My first priority (strangely) is to have a single box and a single remote. My second priority is to watch shows in HD. My third priority is not to watch adverts.
So I bought the ATV (again) this week. The iPlayer app isn’t great, but it’s acceptable and the quality of streaming is terrific. The Netflix app is also acceptably good, it syncs across my other devices, and the quality of streaming is terrific.
The NowTV app is awful, but the streaming quality is OK.
The ITV and My5 streaming quality is not acceptable. And they have adverts.
Conclusion? There’s enough stuff to watch out there that if you’re not on my Apple TV (I’m talking to you, Channel 4) then I’m just not going to watch your stuff. And if you are on my Apple TV, but your streaming quality is poor (ITV and C5) then I probably not going to watch your stuff.
I find it oddly stressful to actively have to find things to watch rather than be told what to watch by the schedule. But I’m so far finding plenty on iPlayer and Netflix to keep me entertained. I’ll dip into NowTV from time to time (I have the Entertainment and Movie passes — £50 for six months), and I have Amazon Prime but rarely find anything there I want to see.
So farewell, ITV, C4 and C5. If you’re going to stream in crap quality or not at all, I’m not going to watch you. I have other options.