YouView’s catch-up programming has remained mostly UK-centric so far, but TalkTalk is adding some diversity with a trio of World TV Boosts. The new Arabic TV, JSTV and kykNET TV packs give viewers a combined 16 channels of Afrikaans, Arabic and Japanese content. While the Boosts aren’t cheap at a minimum £10 ($15) per month, they could be vital for ex-pats who want to keep up with news and shows from their home countries.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: YouView
Not that they weren’t pretty excellent already, but some major BBC channels are due to get 1080-line upgrades by early next year. UK viewers will get five new channels in total, with no need for any subscriptions (courtesy of Freeview HD, YouView and Freesat), including BBC News HD, BBC Three HD, BBC Four HD, CBeebies HD and CBBC HD (so long as Mr Tumble can fix his make-up). The programming will match the standard-def counterparts and contribute a promised 250 hours of extra HD content per week. There’s also talk of broadcasting regional programs and variants in HD, although that proposal still has to be approved by the BBC Trust and could be a bit further off.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
As promised by the free-to-view UK TV service, YouView’s finally launched its dedicated Android app. Offering the ability to browse a full week of program listings for its collection of over 70 TV and radio channels, the app can also remotely record TV shows. With the iOS version, you can connect up to five devices, with YouView promising it’ll run on “most Android 2.3 devices” with special optimization done for the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S II, LG Nexus 4, HTC One S and, er, Galaxy Ace. Visit the source to download the app to your own Android device.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Software, Mobile
Via: Pocket-lint
Source: YouView (Google Play)
YouView, the relatively young set-top TV service has managed to establish itself in 400,000 houses, the company revealed today. Its CEO, Richard Halton added that 2.2 million video streams are now being consumed every week. To celebrate all this viewing, it’s going to be launching an Android app in the coming weeks, which will remotely control the TV and recordings, essentially catching up to the iOS version already out there. The app will be optimized for several Google-powered handsets, including the Galaxy S2, S3, Ace, Nexus 4 and (perhaps oddly) the HTC One S. However, according to Pocket-Lint, the incoming app will still work on handsets running Android 2.3, just, well, unoptimized.
Better still, YouView promises to launch multiple new internet channels (through providers BT and TalkTalk), adding to the 70 broadcast channels available on the box at the moment. It’ll likely be ready in time for BT’s own sports channel, although YouView mentioned a loosely-defined summer launch. YouView promises that its new internet channels will include the ability to rewind and search for content, behaving almost identically to typical channels. There’s no specified channel list just yet, but we’re sure TalkTalk and BT will be filling us in on all the details ahead of any launch.
Filed under: Displays, Internet, HD
Source: Pocket-Lint (1), (2), (3)
Rocking a YouView box? You’ll shortly be in line for a software bump that’ll give you a few handy tweaks. The update will speed up the device’s boot-from-standby time, let you group recordings by series so you can watch ’em box-set style and pump out surround-sound audio if you’ve got the right gear. It’ll also provide a few useful UI tweaks, like offering the option to hide BBC red button prompts, letting you roll live TV backwards by 15 seconds or forwards by 60 seconds. It’ll be available on Humax-branded boxes over the next few weeks, followed by the TalkTalk branded units shortly afterward.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
YouView software update adds surround-sound, faster boot times and grouped recording originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re not quite comfortable shelling out £299 for BT’s YouView box, then you’re in luck. Starting October 26th, the hardware will be free for new Infinity broadband subscribers who ink contracts that are one year or longer. Instead of relying on cable, the Humax-built device uses both aerial and internet connections to deliver content from more than 100 digital TV and radio channels including Channels 4 and 5, the BBC and ITV. With the IPTV box, users can sift through content that’s aired in the past seven days, watch on-demand programs and record up to 300 hours of standard definition television or 125 hours of high-def video to a built-in 500GB hard drive. Current British Telecom subscribers pining for the subsidized box will be able to get their own for a £49 activation fee and a £6.95 delivery charge. Those eager for the gratis set-top solution will be able to order it online starting October 19th if they register interest with BT’s website beforehand. For more details, check out the press release below.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
BT to offer free YouView box with one-year broadband contract, £49 for existing customers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Two years after it was meant to go live, and with a list of backers that includes the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk, YouView today finally crashed the UK TV party. Available by the end of July with a selection of major retailers, the service is based around an all-in-one set-top box that you can use without a subscription, which includes 100 digital TV and radio channels, catch-up and on-demand services, as well as the ability to record programs.
