Freeview Deeplink (UK)

Playground Stream Links
#12

Not strictly Freeview but do any of you UK users know what the deep links are for the live channel streams on Now TV (and Discovery+ for Eurosport)?

I’m presuming both apps utilise deep links because I use another app, TV Launcher, which is great and more or less an EPG which directly launches the appropriate app and starts the channel, so I assume that is using the deep links. I’d love to get this working with streamlinks in custom channels.

I’ve got some channels in with the associated epg data and I can easily get it to open the app (using nowtv:// and discoveryplus://), but I can’t figure out the required path to open the channel. I’ve tried getting some clues from launching in a web browser but the app links don’t seem to follow the same format.

TIA

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#13

I'd be interested in that as well! Could someone tell me how I use these Deeplinks in Channels?

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#14

After much searching and trial and error, I've managed to find the answer to my own question so sharing for others that want to do similar and to save you some time.

The format for Now TV deeplinks is...

nowtv://go/query/service_key/xxxx/play

You need to replace xxxx with the number for the channel. This is not the Sky Channel number, but you can find this number in the web address when launching in a desktop web browser. For example, Sky Sports News is 1314, Sky Sports F1 is 1306.

For Eurosport on Discovery+ the deeplink is....

discoveryplus://discoveryplus.com/channel/eurosport-1

For other channels replace the last bit, e.g., eurosport-2 or tnt-sports-1. You still have to click the watch now button in discovery+, I've not found the way around that yet.

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Experimental: Stream Links from the Guide via Custom Channels
#15

Hi Jon,

I'm very much a beginner and I've only been playing around to see what is possible. I did this by going into the server settings -> sources, and creating custom channels.

I set it up like this, just for Sky Sports News (from the Now Tv app) and ITV4 (from the ITVX app) for a trial (the latter because the SD broadcast on Freeview is awful!).

image
image588×881 49.9 KB

I haven't read everything in this forum yet and I'm sure there are probably better ways that more experienced users are aware of.

1 Like
#16

Well done :+1:

#17

This is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for. Now TV especially, but also HD streams for certain channels that Freeview only provides in SD (ITV2, 3, 4, Film4, Sky News etc).

I am not using Apple TV. I have a Nvidia Shield Pro and the Deep Links mentioned above don’t seem to work for the Android TV app versions of Now TV, BBC iPlayer, ITVX etc… I have done some digging with the Now TV app and when connected via ADB and running Logcat, I can see nowtv://go/query/service_key/xxxx/play being referenced when playing a live channel.

But, it doesn’t seem to allow direct playback when running it directly. The app opens, but that’s about it.

At first glance, the AndroidManifest.xml seemed to support deep linking through the activity:

<activity android:name="com.sky.clientlib.deeplink.DeeplinkActivity" android:exported="true" android:launchMode="singleInstance" android:screenOrientation="landscape">
    <intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
        <data android:scheme="https" android:host="tv.client.ott.sky.com"/>
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Would anyone (with a little more knowledge than me!) happen to know if Now TV deep linking for direct stream of live channels is possible on Android TV?

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#18

Based on what you pasted, it's possible using the URL https://tv.client.ott.sky.com

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#19

Hey thanks for getting back to me. Yeah, that will launch the app itself, but I’m struggling to figure out how to start a channel stream. It looks like this is possible with the Apple TV version of the app using nowtv://go/query/service_key/xxxx/play but I can’t replicate that with the Android version.

When I connect via ADB and run Logcat while playing a channel, I can see the following:

03-15 23:49:55.606 3699 3713 I ActivityTaskManager: START u0 {act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=nowtv://go/query/service_key/4077/play flg=0x14000000} from uid 10061

Which seems to confirm that NowTV is using the same deep link format mentioned above. But I can’t seem to get much further with launching that channel directly.

The entire AndroidManifest is as follows. Am I missing anything obvious?

