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Apps UK Catch-up TV Disappointment

LiE_

LiE_

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 23, 2013
1,753
5,681
UK
I think it's fair to say anyone in the UK using Apple TV would expect the main catch up services to be available on apple TV by now. All we have is iPlayer - no 4OD, no My5 and no ITV Player. I thought this would be ok in the medium term since we have airplay, but apparently not. 4OD is junk when airplayed, and ITV/My5 don't have airplay.

So I'm forced now to buy a Roku to get access to these apps. I had hoped cord cutting would be a breeze with Apple TV since most apps are developed for iOS the same should happen for tvOS. With no news of these missing _essential_ apps I can't see any other way of getting access without buying another device.

Just miffed since it's been a hard sell moving away from Sky since my wife likes it, but barley uses it. I had confidence by the time I was out of contract with Sky all the UK catchup services would be available or some sign of them coming.
 
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I couldn't agree more. Apple TV is focused almost exclusively at the American TV market and even then, the majority of TV apps require a subscription to a cable supplier etc, so not really a cord cutting device.

I have the BBC iPlayer working perfectly on the Apple TV device and through the Plex app, I am able to get ITV Hub working (the new name for the ITV Player) as well as live TV streaming. No news on catchup TV from the other British networks though.

Filmon is also available through Plex and MrMc apps although the streaming quality is lousy. I haven't tried it but I know people who are happy with iBox TV. Its a low price subscription with full catchup for most channels.
 
Just to add my agreement with this thread.

Not to defend Apple, but i think it may also be the fault of the content owners. The tvOS is reasonably open, and if BBC are able to make it work (albeit basic), i don't see why ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, etc cannot.

I'd really LOVE for Sky and Virgin media do to something similar to Comcast / Time Warner in the states, where they have an app that channels all their paid content to authorised devices. This might seem backwards, as ideally we'd like to be rid of these subscription packages, but if they are not go give up the fight at least make consumers lives easier and let us get access to everything we pay for via the Apple TV.
 
frosty001 said:
Just to add my agreement with this thread.

Not to defend Apple, but i think it may also be the fault of the content owners. The tvOS is reasonably open, and if BBC are able to make it work (albeit basic), i don't see why ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, etc cannot.

I'd really LOVE for Sky and Virgin media do to something similar to Comcast / Time Warner in the states, where they have an app that channels all their paid content to authorised devices. This might seem backwards, as ideally we'd like to be rid of these subscription packages, but if they are not go give up the fight at least make consumers lives easier and let us get access to everything we pay for via the Apple TV.
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With the introduction of Sky Q this is less likely than ever I'd say. The other option is to cancel Sky and pay for a Now TV sub, which will actually work out cheaper for a lot of people (excluding Sports)

Must say, I'm surprised that people actually miss these catch up services, I can't think of a single show I watch on the terrestrial channels
 
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Hermes Monster said:
With the introduction of Sky Q this is less likely than ever I'd say. The other option is to cancel Sky and pay for a Now TV sub, which will actually work out cheaper for a lot of people (excluding Sports)

Must say, I'm surprised that people actually miss these catch up services, I can't think of a single show I watch on the terrestrial channels
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I don't watch the catch up like you but my wife is a different matter ;) I'm content with nowTV + Netflix.

I messaged 4oD and ITV Hub on twitter - their responses basically said theres no news and nothing in development.
 
lifeisepic said:
I don't watch the catch up like you but my wife is a different matter ;) I'm content with nowTV + Netflix.

I messaged 4oD and ITV Hub on twitter - their responses basically said theres no news and nothing in development.
Click to expand...

I do find it odd that there's all these iOS apps for EVERYTHING but they all seem hesitant to release an ATV version. Something's happening that we're not party to... like they're all releasing their own catch up boxes purely for their channel
 
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Hermes Monster said:
I do find it odd that there's all these iOS apps for EVERYTHING but they all seem hesitant to release an ATV version. Something's happening that we're not party to... like they're all releasing their own catch up boxes purely for their channel
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I think that making sure they are on 'all the screens' was the priority, hence smartphone and even tablet optimised apps were a priority. The big screen is already well served, so it's less of a priority it seems.

Perhaps there's less value in tracking viewing habits, or getting a bigger picture of their audience via collected data too.
 
Amazon Fire TV ordered, maybe one day I can retire it when Apple TV catches up with apps.
 
Completely agree. It's a joke that 6 months on we still haven't got these basic apps.

Can we get them through via Plex?
 
lifeisepic said:
Amazon Fire TV ordered, maybe one day I can retire it when Apple TV catches up with apps.
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Yep - I got one last week. only way to have all the on-demand apps/kodi in one place. So it's films on iTunes, everything else on the Fire TV.

A shame really but I've accepted that it's never going to be all in one place,
 
BMox said:
Yep - I got one last week. only way to have all the on-demand apps/kodi in one place. So it's films on iTunes, everything else on the Fire TV.

A shame really but I've accepted that it's never going to be all in one place,
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I have a FireStick to watch UV movies via Flixster (Videos app side loaded so I can watch HD copies). It does a lot of good things but I hate using it! Terrible UI, the remote is garbage and the apps not much better
 
Hermes Monster said:
I have a FireStick to watch UV movies via Flixster (Videos app side loaded so I can watch HD copies). It does a lot of good things but I hate using it! Terrible UI, the remote is garbage and the apps not much better
Click to expand...