But with a price tag that will begin at £299 ($469) without the required broadband thrown in, and competing against a host of existing services, is this a case of too-little, too-late?
At the launch event earlier today, Lord Alan Sugar — a self-made entrepreneur in the UK who is the star of the UK edition of “The Apprentice” — called the event “a great moment in British television,” but some of the reactions online have been quite to the contrary:
The service will first launch as a standalone product selling at major retailers like John Lewis, Dixons, Comet, Currys and Richer Sounds — as well as Amazon and the supermarket giant Tesco. The price for the set-top box is likely to go down when BT and TalkTalk, two of the investors in the service, start to bundle it with their own broadband offerings — where it will be part of a subscription package, much like carriers do with mobile devices.
The service sounds good enough, but for a set-top box pay TV service, it’s hard to see why consumers would choose this over something like Sky’s, Virgin’s or BT’s existing TV offerings, which already come bundled with broadband and offer all of these features and more.
YouView first came to life years ago as Project Canvas, a hopeful-looking joint venture between broadcasters, infrastructure players and broadband service providers to offer digital TV and on-demand services that would have, at the time, been a disruptive and probably welcome presence against the dominant pay-TV players Sky and Virgin. However, regulatory and technical hitches, coupled with other delays and management changes, have been an almost constant presence on the project from the start. In all, it has been estimated that the project will cost £115 million ($180 million) over four years from April 2010. (Some might argue that this, in fact, was the problem: not nearly enough money put into this to create something truly groundbreaking.)
Fast forwarding to 2012 and the final launch of the product, the whole industry has moved on: not only are there more pay-TV providers out there (including BT itself with its Vision service) but the existing services have become a lot more encompassing — for example BBC’s catch-up service iPlayer can be accessed via Virgin and BT’s services. On top of that, there are a host of other ways to get your TV fix now via OTT plays from Netflix, Amazon/LoveFilm, Google and more.
Moreover, YouView’s basic offering — 100 digital TV and radio channels, seven day catch-up and on demand programmes from the content libraries of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 — lacks something else that has been the clincher for many a household prepared to invest in pay-TV in the UK: exclusive content rights, specifically around sport. (Although the lesson of ITV Digital was that even this does not guarantee success.)
And yet, and yet… even if the initial signs do not look good, there is still some potential for how this might develop. YouView says it has had “interest” from over 300 potential content partners — with the “formal enrollment process” for them to join the platform also launched today. (Why YouView didn’t get these potential partners on board before launch, however, is not clear.)
Richard Halton, CEO, points out that in a trial of the service covering 2,000 homes, the feedback has been “very encouraging.” “It confirms that YouView is easy to set up and use and different to what has gone before,” he said. “In many ways we’ve only just begun.” Time will tell if YouView’s beginning was actually it’s end, too.
Update: A reader sent me a picture of how this story posted in his twitter feed, ironically just at the same time as a tweet from Lord Sugar himself. Don’t you love serendipity.
The BBC’s iPlayer has become too successful. It either needs to calm down or be put on a more level playing field with on demand services from the other big UK broadcasters — and it’s going to be the latter. Youview — which has nothing whatsoever in common with YouTube except its name and the fact that it also does video — is a PVR set-top box that uses both an aerial and a web connection to allow catch-up viewing, and we’ve just heard it’ll arrive in UK stores towards the end of this month. It’ll bring together programs from the BBC (which also contributed £10 million of license fee cash), ITV, Channel 4, Five, and Sky, using infrastructure from BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva, and it’ll target millions of British viewers who want a “seamless” mix of live and archived telly without being tied to a subscription — and who don’t yet depend on a Smart TV, games console or other converged device.
Update: Youview front man Lord Alan Sugar told us that the box is Humax-built and will cost £299. He also added that there’ll be adverts within commercial programs, but not plastered over the EPG or interface itself.
Youview TV platform and set-top box coming to UK stores this month (update: priced at £299) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 04:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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