back to article NEW ITV Player app IS HERE ... for Samsung fandroids only. Ha ha

A new version of the Android app to watch ITV's online telly is now available - exclusively for Samsung gadgets. But eager viewers with or without Sammy gear may want to stick with the earlier build of the ITV Player software until the bugs are squashed. The app exclusive lasts until the end of August, and applies to the new …

COMMENTS

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  1. AndrueC Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Sod a new app. How about increasing the bitrates they offer. They've never been very generous in that regard. Watching ITV Player is like watching iPlayer from ten years ago.

    1. mickey mouse the fith

      "Sod a new app. How about increasing the bitrates they offer. They've never been very generous in that regard. Watching ITV Player is like watching iPlayer from ten years ago."

      I tried watching something on the thing a while back, twas like watching a cinepak intro from a megacd game circa 1994. Awful, awful quality.

      Itv used to have a few good shows, but it really is television for the council estate now, mind numbing, lowest denominator crap.

      1. MrMur
        WTF?

        Downvoted for utter snobbery. Council estate not good enough for you?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Downvoted for clearly being a whining Grauniad reader. Inverted snobby is just as bad...

          1. Bill Fresher

            Downvoted for downvoting a downvoter.

            1. n0r0imusha
              Coat

              upvoted for Downvoting a downvoting a downvoter.

              mine is with the jetpack (whoosh)

      2. Daniel Barnes

        Upvoted for the cinepak/MegaCD reference.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        hd

        absurd, don't you know that on council estates due to millions each get in benefits a week according to the condems that they all have hd tellies?

    2. DJGM
      Alert

      "Watching ITV Player is like watching iPlayer from ten years ago."

      BBC iPlayer didn't even exist ten years ago!

      1. Andy 97

        Re: "Watching ITV Player is like watching iPlayer from ten years ago."

        Not to the public...

        The prototype did however.

  2. Jedit Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Samsung exclusivity for ITV?

    Well, that would be a reason to sign up with Samsung, if I ever watched anything on ITV.

    1. Stevey
      Meh

      Re: Samsung exclusivity for ITV?

      I'm taking this as 'if you're going to get an android thing, the samsung flavour is the one most likely to be supported'

      As for fragmentation in the Android market - haven't we all been here several times before?

      1. Lloyd
        Facepalm

        Re: Samsung exclusivity for ITV?

        My sentiments exactly, I thought "I wonder if that means the Galaxy Nexus is supported" and then realised that I don't watch ITV as it's thorough drivel so why on earth did I care?

  3. Test Man
    Stop

    This is weird. The new ITV Player app (that has the new branding and is specifically for Samsung devices only) has been available for months already. So God knows why Samsung has only put out a PR statement now.

  4. Horridbloke

    ITV?

    Are they still going?

    1. Pete 2 Silver badge

      Re: ITV?

      > ITV? Are they still going?

      Despite their best efforts at repelling viewers, I'm informed that they are.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ITV?

      Well, the ITV4 Tour De France coverage is usually pretty good... But watching it on the ITV player webapp on a computer last year was dire, and was the main driving force for me finally getting round to replacing my dead VCR with a PVR.

    3. Irongut

      Re: ITV?

      Apparently they even made a profit last year. God knows how.

      I watch ITV chennels for an hour a night for 2 weeks of the year - the IoM TT coverage on ITV4. There is nothing else worth watching on any of their channels.

  5. Anonymous Custard

    Spoilt for choice...

    So it's the new app which only works on Sammy, or the old one that is apparently incompatible with my 4.2.2 Nexus7.

    I would feel hard done by and missing out, except I can't remember the last time I actually watched anything on ITV.

    1. Test Man
      Stop

      Re: Spoilt for choice...

      Not strictly a new app, as this 2.0 version was released when the branding changes were implemented months ago.

      If by some miracle you still have the 1.x version that needed Adobe AIR, it will still work (poorly).

  6. Philip Cheeseman

    Works fine on my ASUS tf300

    Not sure why they have limited it to Samsung via the play store - Works fine for me on my ASUS tablet. Just had to copy it over from my Galaxy note... (Wife wanted to watch some 3 part drama earlier in the week)

  7. Test Man
    Alert

    STV Player

    If by some miracle there are people who want to view ITV's programmes on a device that isn't a Samsung one, STV did release a player recently (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.stv.android.player).

