29-09-2015 22:03
Opera users are currently getting a message when using SkyGo, Now TV or BT Sport that it'll no longer support Silverlight in the near future.
This has to pile on the pressure to Sky and BT that they need a HTML5 solution for us that continue to use web browsers to view the content.
30-09-2015 9:51 - edited 30-09-2015 9:54
@BicBasher I doubt it'll make that much of a difference - Opera accounts for quite a small percentage of browser usage, compared to Chrome at estimates of 40-50%, which obviously became incompatible earlier this year.
That said, I'm sure we'll be working to make it compatible as soon as we can 🙂
Tom
[EDITED] to correct my percentage figures as they weren't necessarily accurate on further inspection.
30-09-2015 10:20
@Anonymous User wrote:@BicBasher I doubt it'll make that much of a difference - Opera accounts for quite a small percentage of browser usage, compared to Chrome at estimates of 40-50%, which obviously became incompatible earlier this year.
That said, I'm sure we'll be working to make it compatible as soon as we can 🙂
Tom
[EDITED] to correct my percentage figures as they weren't necessarily accurate on further inspection.
@Anonymous User, Out of interest, what are the percentage figures for Firefox? This is the browser I moved too after Chrome stopped supporting Silverlight.
30-09-2015 10:28
@BicBasher I don't know exactly, as it depends on whose statistics you use (we do have our own, but they're super top secret and if I told you, etc...)
W3Schools offer some pretty comprehensive data about visits to their site, but it's worth bearing in mind that that's a site for developers, and so the browser usage will be heavily skewed to what more tech-savvy people use. That said, the numbers are really interesting looking back over time, and you can see that Firefox has dropped off as Chrome has begun to really dominate.
There's also some slightly more confusing data on this Wikipedia article, although it's probably more accurate as it's from much broader sources.
Lastly, the data on this site suggests that Opera makes up no more than 1%.
Cheers,
Tom
30-09-2015 11:52
Hi @Anonymous User @BicBasher
I'm not at all surprised that Google Chrome ranks very highly in terms of browser usage. Chrome may not support Silverlight, but most streaming services now have managed to switch to a HTML5 browser-based solution. I believe now TV is one of the few streaming service left which has not made the switch yet. I'm hoping that when nowTV do make the switch. You will be able to watch on demand content in 720p through a web browser because of course the current Silverlight system used by now TV doesn't support 720p
Amazon recently made the switch to a HTML5 browser based solution. If you're using Google Chrome or Microsoft eight Amazon will automatically use the HTML5 player. Although I must admit it needs some work. It takes ages through to decide that you can have 1080p.
Of course nowTV are using HTML5. It's what's used by most of the apps now, including the Windows app. So it's only really the browser based system which needs to be updated.
30-09-2015 12:00 - edited 30-09-2015 12:04
TV Player Plus are stubborngly sticking with Flash, while the BBC will continue with it for desktop users "for a few more years."
I know there's a NOW TV app which uses HTML5 if I have Win 8.1/10. The upgrade to 10 didn't go too well for me, so decided to revert back to Win 7.
Luckily the amount of time I watch NOW TV on a PC is at a minimum, but with Flash and Silverlight slowly being dropped by browsers, Sky and BT really need to look at a HTML5 solution for browsers where they can maintain the DRM required by the copyright holders of the content.
30-09-2015 12:48
Hi @BicBasher
I should mention that Google Chrome still supports Flash and as far as I know there has been no mention of it being dropped just yet. The fact is Flash will probably hang on for a little bit longer than Silverlight because Flash is used for many things, not just protected video.
But I'm not worried as I have no doubt now TV will change at some point, and when they do, you'll probably be able to play 720p through a browser I don't watch now TV through a web browser anyway.
30-09-2015 13:46
StatCounter do a good job with a huge range of different style sites to get an idea of the browser shares.
For August 2015 Opera doesn't even feature on the UK graph for desktops, it's somewhere inside the 1.74% of "other".