Where’s Disney+?

[Midnight_Voice]

We know that before a third-party user of YouView can show a particular app, it must be part of what YouView can provide. Fair enough.

But here, they list their achievements in the last year:- 

https://www.youview.com/articles/a-great-year-for-youview-highlights-of-2023-24

where they describe :-

“With the launch of Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+ and GB News, we added more content providers to our platform further enhancing the viewing experience for our customers.”

Looking at the app roster on my box, I see Apple TV+, Discovery+ and GBN, all present and correct.

So why is Disney+ still missing? Is YouView providing Disney+ to anybody else, but not EE TV?

[DarrenDev]

You'll see that they also mention that YouView runs on a number of platforms - YouView OS, Google/Android, Apple TV OS and HbbTV.  They didn't say they'd added Disney+ to all of them.

[SwannyD2]

It's taken more than 10 years to launch YouTube on YouView, there doesn't seem to be any rush.

Could the reference to Disney+ be a typo or premature? 

There's no mention of it being added to YouView anywhere else, and there's no way they wouldn't be shouting about it if a deal had been done. 

While YouView might be ready to push go, EE and TalkTalk would still to have to hammer out deals for billing and management. 

Tenuously, while Disney+ isn't available on EE/YouView branded hardware, it is available on EE provisioned Apple TV's - which you could consider part of the YouView ecosystem. They certainly do... 

https://www.youview.com/articles/youview-proud-to-support-new-ee-tv-experiences

Just like the delays to Now Ultra Boost, the number of stakeholders involved in EE TV seems to make the platform much less agile than others. 

[SwannyD2]

@DarrenDev beat me to it!  😂

Lets be honest, it's a pretty tenuous link to include Disney+ as a content partner when you're using a 3rd party platform that already has it.

[Midnight_Voice]

@SwannyD2 @DarrenDev 

Which leads me on to my next puzzle. YouView claim to have had a hand in EE TV on Apple TV,

But @DarrenDev has said that EE TV have complete control over their app on this box, which they don’t have over their YouView-based boxes, where they need to rely on YouView for some of EE TV’s advances.

So do we assume that YouView built, or helped build, something that EE TV could manage completely for themselves, without further input from YouView? Or doth YouView protest too much?

Otherwise, does not compute….

[DarrenDev]

Complicated situation @Midnight_Voice that I can't go into detail on - we (BT) write it, but YouView own/design it.

[Weerab2024]

Going back to the apps, three out of four have made it to the Pro and mini boxes so as they say, three out of four ain't bad!

I suppose some other ones are directly accessible through the prime video and YouTube apps as add ons. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@DarrenDev 

Oh, I see - YouView are the architect, YouView provide the bricks (their Intellectual Property), you’re the brickie, YouView own the resulting house, but you get to live in it, and make subsequent home improvements 😛

[Midnight_Voice]

@Weerab2024 

I have enough smart TVs, sticks and dongles to have more ways of watching Disney+ than there are eyeballs in the house, even if we have visitors 😛

I think the disappointment of not having it on YouView is that it isn’t aggregated on my main content search.

[Weerab2024]

It's definitely one of the top requests on here as it seems customers have been missold telling them they get everything that they have had with a competitor, which is clearly not the case.

So customers get annoyed and Darren and his colleagues unfortunately get the blunt end of it which is not pleasant. 

EE probably seem a big stagnant to some, but we know they are working hard to improve the service behind the scenes and probably facing barriers at every turn and can't disclose anything. 

Customers just need to do some online research themselves before taking the leap, as all the information is on the website. What maybe could help is a help page linked to the TV offer Web page linking the list of apps on the pro and mini boxes. 

Fortunately there's knowledgable people like us volunteering to help them out and helping Darren and the team.