UK & Ireland on demand app development?

by dusf

There is a BBC iPlayer Android TV app available for the Nvidia Shield TV, but I have not been able to locate native versions of the following:

All4, ITVHub, Demand 5, RTÉ Player, 3Player, and TG4.

Versions of these apps for regular Android exist, and they can be sideloaded, but using a mouse or game controller stick to navigate these does not appeal.

  • Do versions of these apps exist that would work properly on the shield, perhaps sideloading Sony Android versions, if that is even possible?

  • Is there a complete list of Android TV apps available for all regions somewhere? Browsing to the Google Play Store link for same does not provide this.

  • Anyway to check if native versions of these apps are in development, or to request them?

*Just to add, Kodi is one of the main reasons I use the Shield, there is a well working ITV addon for it, two BBC iPlayer addons, and a half working Irish TV addon. Unfortunately, even the ones that work properly cannot compare to the experience provided by the GUI of a full featured regular Android or Smart TV app.

Tapsaffnoo1

Native Android TV apps don't exist for these. They may already be in development but doubtful since i don't imagine it would take this long. You could try contacting the developer on the play store to see if they are able to make them Android TV compatible. These are apps that are available on every single other platform/device, UK/ Europe users are left as an afterthought again.

KillerEyeDoc

There may well be licensing reasons for this. It took a very long time for airplay/casting for the 4 app.

It is looking very odd that it has taken this long, and it isn't just on the Android side either; the pickings on the Apple TV are equally poor.

dusf

Does anyone know where we can find a list of all Native Android TV apps, not prohibited by geolocation? The link the Play Store provides when googling this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3000e26_androidtv_apps_all?hl=en

When I view that link it does not show BBC iPlayer, but it is also at least missing Emma for Spotify, which I am not geoblocked from here in Ireland.

dusf

It is probably not possible, as I expect it would have been done already, but it would be great if software could be developed that would interpret remote control, up, down, left, right, select, etc. buttons as user input to cycle through the different options, allowing navigation of regular Android apps using Android TV.

dusf

I have just read that Amazon Fire TV apks can be extracted and installed on Android TV devices.

Anyone reading who owns one willing to extract these apks for us?

graphitenexus

The apps exist as they are available on Sony Smart TVs but you cannot get them from the play store unfortunately