I was wondering if it would ever be possible to add listings from Amazon Prime, and Netflix to the Channels Guide page on ATV. I downloaded an app to my ATV, "Just Watch TV", that combines the two and more, but it would be nice to navigate to them all from the Channels app.
Probably a myriad of issues and licenses preventing this, but it would be nice to have, just sayin'.
mark
Netflix doesn't really have channels do they? How would that make sense on a grid guide? What does that other app do?
Just watch combines content listings from multiple streaming services and opens in the services app. No guide
There’s no plans to incorporate on demand data like that from other services. It’s way out of the scope of Channels.
I was just curious. After posting it, I realized there really is no guide to incorporate. MB
MARK
You all are the developers of this and this is your baby. My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that it is not out of the scope of Channels. In fact, it would be filling a much needed niche that people have been looking for all along. The media landscape is changing. instead of a "grid style" guide. A large facet of people want a grid style of media. They don't care if it's on at 8:30 tonight, they care that when they go watch their show, it's available. It doesn't matter to them if it's on Netflix, Amazon, or recorded on their DVR. To open their show, and it just plays, regardless of the service, completely integrated, and tracked, is what a lot of people are after right now. While I understand the need for sports and news to be on a traditional tv guide type setup, tv shows do not, and it's no longer the preferred method of organization. Look at Tivo, they've done a 90% job at doing exactly what people want, but they are always missing that one piece to the puzzle. The Sling TV integration with popular streaming apps in the Tivo Stream 4K is fantastic. But they don't integrate a DVR for local channels, leaving a large chunk of popular content out of the mix and they don't integrate any other service except Sling. As it stands right now, Channels is a great solution to a dying problem. The concept of your application is one of the best I've ever seen and the delivery thus far is superb, yet it still falls short. Instead of channels, people want shows. If Channels doesn't step in and do it, someone else will, and Channels will be left in the dust that is traditional cable television. I would keep the grid guide and add streaming service functionality and indexing in a separate tab called "My Shows" or something like that where people can "opt in" to tracking a specific show inside the channels app, regardless of the streaming service it comes from, even if it's from their DVR. That would take this app to the next level.
Can you use paragraphs for easy reading.
What you’re describing is what every major tech corporation is currently trying to do, and failing. Because it requires a huge amount of publishers to all be on board, and become a utility.
Instead, they’re all starting their own streaming platforms. They demand large branding. Having their content just show up in another app diminishes their branding.
What you’re describing is something we’ve all wanted to have, and the tech companies are all trying to provide, but it’s just not gonna happen. Even though we, as users, all know that it’s the only way streaming will actually work well. Multiple apps is a really bad experience.
So while we’d love to do this, and have known for years it’s the only way to make streaming feel great...if the big tech companies can’t do it then we surely can’t.
Again, it’s not a matter of execution. We know how to make an experience that would be amazing. But there’s no way to actually do it.
Rewgupko,
You might check out an Android/iPhone app called Reelgood. You tell it all the streaming channels you have (including TVE) and then it will search all of them for the show you want. With it, I end up searching only three places... Reelgood for streaming, Channels for pre-recorded and my bookshelf of DVDs that I own.
With regard to scope, Channels records live TV onto your hard drive so that you can watch them. That is their entire scope. Reelgood's scope is to index shows and tell you on which service they can be found. I would think that asking Reelgood to expand their scope to include private libraries (my shelf of DVDs or your Channels DVR) would be a much simpler job than asking Channels to increase their scope to build in a direct competitor to Reelgood.
Nah, TiVo has already accomplished this. The only issue is that they lack app support.
We are experimenting with a way to set this up for yourself using imported links: Experimental: Movie deep-links via imported .strmlnk files