Update Now TV app for apple TV

[Anonymous User]

Will the Now TV app for Apple TV ever get an update?

The current version is complete rubbish and makes me regret ever getting a Now TV pass.

Unless there is an update my Now TV experience will be very short indeed.

[Enapace]

@nst 

Why would they launch a Xbox One X app when they have a Xbox One App already? Totally agree they will have to launch a PS5 and Xbox Series S and X App.

That is what i meant means Apple TV is guaranteed to get boost now all the new platforms are getting it and anything that is old is getting removed as a platform. 

Hopefully soon they synchronise all boost platforms to be the same.

And I was the exact same in the survey as you brought up the rewind/fastforward clunkiness and also mentioned that it should have searching via voice as can't see why it doesn't.

[nst]

@Enapace 

Although nothing is guaranteed ... goodness only knows thats true with regards to NowTVs AppleTV support!...  yes the more platforms that support Boost the better... and as we have mentioned numerous times before there is no reason why the AppleTV cannot support it.   Also as Ive mentioned .. surely its in NowTV's best interest as a company to allow as many of their subscribes as possible to use boost and therefore pay them an additional £3 per month for the privilege.

Let hope that when the app is launched it does indeed support boost (as we've kind been promised).  To me, it unusable without.

[dr_necessitor]

On most (if not all) of the previous NOW TV trials that I have done, the ABCD survey has preceded a public release shortly afterwards, so I would say that there is finally some hope!

[Anonymous User]

@dr_necessitor 

That’s always a good sign, hopefully it’s the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been waiting for.  

[AlexB83]

How long after the survey did release come on other trials?

[benryanmills]

Also curious to know what the length of time between survey and release was. I personally think we’re going to see it within the next fortnight. 

[dr_necessitor]

@AlexB83 Mostly quite soon after as far as I remember

[dr_necessitor]

@benryanmills Mostly quite soon after as far as I remember. Sometimes there were other surveys during a trial but those, by the nature of their content, were usually (& clearly) *not* related to an imminent release (more like an opinion check on features).

[MrZippy]

Surely depends on survey results and what they need to release. I didn’t rate for use all the time because feel the app it’s that good, it’s fine for occasional use in my eyes.

[nst]

On the positive side... we can now seem to say that something is coming sooner rather than later.

How soon... we dont know - however they should keep to their 'autumn' promise.

Personally, if I were to predict whats going to happen.. I would say that the current beta might get released as is... hopefully with Boost support.

However I can also see it released with no changes to the current beta and no boost... but as much as that would be an annoyance (and I still wouldn't be able to use it personally without boost)... I do concede that anything is better than nothing at this stage and that it can be built upon in the future.

As long as the new app is something that will continue to receive some TLC from NowTV and have new features and functions added in the future and not left to rot like the last one was... then its progress.

[MrZippy]

Well from the comments of the Irish app user I’m not sure they are going to bother much even when released.

[waldopepper]

This has been going on for so long I have actually forgotten what improvements/changes are actually in this version! 

Being able to view MyTV is a biggy, but is 100% something that should have been in this years ago.

What are we actually getting? I hate to pile in, but Boost is what everyone seems to be asking for. Are they really going through all the pain of releasing a new version without this?

[dr_necessitor]

@MrZippy Overall results of surveys never get revealed! No idea what they do with them or even whether they pay any attention to them or are even an input to a “go/no go” decision. Probably nothing, none, no. Maybe it’s just a pre-release tick box exercise? Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case to be honest.

[MrZippy]

The way this has gone I suspect a tick box exercise before release, we asked, listened and ignored.

[Clem_Dye]

Releasing an update without Boost support seems pointless to me, and I certainly wouldn’t use any updated version on an ATV box without it. Given the recent releases — NowTV+Boost on newer Sony TVs for example, I wonder if the real focus is Android at present? Humax is due to release its new Freeview PVR this month, which is Android-based. I wonder if the NowTV app. will work on that?

As much as I want to buy an Apple TV box, unless a full-fat NowTV app. is up for grabs I won’t be bothering.

TBH, I’m not really surprised by the lack of progress of a decent ATV app. The NowTV software is a bit of a dog’s dinner to my mind. Perhaps it’s just too difficult to unravel things for the Apple TV platform. The logic that being being able to offer your wares on just about any streaming platform so as to encourage uptake doesn’t seem to matter to Sky, I suppose. I don’t understand the logic of killing off the NowTV box that had an Ethernet port. Wi-fi streaming doesn’t work for everyone, but at present it’s a wireless Roku/NowTV streamer or nothing, if you want a plug-in device. Ultimately, I don’t think that Sky really cares that much, but it needs to, as it no longer has the same market presence as it once did.

[MrZippy]

The beta NowTV app looks and functions the same as the Roku (NowTV box) one, expect the left slide out menu for home, live TV is at the bottom. Even though on tvOS it should be at the top. Even the text entry is Roku, they seem to have spent a lot of time making this fit their brand, over functionality.

[Anonymous User]

Roku now do a 4K HDR streaming bar which can connect to Ethernet via an adapter which is sold separately.

[ukbobboy]

@Anonymous User 

Yeah Mina

Here's a picture:

UK Bob

[Anonymous User]

I have been in contact with Now TV support since July regarding the incredibly poor support the Apple TV app has been given. It hasn’t been updated since 2015 and is still a 1.0 release. 

I’ve been in contact with them regularly just asking for simple features such as being able to access my watchlist etc and just kept being told the tech team are working on an update. I was then told that they were waiting on Apple as without this they couldn’t release an update. I found this very odd so I spoke directly to Apple this week and told them about this and they were incredibly confused. They asked me to contact their legal team and I let NowTV I’d been given these details by Apple and have now been in contact with Apple’s legal department. 

I got a response yesterday that apparently an updated app will be being released by the end of November. 

just all seems a smidge coincidental that nothing has happened for 5 years for customers using an Apple TV but as soon as a mention of a customer now being in contact with Apple’s legal team, after being told updates were being delayed by them and not Now TV, that an update is now supposedly on the way imminently. 

Anyhow, fingers crossed for all of us who just want the same functionality on the Apple TV app as every other version of it on iOS.

[p023031]

I’ve been saying for months that this is a commercial issue rather than a technical one. 

The post above is quite revealing. If they are blaming Apple, I suspect it will be about attempting to get a reduced commission on subscriptions taken out via iOS. I think Amazon did manage to do this but it is on a case by case basis which would need negotiating. 

[Anonymous User]

When I spoke to the representative at Apple they stated that there would be nothing they would be doing to actively prevent Now TV from adding simple functionality like watchlists etc from the app and that they were free to add these whenever they wanted so having been told by Now TV hat they dearly wanted to help me but Apple was stopping them from providing the feature was what I found very dubious.