Re: the entertainment pack. Are they ever going to add any new channels? Apart from ITV Encore the lineup is virtually the same as it was at launch.

Surely they should be looking to add a couple more of the notable pay TV channels that are missing, i.e. Watch, SyFy, Nat Geo.

Variety seems to be an alien concept to the people behind Now TV though, so I expect it will stay as is with a heavy emphasis on Sky owned channels.

This is one of the reasons I've stayed away, out of the 12 or so channels only maybe 3-5 are of any interest to me. In this day and age it shouldn't be to difficult to offer more channels and band them so for instance I pay £6.99 I can choose 4 top tier, 4 middle and 4 bottom etc. Or just allow me to pick 12 channels from 30 or so

I suppose they want to leave a reason for people to sub to their TV service.

I don't think having 2-3 more entertainment channels is going to make a major difference to Sky subs personally.

But it may make the likes of Philip Wales above more likely to subscribe to Now TV, which is all important revenue at the end of the day.

Every new channel requires them to pay a fee to that network, so whilst an extra 2/3 channels might interest some, price rises may result in others leaving. I'd expect Sky to be regularly looking at price vs channels vs subscribers.
Personally I don't care that I'm not watching 6 of the channels, the £6.99 (or less if you get the deals) for Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky One, Sky Arts and FOX is fine.

Nearly a month in and the family have been making good use of NOW TV. My 4 year old has become quite good at finding the disney films. New films are added every week. I have made good use of the entertainment channels though. Catching up with The Flash, Gold Rush etc. However, I went to catch up on Arrow and the last few episodes had disappeared completely.
The terestrial on demand options are also being put to good use as well. It's no where near as good as the sky+ box and can see why people may not prefer to have NOW TV over a SKY tv package, but it does suit our needs for the time being and for the price, it's a damn sight better cheaper than a SKY TV package.. I will possibly go back to Netflix at easter though, ditch the NOW TV movies, and keep the entertainment pass going.

If money was no object, I'd have SKY TV and netflix together and get the best of both worlds.

I looked at the NOW TV just before Christmas and I just couldn't work out wether I'd get much use from it. Most things on SKY Atlantic/Living are on Netflix (except GOT). Ok they tend to be a season behind, but once you get over that bump, all's good.

Now if NF manage to block DNS/VPN or make us only have access to out home billing country, then maybe I'll re-think Now TV and use it in conjunction with UK NF.

Sky has increased their licensing deals with HBO which should mean Now TV will carry more HBO content. And of course there are Sky's own original productions which usually won't end up on Netflix these days, especially for later seasons.

Actually, I find Now TV's Entertainment pass a good deal, what with both live and streaming and the channels on offer. You should see how much the poor German's have to pay for theirs (Sky Online, which is the same as Now TV). They pay more and get a lot less.

But it all comes down to content. If nothing on their channels seem interesting, then it's not worth the money.

^^ The main reason I stopped my Sky TV was the fact there were very few programmes I was actually watching on SKY itself (Blue Bloods, Elementary, NCIS Original and GOT). And things like Suits, Goodwife, Walking Dead are far easier to watch and keep track of on NF than using the UK based TV channels.

That last bit is actually far more important than many Netflix competitors think. Episode Management is where the provider will keep track of what shows and which episode you are up to, so you never need to remember yourself. This is a vital feature in today's world with so many choices available. Netflix are not alone here as Prime also offers this in the UK, and Hulu in the US is pretty good there as well. When they add in cross-platform support as well (so you can leave an unfinished episode say on your phone and continue directly on your TV when you get home), it all works together seamlessly.

But catch-up services for the most part around the world basically ignore all this. A few have basic options or half-arsed attempts, but I can't think of any that come close to Netflix. Even the BBC which basically is the world's catch-up TV benchmark has no decent episode management. What they do have is either not available on all platforms, or only takes into account half of what is needed, and they are one of the best.

I have to admit that it is pretty bad for Now TV to not have this either.

Such a pity that none of them take this seriously.

^^It's not just that, it's the fact, all the episodes are there in a nice chronological order, available to watch as a binge or over a few weeks. I don't have to remember that Channel 5 has this and that, Fox has this and Living have that. The programmes are actually all going to be there for me, so I don't have to watch them all in one go etc.

A few months ago I used ITV catch up to watch the "The Unforgotten" I watched the first 4 episodes, the last 2 hadn't aired, but by the time the last 2 aired, the first 2 had dropped off catch up, so it was lucky I'd watched them and not decided to binge watch one weekend.

I've noticed BBC do it too, it's a pain and it looks like they don't really want you to use the catch up service as a "on demand" service.

That 30 day window really needs to change, I agree.

The problem is three-fold, licensing agreements, anti competitive practices (for the BBC) and limiting sales.

The first is the easiest to solve. Hulu has been offering this on many of their shows, and sometimes All 4 and Demand 5 do as well.

The second is specifically for the BBC. The problem there is that the BBC can't be seen as too dominating (well, even more dominating than it is now). It was difficult enough for the BBC to move from their original 7 days to 30 days, and it came at the cost of that amazing binge-supporting feature - Series Link. Back when they only had 7-days to catch-up, many BBC series had something called Series Link, where they would retain every episode of a series (season) until the last one aired, and then applied 7 days for the lot.

They even had a 45 day window back then using the 7+30+7 formula. That is, seven days to download the programme (iOS or computer), plus 30 days to watch it, and a further seven days from the date of watching to re-watch it.

But believe it or not, you and I were probably the only two people who found Series Link useful back then. It was almost universally unused. (This was way back in 2014). I loved it and used it all the time.

As for the 3rd issue, that is the most difficult. Basically, in the case of FTA catch-up services, any "original" productions they have, the networks like to sell them onwards. They make more money selling them to Netflix, Prime, UKTV or even Now TV than they do by keeping them available for free via advertising revenue.

All 4 will keep old box sets, but not newer ones, and this is likely to change in the future.

I'm on your side by the way, and this is something which will improve as long as we don't mind paying in the future. What we will see is a lot more OTT services behind a paywall. That may mean that the BBC and all the FTA networks either end up having an additional paywall to access all of their content over 30 days (the US networks do this, either like CBS with a true OTT service, or the others via Hulu and cable TV), or we may see a UK version of Hulu here where this will be possible. It is unlikely it will be free in the future though.

NOW TV do some shows as "series-link" catchup, with the whole lot expiring 30 days after the final episode. Blindspot, Supergirl, Muppets, Stella are available right now to watch from the first episode. But most are 30 days, and unlike the iPlayer normally on first run only.

But the good thing about it if you go for the monthly deal on the entertainment pass, you can miss a month as there is no long term contract....£6.99 is a really good deal for the programs they have even if you watch 2-3 episodes of something a week its worthwhile.

On the New Now TV box is Sky Sports in 720p?

Yes, if your broadband is up to it.

Does the new Now TV box fix the problem with the BBC app with the old Now TV box where you hear the sound for many seconds before the picture appears?

I've not this issue since I upgraded to the black box.

Did you have that problem with the old box?

All the time

Picked one up from Sainsbury's today for £12 including 2 sports day passes, and iPlayer works a treat.

If anyone is with NPower they are currently offering a free 3 month NowTV entertainment pass for existing customers on their website.