topic Re: All4 and ITV on demand in Android TV

All4 and ITV on demand

TrixieJ — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 19:55:50 GMT

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!

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

Pascale_F — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:20:37 GMT

Hi TrixieJ,

Welcome to the community.

I'll see if I can find this out for you. Maybe someone else in the community can help in the meantime.

Thanks,

Pascale

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

The_Black_Rose — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 18:08:41 GMT

Hi TrixieJ ,

To be honest with you,the requirements for using Youview have always been the same and they've been available on Sony's official website for a long time. Here's the link stating the requirements: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00129097

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

Tonycv51 — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:43:45 GMT

What is it you want to do with you view?

To watch live tv you'll need an aerial but I'm sure I read on here the aerial is only required to activate youview but you can then watch catch up with no aerial so you could try that if you have an aerial in the house you can temporarily connect

Other option is to sideload the apps and turn off youview. You'd then have bbc itv, all4, my5 for catch up (you need to access them via app favourites or apps, not via the select bar)

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

TrixieJ — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 20:34:10 GMT

Hi, not really sure what you're getting at/mean?

Trix

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

The_Black_Rose — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 14:05:06 GMT

Hi TrixieJ ,

iTV, BBC iPlayer, Demand 4 and My5 are services provided by Youview. In order to use them, Youview has to be enabled and retuning at least once using an Aerial is required.

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

TrixieJ — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 14:10:40 GMT

I wish I was told this when I was sold the TV - I would have gone with a
Samsung in that case! Thanks anyway.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

Tonycv51 — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 15:02:29 GMT

You have 2 options assuming it's too late to take the Tv back

1- connect the Tv to an aerial just for initial setup

2- if you're OK with using a computer to download some files onto a USB and install them on the TV you can add the catch up apps manually

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 16:17:04 GMT

@Tonycv51 @TrixieJ

It’s always been a quirk of YouView that you have to have tuned in terrestrial itv before you can use the itv hub and Channel 4 before you can use All4, even on the set top boxes. Though the BBC IPlayer and My5 don’t have that requirement.

And it is no different on YouView on these Sony TVs.

But unfortunately, the code to check this is built in to the apps; so even if you sideload them, they are still the YouView versions, and will still do this.

It therefore follows that your option 2 will not work, alas, @Tonycv51. Though your option 1 certainly will.

But me, I’d chop the TV back in for a Samsung any day.

Another option, though, if you are now stuck with the TV, @TrixieJ , is to use a smart stick, so back to your NowTV one, or Amazon, or (my preferred option) a Roku stick. This will give you these two Players without hassle, and other goodies besides, for £30-£50, and you don’t need an ongoing subscription, unless you want that*.

*For those new to NowTV, you have to give them your card details to get started; Cancel any Movies or Entertainment offers straight away, so they don’t renew after a month, but you can still enjoy the offered goodies for that first month, as Cancel cancels the renewing, not the ‘free’ month.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:16:10 GMT

and it even stinks more that ITV Hub is actually available as an Android TV app for the nvidia shield etc, so the app is freely available to other androidtv users, just the sony users are locked out unless they enable youview.

All4 is the only app that isn't available on androidtv anywhere other than via youview.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:17:22 GMT

@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.

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

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:39:43 GMT

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?

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:47:28 GMT

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 11:01:28 GMT

@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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 11:04:39 GMT

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 13:51:01 GMT

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 13:43:49 GMT

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:02:22 GMT

@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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

ch3nks — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:01:44 GMT

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.

Re: All4 and ITV on demand

royabrown2 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:20:17 GMT

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....