

[Dimwhit]

This is all great news! I cut the cord early this year, so I download the VUE app and signed up for the trial. I really don't like the UI much, but it otherwise seems great. I'm going to try the $30/month option.

So can I assume that CBS isn't on board with VUE? I don't see that app, or any of their others. Is CBS owned by Viacom? They just got pulled, if memory serves. (Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, so I may have missed it.)

 

[BJMRamage]

This is what I've been waiting for, but I'm still confused by some of the posts I read. All I'm worried about is if Vue has the ability to steam LIVE sports. For instance, Steelers play at 4:25pm on my local FOX network. Can I tune into FOX on Vue at 4:25 to catch the game live?

I would be considered the NJ/NY area.

Yes you can.

Is that ONLY if you have the Local version of the Fox or CBS or NBC channels, not just the on demand versions.

Only my local CBS station is showin when looking at Vue website and inputting my Zip Code. The NBC FOX and ABC say Demand.

 

[besler3035]

This is all great news! I cut the cord early this year, so I download the VUE app and signed up for the trial. I really don't like the UI much, but it otherwise seems great. I'm going to try the $30/month option.

So can I assume that CBS isn't on board with VUE? I don't see that app, or any of their others. Is CBS owned by Viacom? They just got pulled, if memory serves. (Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, so I may have missed it.)

CBS and Viacom split a while back, so the removing of Viacom channels doesn't have anything to do with that. You only get your local CBS if Vue has signed a contract with your local station. Otherwise you might have CBS on Demand in your area.
[doublepost=1479526321][/doublepost]

Is that ONLY if you have the Local version of the Fox or CBS or NBC channels, not just the on demand versions.

Only my local CBS station is showin when looking at Vue website and inputting my Zip Code. The NBC FOX and ABC say Demand.

Correct.

 

[Dimwhit]

CBS and Viacom split a while back, so the removing of Viacom channels doesn't have anything to do with that. You only get your local CBS if Vue has signed a contract with your local station. Otherwise you might have CBS on Demand in your area.

Good to know. I actually don't get any local networks. I do have ABC/NBC/FOX on demand, but not CBS. CBS is pissing me off. They're not on Hulu, VUE...pretty much anywhere.

 

[BJMRamage]

Good to know. I actually don't get any local networks. I do have ABC/NBC/FOX on demand, but not CBS. CBS is pissing me off. They're not on Hulu, VUE...pretty much anywhere.

That's because they have that CBS streaming subscription app thing. CBS Now or something.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The Pluto TV app does do that well, I must say. Too bad it doesn't have too many good channels.

Pluto's interface and speed and just "everything" should be copied by the other's attempting to play in this space.

Pluto is just awesome!
[doublepost=1479752425][/doublepost]

I wouldn't be so sure... Dish has a MASSIVE amount of subscribers compared to Vue, so they had a lot more leverage. Also, most of those subscribers were in contract and upset. With Vue, people can just switch to another streaming service if they want Viacom networks. If Viacom gets added back, it's more likely because Vue made concessions than the other way around.

Screw Viacom

 

[bozzykid]

Or they could work out what it actually cost them to deliver, say, 100GB of data (at a given speed), including all the amortized infrastructure and support costs, apply a reasonable markup, and charge that. Sell data transport in blocks of 50 or 100 GB.

The problem is the costs of delivering 100GB is no different than the cost of delivering 10GB. The network systems in place don't save money by having less data in the pipes.