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:versionCode="7000001" android:versionName="7.0.1-AndroidTV-GB" android:compileSdkVersion="34" android:compileSdkVersionCodename="14" android:requiredSplitTypes="base__abi,base__density" android:splitTypes="" package="com.bskyb.nowtv.beta" platformBuildVersionCode="34" platformBuildVersionName="14">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="22" android:targetSdkVersion="34"/>
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location" android:required="false"/>
    <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="true"/>
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID"/>
    <permission android:name="com.bskyb.nowtv.beta.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION" android:protectionLevel="signature"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="com.bskyb.nowtv.beta.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION"/>
    <application android:theme="@style/BackgroundStartup" android:label="@string/application_name" android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" android:allowBackup="false" android:supportsRtl="true" android:banner="@mipmap/ic_banner" android:extractNativeLibs="false" android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/network_security_config" android:appComponentFactory="androidx.core.app.CoreComponentFactory" android:isSplitRequired="true">
        <activity android:name="sky.wrapper.tv.GoogleMainActivity" android:exported="true" android:launchMode="singleTask" android:screenOrientation="landscape" android:configChanges="keyboardHidden">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LEANBACK_LAUNCHER"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity android:name="com.sky.clientlib.deeplink.DeeplinkActivity" android:exported="true" android:launchMode="singleInstance" android:screenOrientation="landscape" android:configChanges="keyboardHidden">
            <intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
                <data android:scheme="https" android:host="tv.client.ott.sky.com"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity android:name="sky.wrapper.tv.ErrorActivity" android:exported="true" android:screenOrientation="landscape" android:configChanges="keyboardHidden">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <service android:name="com.sky.core.player.sdk.downloads.DownloadServiceImpl" android:exported="false">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="com.google.android.exoplayer.downloadService.action.RESTART"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </service>
        <service android:name="androidx.media3.exoplayer.scheduler.PlatformScheduler$PlatformSchedulerService" android:permission="android.permission.BIND_JOB_SERVICE" android:exported="true"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.version" android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version"/>
        <provider android:name="androidx.startup.InitializationProvider" android:exported="false" android:authorities="com.bskyb.nowtv.beta.androidx-startup">
            <meta-data android:name="androidx.emoji2.text.EmojiCompatInitializer" android:value="androidx.startup"/>
            <meta-data android:name="androidx.lifecycle.ProcessLifecycleInitializer" android:value="androidx.startup"/>
            <meta-data android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.ProfileInstallerInitializer" android:value="androidx.startup"/>
        </provider>
        <receiver android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.ProfileInstallReceiver" android:permission="android.permission.DUMP" android:enabled="true" android:exported="true" android:directBootAware="false">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.action.INSTALL_PROFILE"/>
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.action.SKIP_FILE"/>
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.action.SAVE_PROFILE"/>
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="androidx.profileinstaller.action.BENCHMARK_OPERATION"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>
        <service android:name="androidx.room.MultiInstanceInvalidationService" android:exported="false"/>
        <provider android:name="com.conviva.platforms.android.ProcessLaunchProvider" android:exported="false" android:authorities="com.bskyb.nowtv.beta.ProcessLaunchProvider"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.android.vending.splits.required" android:value="true"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.android.stamp.source" android:value="https://play.google.com/store"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.android.stamp.type" android:value="STAMP_TYPE_DISTRIBUTION_APK"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.android.vending.splits" android:resource="@xml/splits0"/>
        <meta-data android:name="com.android.vending.derived.apk.id" android:value="3"/>
    </application>
</manifest>
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#20

So I've tried to use bbciplayer://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/mobile/channels/bbc_one, which launches BBC1 fine on an iPad and an iPhone, but it only opens iPlayer on the AppleTV and does't launch the channel. Does anyone know the correct string for tvOS devices?

#21

The Now TV app is now heavily based on the Peacock App (which was initially forked from the original Now TV app).

After looking through this thread, I was able to get a command working that will launch directly into a live channel in the Now TV app.

