Missing 'TV' apps as a UK person for the platform

by s-hanley

In my UK home I have FireTVs, not perfect, too much amazon push, but workable.

For the FireTV platform (still android) I have iPlayer, ITV hub, 4oD, Demand 5, TVPlayer.. Sure I have to sideload some of these but they are all big screen remote friendly.

Why is it amazon can cultivate these android devs and AndroidTV cant ?? Does amazon splash the cash more ? iPlayer is a really big missing factor for me.

I really think the AndroidTV platform could be superior, its more of a framework, the 'channels' ribbons could be very useful and the channels app as a streaming aggregator could be a game changer for live TV streams. But it does seem its lots more potential and less actually 'now' useful.

NedSc

Amazon is literally paying the companies for the apps on their platform. The only reason those apps are not on Android TV is greed.

LinksAwkwardBrother

iPlayer and ITV hub are on the Nvidia SHIELD.. All4 I have to cast... Android TV still feels forgotten by most, and that's a shame because it's such an open and flexible TV OS.

Frasito89

This is my one issue with Android TV.

I just wish I had all these apps in one place.

BiggussDikkuss

Why is it amazon can cultivate these android devs and AndroidTV cant ??

Answer Market Share. Android TV would be in 4th or 5th place when it comes to media players behind Roku, Amazon Fire TV's, Apple TV's and the Chromecast.

Then you have an inherently unstable OS platform that needs to run on pretty varied hardware which means fragmentation and Apps not quite running smoothly across the entire OS.

That is all pretty unattractive to developers, they simply develop Apps for platforms where there are more eyeballs watching and more money to be made with the least amount of effort required.

slipknut600

I put iPlayer on Kodi if it helps

TomProvotid

Are you able to run Kodi? If so you can find iPlayer in the Retrospect plugin . TWiT.TV is there also. If you ask the developer nicely, he'll probably add more British channels.