Dos anyone remember in the dim and distant past when NOW TV had their Sky Sports service available and whether that was just TalkTalk, or across the board? And whether their Entertainment channels were available also? I definitely recall the EPG having SS1TT and SS1NOW, or similar, as alternatives, certainly with TalkTalk. And of course Sky continue for the moment to vary the content they provide between BT and TalkTalk. The point of my gibberish is that flowing different content to different ISPs, although it may now happen in different ways, is not I believe as new as it may seem.
I think most people would expect the Sky/Now TV channels to be a BT exclusive on reading the statements produced both by Sky and BT. I think it's a given from reading those statements that Now TV will be one app that will be on BT but not retail boxes.
**EDIT** this was meant as a reply to the last few posts on page 2. I posted before realising the conversation had moved on to a 3rd page. It's been a long day
Thats speculation, of course. But I agree with you. I'm wondering where Amazon fits into all of this. Because if and when they arrive, it would be detrimental to them not to be available to YouViews entire user base.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
Now TV becoming available on BT TV isn't a biggie, as its already widely and cheaply available elsewhere. Barring Sky Atlantic, TalkTalk had the lot for years.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
I agree, but the "biggie" has always been about having things available in one place, has it not, specifically on the YouView box from the point of view of this community? And somebody out there must still think so. I fear though they have been overtaken by events, that ship has sailed.
I agree, but the "biggie" has always been about having things available in one place, has it not, specifically on the YouView box from the point of view of this community? And somebody out there must still think so. I fear though they have been overtaken by events, that ship has sailed.
Why? Do you use BT (definitely a no) TalkTalk and retail all at one time? No. And no one else does, either.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
Thats speculation, of course. But I agree with you. I'm wondering where Amazon fits into all of this. Because if and when they arrive, it would be detrimental to them not to be available to YouViews entire user base.
I agree with your earlier post re Now TV. I for one have access to a Roku although I don't use the Now app on it but I did do briefly in the past. There are many ways for retail customers to get Now if it only appears on BT boxes.
As for Amazon, I definitely feel it should be available universally across the platform. I get Netflix and Amazon through my tv apps and they complement each other very well.
I'm sure there could be apps, especially minor ones, that we could live without if they were only available on selected boxes, but the 'big' ones should really be available to all (in my opinion of course).
(i) what apps are present on a device (ii) whether they are siloed, or whether there is an integrated search
YouView started off incredibly well compared with all other devices in 2012, when many smart TVs and other devices were lacking in even a complete set of players from the OTA broadcasters, nobody else had a backward EPG, and few other devices had any sort of integrated search.
It was a shame NowTV was not complete, but no more than that.
Now in 2018, many other devices have caught up with, and even surpassed, YouView in some of these respects, and the playing field has changed.
YouView still does well on the second criterion, where many smart TVs and other app-rich devices still don’t, but nowadays badly on the first criterion, where the continuing absence of NowTV Entertainment and Sport, and the absence of the newly important Amazon Video, pull it down.
Perhaps the switch to NextGen, to no great positive effect on the user experience (yet?) has made YouView take its eye off the ball, and so it must look to its laurels.
‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
Talk Talk have channels that BT TV don't have and BT TV have a few channels that Talk Talk don't have. Plus BT TV now have HD versions of many channels. BT may not be perfect but they have improved a little bit over the years. BT customer service although better than some others still needs improving. There is still room for many improvements to the Youview service as a whole.
So, as somebody who is not a BT customer at all (and probably unlikely to be one in the near future - currently using Sky for talk & broadband) and has a T2110 (BT Retail) YouView PVR, what will the future look like in terms of the T2110 user interface for me - much the same as it does now?
Improved access to the full range of NOW TV via YouView would be nice, but I'm guessing that 2019 will bring that only to BT customers based on what I've read to date. Or have I mis-understood that, based on what little is currently known so far?
@speedyrite You seem to have understood as much as everyone, which is 'who knows'.
YouView in their normal way have put out a statement that says very little but leaves everyone wondering why the need to say anything. Which therefore drives everyone to their own conclusions (NowTV being BT specific being one of the conclusions).
The problem is that it has always been a bit of a finger pointing exercise why the YouView NowTV app only ever had movies and in SD (unlike every other NowTV application out there). The statement by BT that they have come to an arrangement with SKY (over a few things) still leaves a lot of questions. I fear we will only find out as time progresses and YouView time tends to progress slower than most
It could be that YouView actually want to put out new functionality and BT/TalkTalk are slowing them down or vice versa and eventually all functions may be available across all platforms, it just being a timing exercise.