    Just use a Scottish postcode (like the postcode of Ibrox Stadium - that one works ;) ).

    Voila! No real need for the rubbish ITV Player as most of the same programmes are also available on this not-as-restricted-as-ITV-Player app.

    1. Wize

      Re: STV Player

      There are a lot of programs not shown on Scotland's version of ITV. STV didn't show series 1 of Scot and Baley (UK police drama) and instead put on Underbelly (Oz police drama). The usual claim from them is they wanted to show something more regional, but it looks like they wanted something cheaper.

      They have since caught up as the show is popular, but if your favourite show isn't one they want to pay the premium for, it won't be on in Scotland or on the STV player.

      And tomorrow, all the footy fans wont be able to see the FA Cup north of the border.

  8. Electric Panda
    FAIL

    There'll be showstopping bugs in ITV Player as long as there are stars in the universe. It's utter bobbins and always has been, ITV should stop chucking money at it and outsource properly to YouTube or similar as others have done.

    1. Test Man
      FAIL

      I still shudder at v1.x of the app - the craptastic Adobe AIR version. It was AWFUL, with lots of non-standard buttons and features, including (for the first few builds anyway) the inability to actually exit the app via an on-screen button, menu item or the back button.

    2. Tom 38

      Or simply tell world + dog where their IP locked down video streams can be found and enumerated, slap an API on it, and let someone else write and support the app. Stick the adverts right in the video stream, you won't even lose any revenue.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    eh.

    Positively undead You've Been Framed repeats? Dog-eared format Saturday night effluence from increasingly 'cheekier' chappies? **TOWIE**?

    Television for the hard-of-thinking, and I can't possibly construe a reality in which I would invite it into my phone.

    1. GitMeMyShootinIrons

      Re: eh.

      Agreed. Samsung should be careful - they might be accused of becoming the phone of choice for "Loose Women" and "I'm a celebrity..." viewers. Not good....

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ITV

    Your joking?

    Who watches anything on ITV? There might be 3 shows the entire week worth watching and does not justify ITV Player. Who the hell uses iPlayer either? The BEEB has even less worth watching.

    1. Rob Beard
      Thumb Up

      Re: ITV

      I'd guess going on my Facebook feed, the sort of people who watch ITV are the sort of people who put "YOUR" when they really mean you're :-)

      Rob

  11. jai

    ITV?

    Ah, i remember, i used to watch Dangermouse on that channel was i was a lad...

    1. tirk
      Megaphone

      Re: ITV?

      TISWAS. Was the dog's danglies.

      1. Admiral Grace Hopper
        Gimp

        Claim to fame

        I was on TISWAS when I was 11.

        (Closest to a Phantom Flan Flinger icon that I could find).

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fragmentation.

    1. Studley

      If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, fragmentation's what you need.

  13. Cliff

    Not that bad

    Well, seems OK on my Note2 TBH, and slick interface.

    Not that I want to watch most of their output, but having easy, free access to Minder, The Professionals, etc is worth installing it for!

  14. Christopher Rogers
    Thumb Down

    what a load of

    I was promised a £40 content bundle from Sammy for my S4 due to the inconvenience caused by delays. It seems this "exclusive" is part of the apology. It depressed me when I realised I wasn't getting anything worthwhile out of that £40.

    ITV is muck. I bet its worse on a 5" screen.

    1. Test Man
      Thumb Down

      Re: what a load of

      The exclusivity isn't, seeing as the app's been available for months already.

  15. Jason Hindle

    Not sure this is news

    The new (and improved) Samsung only app has been out for a while now and has mostly worked fine for me (notwithstanding the fact it is counter-intuitive and won't even exit on pressing back). Hopefully they'll have ironed out the issues by the time they'll let me download it to my Nexus 7.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stewart Lee said it well:

    "ITV is like a failed state, run by pirates and criminals. The Somalia of television."

  17. gribbler

    The last time I watched ITV...

    was during the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The matches were at such a godawful time in the morning that I couldn't face the walk to the pub. Next World Cup is in 2015 and it's in the UK so all the matches will be at reasonable pub times. Maybe I'll watch ITV again in 2019, not sure where that World Cup will be.

  18. Slik Fandango
    Thumb Down

    ITV - where programmes interrupt the adverts!

    The ITV Player app has never been used on any of my mobile devices, but I have a Samsung Smart TV and I did use the app there - once! Slow, flaky and not half as good as iPlayer.

