Have any UK redditors had any luck removing some of the preinstalled junk apps on Sony Bravia Android TVs? I'd especially like to uninstall the useless "ad" apps urging you to install Mubi etc, while keeping the UK on demand apps (channel 4, ITV, iPlayer, Amazon, Netflix) and Youview.

Seems like some posts here recommend uninstalling Sony Select but I have a feeling that will remove a whole lot of the good stuff that appears in the Sony apps row.

Thanks!

edit: Have tried taking the steps of disabling Sony Select and Sony Shelf.

• It does not seem to be possible to disable either Sony Select or Sony Shelf - only to force stop them.
• Force stopping Sony Select on its own doesn't have a visible effect.
• Stopping Sony Shelf totally removed the Featured Apps row, including iPlayer, All4, ITV, Demand5 and Youview.

Digital TV then becomes accessible only via the "inputs" row, and, as /u/SirSmokesAlott points out below you can configure the Discover menu to access all the Sony exclusive apps on the TV. The Discover menu is surprisingly configurable, and for browsing/channel surfing, may well be better than the Leanback UI.

The main issue with the whole approach is that the Leanback UI is effectively neutered, and apps and features (including basic TV functionality) become far less accessible and discoverable. For family use, your mileage may vary.

For what it's worth, simply resetting the unit seemed to speed the up, but I still haven't found a designed way to remove bloat while maintaining a decent UK Leanback experience.