ABC iView now on Apple TV 4
ovbg
Posts: 1,451 Forum Member
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Another fantastic app has appeared on the Australian tvOS store, ABC iView. Essentially, this is Australia's answer to the BBC, basically their public broadcaster.
While the British tvOS app store is looking really thin and empty, with only one FTA broadcaster present (BBC iPlayer), our Australian friends have nearly completed the FTA lineup, with only 9Now missing.
ABC iView compliments the other free-to-air Australian broadcasters available on the ATV4 (SBS On-Demand, Plus7 and TenPlay), making it a fantastic way to watch loads of free television. (SBS On-Demand especially has a huge library of available content for free)
While all of these are officially only available in Australia, they can easily be accessed via Smart DNS. Getflix is what I use, and they support all the Australian and New Zealand apps, so if you were cheesed off that there isn't much to watch on the ATV4 with only the BBC being available, you can add ABC iView, SBS On-Demand, Plus7, TenPlay and 3Now (from NZ) for a much wider lineup of shows.
While the British tvOS app store is looking really thin and empty, with only one FTA broadcaster present (BBC iPlayer), our Australian friends have nearly completed the FTA lineup, with only 9Now missing.
ABC iView compliments the other free-to-air Australian broadcasters available on the ATV4 (SBS On-Demand, Plus7 and TenPlay), making it a fantastic way to watch loads of free television. (SBS On-Demand especially has a huge library of available content for free)
While all of these are officially only available in Australia, they can easily be accessed via Smart DNS. Getflix is what I use, and they support all the Australian and New Zealand apps, so if you were cheesed off that there isn't much to watch on the ATV4 with only the BBC being available, you can add ABC iView, SBS On-Demand, Plus7, TenPlay and 3Now (from NZ) for a much wider lineup of shows.
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Great news. However, video quality is quite low. No auto scaling or HD. Sub SD unfortunately
Did you get the option to switch to high quality? On some titles (I think the Dr Blake Mysteries and Jack Irish) you should see an option for high or low quality. Once this is selected, it will default to high whenever possible.
That said, high is only standard definition, and only on newer titles. But it is better than the sub SD of older titles still. Video quality was always an issue with iView.
(Just in case anyone is interested, here is a little bit of ABC history).
Think of the ABC as the BBC chopped at the legs. Basically, there used to be a TV license, but people started to say the usual "why should we pay..." so at one point the government abolished the license and financed it from normal tax. People still have to pay, but because they don't see an individual bill, they don't notice. (and it has become less unbiased as it no longer had complete separation from government control)
But, because they don't notice, they also have less say, and care less, and conservative governments keep cutting funding as well.
Bandwidth costs money, and the ABC doesn't have the mandate anymore which the BBC still has, so it keeps the bitrates really low.
Still, through all that, the ABC produces some of the best shows that emerge from Australia, whether in comedy, drama or current affairs and documentaries, and like the BBC, no ads.
Apple really needed to throw some money at the problem to get broadcasters to put their content on the Apple TV here. They didn't do it for ATV 2 or ATV 3, and now ATV 4 has the same problem - very little content (Now TV and BBC) and no broadcasters prepared to waste time and money building apps for a niche platform.
You do realise that Apple has far more money than your beloved Sky , what's to stop them moving into their own content ?
Both are boxes you connect to your television to receive content?
Sky has an abundance of content.
Apple TV is seriously lacking.
I actually wish the Apple TV was a lot better because I'm almost all in on Apple technology (15" Retina MacBook Pro, 27" iMac Retina, iPad Pro/Air2 and a Mini 4, iPhones and Apple Music subscription to my Sonos system)
The Apple TV is a comparatively open platform where any broadcaster can create an app for it, and most will. Unlike Sky Q, there are no monthly fees as a requirement, although some apps will require that. Still, there is quite a fair amount of apps already considering that it has been out only a few months, which yes, includes the BBC iPlayer, Netflix, TVPlayer and Now TV, which by the way, includes the best stuff from Sky anyway.
Sure, it is lacking ITV Hub, All 4, My5 and UKTV Player, but those broadcasters take their merry time to land on any platform (All 4 and ITV Hub only just fully arrived on all Fire TVs this week).
That said, not all broadcasters in other countries are as slow as the UK ones right now. 4 out of 5 FTA broadcasters from Australia are already on it, most of the main Scandinavian ones, and 90% of the American ones.
And that is another thing this device can do which Sky Q can't. I can watch TV direct from the US, Australia and New Zealand, which when combined offers a hell of lot more stuff than just Sky Q. I'm watching live TV from Australia right now (try that with Sky Q), and later tonight I'll fire up Hulu and watch a latest episode from the US that is not available yet in the UK.
Sky Q is a fine box, but is a totally different thing to the Apple TV Box, and your assumption that there is very little on the ATV4 couldn't be furthest from the truth.
iPlayer is about the only new thing. I'm told the Now TV app isn't much better than the ATV 3 version, which is unfortunate. Because the software Sky has built for their new Now TV boxes is really good and offers an excellent experience.
ITV have said they have no plans to bring ITV Hub to the new Apple TV. And if they can't financially justify it, there's no chance channel 4 or 5 will be doing it either. Both remain silent on plans, but I'm betting a year from now it will be the same.
Sky Q is not the future at all. As faster and faster internet services materialise those massive monthly payments and long term contracts will be consigned to history. We're a long way behind the US who are leading the way for cord-cutting but it will happen eventually.
Actually, in some ways the UK is ahead.
Nowhere in the world needs cord cutting more than the US and Canada, because cable TV is so dominant and expensive there. Basically, until recently, if you wanted to watch TV, you needed cable. Even the free-to-air television networks force their viewers to sign up to cable if they want to watch most of their catch-up content or live streams from the Internet.
It has gotten so bad in the US, that cord cutting became a method of freeing the viewer from the clutches of long-term contracts and forced bundling.
In the UK, cord cutting is slower to take off because the country has a far more advanced free-to-air industry. People in the UK really don't need pay TV at all, as the main FTA broadcasters do such an amazing job, and provide such good on-demand apps in comparison.
That said, it also took off earlier in the UK in other areas. The hottest ticket right now in the US for cord cutting is services like Sling TV, where people can watch live pay-TV without the need of long-term contracts. This was available in the UK for a much longer period of time with Sky Go (when they could be joined without a traditional Sky setup) and Now TV.
That said, the US has one advantage the UK doesn't; Hulu. This is a great service where most of the main US broadcasters allow access over a monthly subscription for a good deal of their catch-up content, plus some box sets. The UK tried this years ago with Project Kangaroo, but the competition commission at the time had no understanding of VOD so scuttled it. This was a great loss for the UK, but helped create the powerful independent apps we see today. Still, it could come back in the near future, as the BBC & ITV are apparently back in talks again.