    Hardly watch ITV at the best of times - and anyone that complains about BBC!! For all the bias, paying the licence fee, overpaid presenters, etc I can put up with for the quality of output, the news, the kids channels, investing in new talent, trying new things compared with ITV. I've been to the US a few times on business and the lack of quality TV is appalling, so many channels, so much choice, so much drivel! If we are not careful we will have that over here!

  19. Danny 14

    not bothered about the content but I installed it to see how it ran. Worked just fine on my S2 once I found something I wanted to pollute my eyes with (cant go wrong with superbikes!).

    Seemed to scroll ok and buffer just fine. Only niggle was the exit button gets obscured in landscape mode. That will probably be pretty dire on a tablet!

  20. Alan Sharkey

    It works on other devices

    I downloaded it and got it working on my Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and TouchPad running Android. Having said that, the content is very limited.

  21. Jamie Jones Silver badge
    Happy

    ...proclaims the release, in Samsung's trademark capital letters..."

    Eadon should sue!

  22. The_Regulator

    Sounds like a winner

    Lol, it can't play video but heyy no big deal right.....lol

  23. Arachnoid

    the content is very limited

    I bet theres no shortage of adverts on it

  24. Scott 53

    Broadchurch was really good. That's about it really

  25. PC1512
    Thumb Up

    Odd

    This apps always worked nicely for me, through successive versions. Never had a problem with it.

    I'm pretty sure I'm running the latest version now, but I haven't got a Samsung.

    Anyone want to guess what phone I'm using? ;)

    1. Alan 6

      Re: Odd

      Judging by your username I'd wager you're using an Amstrad E3 E-m@iler phone

  26. Maharg
    Thumb Down

    Rant incoming

    ITV is terrible, even the News looks dull and ‘washed’ out compared to the likes of the BBC and Sky, I know the point of watching the news is for information and not to look at flashy graphics and how good the presenters look (I’m not American after all) but every time I try to watch it I get distracted by how crap it looks. Apart from a few half decent drama series (the type the BBC does better) it’s rubbish like Britain’s got Talent, X Factor and Celebrity (in the loosest sense of the word) based drivel.

    The only reason I ever watch ITV is because of the Football coverage, and that’s only just bearable to watch, due to the amount of adverts, they have a 60 minute build up to a game, which is 45 minutes of adverts interspersed with small amount of talking , they sometimes even resort to putting adverts on during extra time, “Did you see Everton score against Liverpool? No, I saw an advert for Wicks”

  27. jof62

    Isn't every thing on andruid two years behind

  28. Fuzzy Duck
    Stop

    Is is still wi-fi only?

    It doesn't allow me to catch up via 3G. Surely that's my choice?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why does the ITV player need to know your precise location? The STV app doesn't and doesn't want to download all your contacts and generally steal all your info either.

    What does knowing where someone is give to ITV?

    I also agree with the poor quality of programmes, ITV is just another channel to skip over when trying to find something worth watching...

  30. DougGrayITV

    ITV Dev

    Hi All,

    I'm sorry that you have had a bad experience this time with playback. There are multiple factors that could be contributing to the perceived poor experience.

    As a core developer of the media player and the person responsible for Android specific implementation I would love to work with you to prove that our playback is actually much more sophisticated than that of any other Adobe AIR on Android application (especially the BBC IPlayer/Media Player).

    Our programmes are all multi bitrate streams at 400, 600 & 800 renditions and can be played on 3G or WIFI - There is no restriction. We also intended to launch with 1200, but it proved to be to processor intensive on some non Samsung devices. 150 and 300 renditions were also in scope but there were a few minor issues that prevented availability in the initial release. We could fix this but it hasn't been deemed a priority.

    Our adverts are also available in two renditions at 300 & 600. It's a good idea but not the best implementation. For me personally this is a problem. We should do more... I hate that the progressive http adverts have the power to ruin the experience.

    Personally I have found myself very frustrated by some of the decisions made. However to date I have tried extremely hard to do my best with the restrictions. Perhaps this article could be used to force a more proactive response to our users concerns.

    I think we should have easily got a high 4 on the Play store...

    I can assure you I had the media player working across every device I could test it on, see image below:

    http://emergence.tv/itv-android-all-devices.png

    Regards

    Doug Gray

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