ADDITIONAL APPS

[PJCORNELLY]

What's the chances of further apps coming to BT?  I'm thinking of course of the 3 main ones missing:

• Apple +

• Discovery +

• Disney +

I guess Sky have some agreement!

It would also be useful to have:

• Rakuten

• Mubi

• BFI

• CI

To name but a few. Appreciate this would be competition with th BT TV store but these apps are out there anyway. Having them all in one place enhances the user experience.  

[NigelB72]

The only one I can see coming in the near future is Discovery+ due to the impending joint venture with Discovery Networks & BT Sport.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for the others because they'd need BT to arrange a direct carriage agreement otherwise the channel owners would have to  launch on all Youview boxes including retail ones which will cause technical, billing and compatibility issues.

If you want those apps, it much easier to pick up a Roku or Firestick etc

[Anonymous]

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@PJCORNELLYwrote:

What's the chances of further apps coming to BT? 

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Discovery+ has already been announced assuming the deal goes through.

YouTube has appeared in material published by YouView, perhaps mistakenly, but it could arrive eventually. 

Disney+ is tied up in a Sky exclusive deal for a period, as is Apple TV+ as they are making Sky Go available on Apple TV as part of the deal. 

I'm not sure Rakuten doing rentals/sales is that much of an issue, Prime Video does that and is on BT TV, I just don't think it offers anything substantially different to what is already available. 

It would be handy for those of us who get free weekly rentals via Vitality though. 😁

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@PJCORNELLYwrote:

Having them all in one place enhances the user experience.  

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Agreed, but no platform has access to all the apps as fragmentation continues. You have to choose a core service that gives you easiest access to the things you watch the most, then add on another device for accessing the rest.

[PJCORNELLY]

Thanks for the replies.  Interesting about Discovery so hopefully that will arrive.

I'm not concerned if they appear on BT or not, I have various means to access them but it would be great just to have the main apps at least on one platform, especially if you can search via BT and add to your watchlist.

[SRB]

Always thought it odd they have no radio apps on the platform - even if only UK ones.

[PJCORNELLY]

The problem is no platform truly has everything for everyone and so we have to live with limitations. It is annoying though that Britbox for example can be added to your watchlist but Prime cannot and Netflix you can't even search.

Having just switched from Sky Q they too have many frustrating limitations.

Gone are the days of just selecting a channel, streaming is happening at a rapid pace and these platform providers really need to catch up with the way users watch TV.

[gomezz]

My Android phone has everything for everyone that I know of. Couple that with casting and that is your do it all platform.

[PJCORNELLY]

True but that is a bundle of apps and not an integrated system with global search, onestop watchlist, epg etc.  My TV has all mainstream apps.

There are apps that bundle your apps into one, like

Justwatch

Reelgood

But they too are limited.  

[biohazardx9]

Well bbc sounds counts as a radio app.

I do know what you mean though. Virgin media has radioline for example.

[Anonymous]

BT TV uses Freeview as a base which broadcasts many radio stations in the 700 channel range, I’m not sure an app with more (or the same) stations, is going to be a priority.

BBC Sounds is slightly different due to the various playlists and podcast content, plus it has to be made available to as many people as possible.

Sky Q is the same, broadcast channels + BBC Sounds, whereas Glass has Global and Radio Player apps because it is a totally different type of platform and doesn’t carry any radio stations as channels.