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'https://tv.client.ott.sky.com/?deeplinkData=%7B%22serviceKey%22%3A%224061%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22LINEAR_CHANNEL%22%2C%22action%22%3A%22PLAY%22%7D' com.bskyb.nowtv.beta

That will launch Sky Max HD for example.

You need to set the following data and pass it in after https://tv.client.ott.sky.com/?deeplinkData= but it needs to be URL encoded

{"serviceKey":"4061","type":"LINEAR_CHANNEL","action":"PLAY"}

serviceKey is the ID you take from the URL on the NowTV web version like you do with Apple TV deeplinks.

Also as a bonus I also found it's possible to launch the Channel 4 live streams even though there is no option in the Channel 4 app on Android.

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -c android.intent.category.DEFAULT   -d "https://www.channel4.com/now/C4" com.channel4.ondemand

That should launch Channel 4, you can change it to e4 for E4. However I find I have to quit the app before I change channels otherwise it just loads a grey screen.

2 Likes
#22

Did you manage to figure this out? I know it's possible to deeplink to an iPlayer live channel on tvOS because the "TV Launcher" app does it, I just don't know how. I have tried swapping "mobile" for "web" and "tv" in those URLs but it didn't work.

1 Like
#23

How do I get iPlayer to deeplink on android TV? Does anyone know? Thanks in advance

#24

Same issue. The BBC links work on IOS but not not Apple TV.

#25

Mr TV Launcher, Adam, has kindly provided these links in case that helps. I’m away for a while but they do work straight-through on my iPad so fingers crossed for Apple TV. Navigation back takes you to TV Launcher rather than Channels so to see how that works out. Hope it proves an easy way to get any tricky links!

…You can use the following deep link to launch channels in TV Launcher: tvlauncher://watch-channel?channel=CHANNEL where CHANNEL is the ID of a channel (usually the name). Some BBC examples:

tvlauncher://watch-channel?channel=bbcOne
tvlauncher://watch-channel?channel=bbcTwo
tvlauncher://watch-channel?channel=bbcNews

Please note these are case sensitive as above.

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#26

Has anyone managed to get deeplinks working to go to a specified show season/espisode on ITVX on AppleTV? I can launch live tv with the link of itvplayer://freeview_app/simulcast/itv but format of itvplayer://freeview_app/play/1_8812_0001.005 doesnt seem to work (this is on AppleTV with the ITVX app installed). I have used SLM and the links from SLM take me to the given show/episode on a computer but not in AppleTV

#27

Edited: I've cracked ITV player now for mobile but doesn’t seem to work for appletv. Pattern below for SLM.

ITVplayer

If 'Stream Link' contains:

https://www.itv.com/watch/([^/]+)/10a\d{4}/(10a\d{4}a\d{4})

Replace pattern (REGEX) with

https://www.itv.com/watch/\1/\2

#28

Just tried the same title in the JustWatch app and it only opens the Itvx app. Tried from the AppleTV app and that works, no idea how to get that format though.

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#29

The Apple TV app can open ITVX episodes directly when you do a search. I wonder if there is a way to invoke AppleTV and for that to then take you to the ITVX episode effectively using Apple TV app as the middle man?

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#30

Thanks for this post, I got Now working but discovery didn't but I spent some time snooping and the new format is

wbdstreaming://play.discoveryplus.com/channel/watch/8beab07a-9ef1-53d5-94d7-07facf5893b2/a
That's TNT sports 4

so just grabbing the first part of the guid from the web url and then /a at the end, as it seems to signify program but will just play live.

only downside is the menu stays up on the left, but if you press right then it goes into minimal mode. unsure if there is a way around.

I'm generally just toying with the idea of using adbtuner/pyatv and seeing what I can get set up

#31

Would someone who has this working nicely be willing to share thier m3u text file that has the UK Freeview hd channel collection to add?

Seems something a few of you have already worked out and must have took a fair amount of time, that would be so useful to have a start to customise.

Thought it worth asking...
Thanks