Improvement needed Bt sport app Roku

[zulu17]

Why is it that live coverage of BT Sport Ultimate channel on BT Sport App does not start at the same time as the live broadcast coverage on the BT TV Ultimate channel 433.

Latest example  is Man City v Marseille tonight  whereas the coverage on Roku only becomes available at 8pm whereas on BT TV ultimate channel it becomes available when the broadcast start which  tends to be several minutes before 8pm.

The app seems driven by time , whereas the Bt Tv coverage is driven by when the transmission/programme starts.

[DarrenDev]

You're right - it is driven by time.  The apps all download a schedule every time they're launched that state the exact second to start allowing users to launch the Ultimate channel or the enhanced player.  This is the time that the channel / extra data is guaranteed to be there, which is always shortly after it has started.

If you consider the reverse - you launch the app and click the match to watch, but you end up seeing an advert on loop (which is what the Ultimate channel plays when there's nothing on).  You'd be pretty annoyed that you're not getting to see any pre-match action, right?

If you launch the event before the Ultimate event has started, you'll be shown a prompt offering to launch the Ultimate channel as soon as it's ready.  You're not really missing out on anything other than a few more pixels of guys in the studio, right?

[zulu17]

Not my experience @DarrenDev  on the Roku

if launching the ultimate event before 8pm I get an error message   , so have to launch manually at 8pm , the transfer from the studio to commentary team in stadium occurs before 8pm so miss introductions , often team lineups etc. In the past  I have even missed the kickoff .

there is no offer to launch the channels as soon as it is ready only the tile which says live from 8pm which gives the error.

[DarrenDev]

In which case, that does sound like an issue. I'll get that checked. Thanks.

[zulu17]

Thanks @DarrenDev 

I did check again tonight  and the same scenario occured for the Tottenham  v Antwerp 8pm Ultimate coverage.

The error message that was displayed was "Sorry - There's a problem - Please try again later. Code LP110" 

Only selecting again once 8pm came  was the coverage available which effectively means that the coverage stated with the very end of the Dundalk team list and the teams minutes silence for Paulo Rossi. So teams arrival onto the pitch and the bulk of the listings of the teams which took place prior to 8pm not seen.

A sensible  approach to scheduling would perhaps  be to have the programme schedule  fixed start time earlier  than 8pm.

The quality of the stream is excellent would be good to have the complete broadcast.

[DarrenDev]

I passed your issue on to the Roku team lead today and she was surprised to hear it was an issue as she was convinced it had previously been working. I'll add your comments to the investigation.

As for the scheduling of the channel - that's definitely not something I'd have any way of influencing, and wouldn't even have a route to pass your feedback. Sorry.

[DarrenDev]

@zulu17 on the evening of this discussion, v1.0.5 of the BT Sport app on Roku and Now TV was released. This included a fix to behave exactly as I'd described - "User will be taken to the normal BT Sport channel before the event has started. And a prompt will be displayed to them when it starts." Let me know how you get on with it.