All4 and ITV on demand

[TrixieJ]

Having not been told when purchasing my Sony TV that I would need an aerial to access All4 and ITV through YouView, I have purchased BT TV.  I installed the box today, but still the missing apps are again All4 and ITV.  I presumed as I was subscribing to a TV provider that I would not now have to keep my NowTV box so I can access those two apps.  BT are yet to install my aerial to go with the box so hopefully that will definitely rectify the problem - does anyone know if that is the case or has similar experience.  I will never buy a Sony TV ever again - I have had no such problems with my Samsung in my bedroom! 

[ch3nks]

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@Tonycv51 wrote:

It's actually itv and channel 4 that are the issue. I don't know why their apps aren't fully available on android tv seeing as they have android apps. At least Sony has come up with a solution via youview which you don't get on other android tvs. 

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ITV Hub is fully available on Android TV. it's just that on sony they have locked it behind youview.

[royabrown2]

Hi @ch3nks 

I hope it’s clear to you that Sony are the villains of the piece here, for not licensing these two apps themselves, and it is YouView that is riding to the rescue by providing them?

[ch3nks]

you have it the wrong way round there i'm afraid.

the ITV Hub doesn't need licencing, as it's freely available on the play store for android tv devices.

it's youview that has placed the restriction on the app.

for All4, that is not available to any android tv users other than youview users.

[royabrown2]

@ch3nks 

Why don’t you just disable YouView, download it and run it, then?

If you get told you can’t, this can’t be coming from the YouView software, since it will have been disabled.

So is it a message from the itv Hub application itself? But it can’t be, if, as you say, the itv Hub Is now freely available. So perhaps it isn’t.

Or, it must be something Sony have put there; so let them know that this restriction is no longer needed, and see what they say.

[ch3nks]

because the app listing on the store says the device (the tv) is not supported, and that's because ITV/Youview have placed that restriction on the app. 

if you understand how app targeting and restrictions are handled on the play store then you would know why the sony tv isn't "allowed" to manually install it from the play store.
i have the ITV hub app installed on my nvidia shield.

ps. ITV are part owners of youview.

[royabrown2]

Hi @ch3nks 

I will freely admit that I don’t understand those things.

But when you say “because the app listing on the store says the device (the tv) is not supported, and that's because ITV/Youview have placed that restriction on the app.“ does the app listing actually use the words “because ITV/Youview have placed that restriction on the app” or similar words?

Or is that your own extrapolation from what it does say?

And if it is your own extrapolation, is there no other possible explanation here?

I am also a great believer in “follow the money”. And I can’t see where any financial benefit to anyone would lie, in restricting the distribution of the itv Hub. (Nor, for that matter, in All4 not being available on the Android TV Store either, but it isn’t).

I’m guessing there are two versions of the itv Hub floating about here; perhaps you can compare version numbers between your NVidia version and the Sony/YouView version? I bet they are different.

And the probable reason you can’t download the Play Store version is that YouView has certain expectations of a dialogue with the itv Hub application provided with YouView, which won’t be fulfilled by the general itv Hub app, and might crash YouView, or just not work, or something undesirable anyway.

i.e. The issues are technical and historical, not sinister. But whichever way you look at it, the itv Hub general app is no doubt a recent addition to the Play Store. Of something that YouView has been facilitating for almost the last five years on these Sony TVs.

But anyway, don’t sweat it, as there is the ‘Hoshsadiq’ workaround to get the itv Hub and All 4 working without YouView being present.

[ch3nks]

it's not my own extrapolation, it's how it is.

when you publish an app you can choose what devices to make it abailable to, even down to specific models of devices.

the fact that the ITV hub is shows as "not available" to the sony android tv devices is because the app publisher (ITV or whoever they use to manage that) has chosen to to do that.

All4 is a different matter as that app is not available to any AndroidTV app on the play store.

[royabrown2]

@ch3nks 

OK then, itv is the bad guy; not Sony, not YouView.

And the app is not, as you said it was, ‘freely available’; there are limitations on that.

But I am still betting they are technical and historical, nothing else.

Also, you have to decide whether, if Channel Four did launch All4 for Android TVs, it would suddenly and magically become YouView’s fault that you weren’t allowed to download it for some reason, when YouView almost certainly would have had no say in the matter of whether it were made available or not.

[ch3nks]

well ITV is part owner of Youview, so ITV and Youview are responsible.
and it is "freely available" to the devices that ITV choose to make it available to.

it's listed on the play store and can be installed on any andoird tv device that ITV has allowed. so stop trying to be pendantic, you won't win!

clearly ITV (and channel 4) did this to try and push the, clearly failing, youview platform at the time.
youview has pretty much been and gone as a viable platform and has pretty much been replaced by Freeview Play.

it would take a few simple clicks on the play store admin page for them to make the app available to ALL android tv devices. you can bet all you want, the house always wins.

[royabrown2]

Then you have to decide whether, if Channel Four did launch All4 for Android TVs, it would suddenly and magically become YouView’s fault that you weren’t allowed to download it for some reason, when YouView almost certainly would have had no say in the matter of whether it were made available or not.

As to YouView no longer being a viable platform, try telling that to BT, who have bet the farm on it. But certainly, Retail YouView never lived up to its promise, and YouView on Sony TVs has been pretty much a disaster, for reasons that Sony and YouView remain remarkably tight-lipped about.

I have my theories, and I think it needn’t have been so, but too late now.

YouView have, for stated reasons I am deeply sceptical of, just discontinued their mobile App. Half its functionality has been replaced by the BT TV mobile App, which BT have generously opened up to us retail refugees; the other half has been replaced by the Freeview mobile App.

So we’ve rather been pushed into the waiting embrace of the enemy. But I don’t know if you have sales figures for Freeview Play devices? My feeling is that YouView (the boxes, not the Sony TV misfire) still have the edge; but being able to record is becoming more and more niche in this streaming world, and the bang for your buck from a Roku Stick or similar is making the necessary prices of recorders look more and more embarrassing.

So I will join with you in kicking poor old YouView when it is down, up to a point; but not for the things that aren’t actually its fault....