390,561 people would like to know...

[Rumpuss]

Come on Sony, you have 30 pages of people very disappointed that despite all your promises, we still cannot access 4OD or ITV Player on your (not so) smart TVs. 390,561 people have read these pages as they presumably have the same concerns.

This is damaging belief and trust in your brand and you need to action this right away to limit the negative impact everyone is expressing here and to provide your customers with a service that is fit for the digital age.

I am hoping you will provide a definite response to this here as you seem to have abandoned responding to this issue on the main thread.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

Sony does not generally respond to posts on these forums.  If you want a direct answer, you will need to contact Sony themselves.  However, in this case ITV and 4OD have not wanted thier 'players' on Sony TVs.  You cant force them if they dont want to.  Also, given that Sony has moved to the Android platform, app development on previous generation tvs is hightly unlikely.  On top of that, Sony has never claimed to have ITV player or 4OD available.

Cheers

[Rumpuss]

Hi Quinnicus,

Sony added ITV Player and 4oD to their PS3 in 2010, and both ITV and 4oD want their platforms disseminated as widely as possible. Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster after all.

'ITV plans to make its video streaming catch-up service available to as many platforms as it can in order to increase viewer numbers.'

Source: www.itportal.com

Sony successfully negotiated rights for PS3 in 2010, as have the many providers of free to view services, and Samsung TVs for 4oD. If Sony had the will they could have done this years ago. And if they wanted to serve their customer base, they could easily design apps for existing TVs now.

Smart TVs were sold on the notion of great functionality and a one-stop shop for services. But the selection on Bravia sets is very thin without these two key players.

A lot of people want these services, judging by over 390k views on this topic.

Best.

[Anonymous]

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@Rumpuss wrote:

A lot of people want these services, judging by over 390k views on this topic.

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Yep, fully agree - as I am one of them.

Unfortunately It just not going to happen.

Back in the 'early' days of smart TVs, the PS3 was the most popular device for Sony in the way of Catchup TV - so it made commercial sense to pay ITV and Channel 4 to develop the players for the PS3.  However as time went on, ITV and C4 decided that they did not want these players on the TV.  A while after, Samsung (with its apparently near unlimited budget for TVs) paid a ton of £££ to both and had exclusive rights for 12 months.  After that both ITV and C4 have invested in YouView.

And now for people who have 2015 TVs, are awaiting a YouView update....