I've slowly come round to the Fire TV UI actually.

You should look into sideloading the Firestarter Launcher - might be up your street.
 
Hermes Monster said:
I do find it odd that there's all these iOS apps for EVERYTHING but they all seem hesitant to release an ATV version. Something's happening that we're not party to... like they're all releasing their own catch up boxes purely for their channel
Click to expand...
I suppose it depends on how many of the new Apple TVs have been sold in the UK, there may not be a big enough demand for them to justify the expense of producing the apps.
 
I can't help but feel this fragmentation is taking us in the opposite direction to what I, and presumably others, hoped.

Particularly from Apple, whom I'd expect a cohesive front-end that integrates multiple sources to make it easy for the user..

It all makes me question their stated philosophy that "the future of TV is apps". I'm not so sure. For me, the ideal future of TV would be a single front-end interface that hides all the apps within.

I like my Freeview DVR box EPG. I can scan up and down 100 channels quickly.. forward and back.. search.. single click to set to record (with series link).

Even if ITV , C4 etc release apps, will we have to go into each app individually to see available content? What about integrated recording?

For me, Apple TV just doesn't seem to be going in a direction to replicate, let alone replace my TV viewing.
 
If we're being honest, the UK TV culture isn't wired to this type of watching TV, especially with the likes of Sky and Virgin offering all in one packages (BB, Phone and TV).

I was on the top tier with Virgin for my BB, but had Sky as well. Virgin had a deal where I'd get all the channels I had with Sky, plus additional ones (e.g. BT Sport) for £4 extra a month. The savings worked out to be £500 over the year, so we switched.

For the majority of the public, they are quite happy to go with Sky/Virgin/BT, then buy a pre-loaded Fire stick with Kodi/add-ons and watch all their other content that way.
 
How do these commercial stations work? Do they pay service providers for the distribution of their mud or do the service providers pay them to deliver trash-tv in the home of the subscriber?

If the last scenario is the real thing it may take a while before anything changes... I'm quite happy to have cut my wires. Less trash in the home! Relief! hehehehehhe
 
I fear I will always need more than 1 streaming box to get everything. I look forward to a time when Apple TV can deliver all the content I need.
 
So I got the Fire TV yesterday, and I'm returning it. My5, the new 5 on Demand say it's not compatible. All4 also will just play ads then give a generic error that it can't play the video. Very disappointed - not sure if I should try the Roku next.
 
lifeisepic said:
So I got the Fire TV yesterday, and I'm returning it. My5, the new 5 on Demand say it's not compatible. All4 also will just play ads then give a generic error that it can't play the video. Very disappointed - not sure if I should try the Roku next.
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I'm not surprised All 4 doesn't work, their app offering on every platform is very weak. I use the All 4 app on the Samsung TV and it's just trash, often crashes or stops working. I actively avoid watching stuff on All 4 and just hope they might soon release a somewhat stable app on the ATV
 
lifeisepic said:
So I got the Fire TV yesterday, and I'm returning it. My5, the new 5 on Demand say it's not compatible. All4 also will just play ads then give a generic error that it can't play the video. Very disappointed - not sure if I should try the Roku next.
Click to expand...

Hmmm - I'll give my box a try later. You might just have a faulty one.
 
brandscill said:
I'm not surprised All 4 doesn't work, their app offering on every platform is very weak. I use the All 4 app on the Samsung TV and it's just trash, often crashes or stops working. I actively avoid watching stuff on All 4 and just hope they might soon release a somewhat stable app on the ATV
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Yep, you can airplay All4 but again that just doesn't work well at all. Seems the only way to get decent catch up channel 4 content is via Sky :S

BMox said:
Hmmm - I'll give my box a try later. You might just have a faulty one.
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I doubt it will work, the reviews on Amazon are amazing, so many 1 stars I don't know how All4 can think their apps are fit for use.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Channel-4-T...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456992697&sr=8-1&keywords=All4
 
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I use my PS4 for streaming pretty much everything. It doesn't have ITV but I haven't watched ITV for years anyway. It has the rest - iPlayer, All4, Demand 5, MUBI, Amazon, Netflix, CrunchyRoll, Animax, YouTube, Now TV etc. Plus the apps are vastly superior on the PS4 vs the Apple TV. Real night and day difference. They're all the full fat, full featured versions of all these apps, with pretty UIs. Many apps on the Apple TV are so rudimentary and devoid of features as to make them pretty much worthless anyway (such as Now TV and iPlayer).

I just use my ATV for iTunes, which is a bit tragic really. It's sadly another half hearted (if that) attempt from Apple. They just don't seem interested in making any impact on this market outside of America.
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lifeisepic said:
So I got the Fire TV yesterday, and I'm returning it. My5, the new 5 on Demand say it's not compatible. All4 also will just play ads then give a generic error that it can't play the video. Very disappointed - not sure if I should try the Roku next.
Click to expand...

The Roku is passable. It has most of the apps you would want but the front end UI is clunky and the remote feels pretty cheap. That said, it still blows the Apple TV away on pretty much every front where it matters - app availability and app quality.
 
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