It could be that each platform has its own idea on how things should be handled and which are important areas and that will never be agreed across the platforms so they want to force their own way to handle/fix certain functions.
It could be that (as you think) certain Apps/functions will be entirely Platform specific going forwards.
Personally I think it will be all three but how fast and how splintered the platforms become I am not sure. The other small matter to throw in is could there be new splintering of hardware in the offing. We know BT are not happy with its multiroom offering and two tuners these days is a bit restrictive. It's exciting times (or not)
sorry, 'not happy' was probably the wrong phrase, 'wish to improve' is a better phrase. In an interview this was stated as a response to not being able to view content/purchases between boxes (the continue watching sort of works between box and app but is still sadly lacking from box to box).
@scott Ah, yes. I've known that for years (well before I became a BT TV user) as I once saw a presentation showing BTs vision of the connected home and TV (which is now YouView) was a big part of it, which they have now publicly talked about.
BTW, you can now bounce purchased content around the home from box to box by nominating your secondary as your main.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
Comments
**EDIT** this was meant as a reply to the last few posts on page 2. I posted before realising the conversation had moved on to a 3rd page. It's been a long day
Barring Sky Atlantic, TalkTalk had the lot for years.
As for Amazon, I definitely feel it should be available universally across the platform. I get Netflix and Amazon through my tv apps and they complement each other very well.
I'm sure there could be apps, especially minor ones, that we could live without if they were only available on selected boxes, but the 'big' ones should really be available to all (in my opinion of course).
No, I don't want to argue. And Robert has posted the the best post on here.
There are two key criteria:-
(i) what apps are present on a device
(ii) whether they are siloed, or whether there is an integrated search
YouView started off incredibly well compared with all other devices in 2012, when many smart TVs and other devices were lacking in even a complete set of players from the OTA broadcasters, nobody else had a backward EPG, and few other devices had any sort of integrated search.
It was a shame NowTV was not complete, but no more than that.
Now in 2018, many other devices have caught up with, and even surpassed, YouView in some of these respects, and the playing field has changed.
YouView still does well on the second criterion, where many smart TVs and other app-rich devices still don’t, but nowadays badly on the first criterion, where the continuing absence of NowTV Entertainment and Sport, and the absence of the newly important Amazon Video, pull it down.
Perhaps the switch to NextGen, to no great positive effect on the user experience (yet?) has made YouView take its eye off the ball, and so it must look to its laurels.
BT may not be perfect but they have improved a little bit over the years.
BT customer service although better than some others still needs improving.
There is still room for many improvements to the Youview service as a whole.
Darren
Improved access to the full range of NOW TV via YouView would be nice, but I'm guessing that 2019 will bring that only to BT customers based on what I've read to date. Or have I mis-understood that, based on what little is currently known so far?
@speedyrite You seem to have understood as much as everyone, which is 'who knows'.
YouView in their normal way have put out a statement that says very little but leaves everyone wondering why the need to say anything. Which therefore drives everyone to their own conclusions (NowTV being BT specific being one of the conclusions).
The problem is that it has always been a bit of a finger pointing exercise why the YouView NowTV app only ever had movies and in SD (unlike every other NowTV application out there). The statement by BT that they have come to an arrangement with SKY (over a few things) still leaves a lot of questions. I fear we will only find out as time progresses and YouView time tends to progress slower than most
It could be that YouView actually want to put out new functionality and BT/TalkTalk are slowing them down or vice versa and eventually all functions may be available across all platforms, it just being a timing exercise.
It could be that each platform has its own idea on how things should be handled and which are important areas and that will never be agreed across the platforms so they want to force their own way to handle/fix certain functions.
It could be that (as you think) certain Apps/functions will be entirely Platform specific going forwards.
Personally I think it will be all three but how fast and how splintered the platforms become I am not sure. The other small matter to throw in is could there be new splintering of hardware in the offing. We know BT are not happy with its multiroom offering and two tuners these days is a bit restrictive. It's exciting times (or not)
Aren't they? Why?
Ah, yes. I've known that for years (well before I became a BT TV user) as I once saw a presentation showing BTs vision of the connected home and TV (which is now YouView) was a big part of it, which they have now publicly talked about.
BTW, you can now bounce purchased content around the home from box to box by nominating your secondary as your main.