this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023

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How can we get something done about BBC iPlayer? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The iPlayer app is still absolute dogshit on Apple TV. No UHD programs, no season selection, no subtitle support (which is insane for a supposed organisation that champions inclusivisty), still no redesigned app which launched on all other platforms I can think of over two years ago...

When I've got in touch with the BBC to complain about the lack of subtitling in the past they have just said "it's too difficult" and panned me off, even though literally every other app including 'BritBox' which is partially owned by the BBC has them.

So I'm just wondering (especially with Doctor Who back on Saturday, and next year) if there is anything more I/we can be doing to get this sorted?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I could imagine that Amazon is making the Prime app on other devices bad by intention. Because they want that people use their services on their own Fire TV devices. But neither Netflix nor Spotify have their own hardware. And both have already stopped offering their subscriptions over Apple's AppStore. So if they provide an app for Apple TV, why should they have an interest in making the experience less good than on other devices? Instead of just ignoring Apple TV completely?

So personally I still think that those apps would be in a better shape if the developers could just use the same cross-platform code on ATV. Nowadays many apps are basically just dynamic webpages. But as far as I know Apple doesn't allow WebView on ATV. So developers would have to write workarounds or use wrappers to do things on ATV. So to me it seems that tvOS is just not a very developer friendly platform in this regard. But maybe a developer following this might want to comment on this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Google and Netflix have had multiple deals over the years.

Same with Spotify and Google. Both apps have integration on google video devices

I dont own Amazon products, how does fireos work with them? Amazon is running away frkm android soon, so I imagine itll break if it works now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As FireOS is based on Android, the apps (Netflix and Spotify) look and feel almost identical to the Android TV versions. I would think the same about the BBC iPlayer app, but I don’t use it myself.

But Amazon‘s new OS (Vega OS) is said to also be Linux based (like Android) and rely even more on web technologies. Maybe similar to LG‘s WebOS they use on their Smart TVs. So I don’t think app developers will have problems porting those apps over.

And that’s my point here: Apple doesn’t allow WebKit on tvOS. So developers can’t rely on those web technologies and use the same shared code base on Apple TV. But as a hardware device, Apple TV is just not important enough, so they will spend much time and money with developing a native tvOS app. So I think that’s why we end up with those apps that feel very basic compared to other devices.

But I agree that it doesn’t help that especially Netflix and Spotify aren’t really big friends of Apple. Of course both can’t afford to ignore Apple‘s phones and tablets. But I guess it doesn’t hurt them much to kind of ignore Apple TV.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Arent there certain browsers that Netflix refuses to allow to work properly as well? I feel like Prime Video and Netflix are assholes toward specific browsers too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don’t use those services in a web browser. But of course they want to have a working copy protection / DRM. Chromium based browsers should work without issues (Chrome, Opera, Edge). But again: On Apple devices, all web browsers are forced to use Apple’s own WebKit engine. Even Google’s own Chrome browser. And on Apple TV, WebKit and web browsers aren’t supported at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

But again, Chromium is a Google product and these companies have deals with Alphabet/Google

On the flipside, Apple’s TV app works on pretty much everything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Amazon won’t care about hardware; I doubt they make any money on it, really it’s a means to an end, that end being subscription services.

I would think Amazon would actually like the idea of taking subscribers away from Apple on their own hardware so there is an incentive for them to make the app as good as possible.

Apple has a history of questionable decisions around widely accepted standards!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I agree about Apple making some questionable decisions. If it wasn’t about having proper “frame rate matching“ across all major streaming apps, I think I would not own an Apple TV.

And of course Amazon doesn’t care about selling hardware. They want you to use a FireTV device to be able to force you to watch more and more ads.

https://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tvs-now-autoplay-full-screen-video-ads-when-waking-up-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/