37 
Good news for commuters, people with really slow internet and the 4G-less majority – the 4oD app’s getting a serious makeover, with the notable introduction of offline viewing and live streaming.
Channel 4′s building on the success of 4oD, which they say is used by a third of young people in the UK. The new 4oD app, which will be Android and iOS only at launch (there there poor ickle WP8) should be hitting in 2013. There are a couple of big new features: offline viewing (which will be ad-free as well, a pretty nice touch); live streams of C4, 4+1, E4 and More 4 (which will be ad-supported, sadly); and Pause and Play, which is basically cross-device synchronization, meaning you can pick up watching on your phone where you left off on your TV.
It’s a definite step in the right direction, and a clear response to the ongoing upgrades of the iPlayer app, which recently saw offline viewing make an appearance. Now, if Channel 4 can just cut down on the management-speak – they called the new revamp “a package of benefits being offered to its viewers for their participation in a viewer engagement programme”. And I thought they were just being nice to me. [DigitalSpy via Techradar]
4oD and Demand Five Now Available on Xbox 360
Channel 4's Got a Brand New 4oD Android App
London's Iconic Tube Map Gets an Olympic Makeover
Sounds pretty good, but no mention if there will be Airplay. 4oD is the only UK FTA on-demand service which has blocked Airplay, and at least as far as I know, the only FTA service globally that blocks Airplay. Whilst pretty much all other services have been slowly improving their Airplay support, Channel 4 actually took a step backwards and stopped theirs. I am seriously hoping they remedy this in the new update.
All that Airplay wouldn’t of course be needed so much if they bothered to have apps for other Smart TV devices, especially Smart TV Platforms. Again, Channel 4 is the only service that has yet to be seen on a Smart TV (even Demand5 has been on Sony TV’s which doesn’t do Channel 4 any justice). On my Samsung I can get iPlayer, ITV and Netflix – there is hardly any need to watch Channel 4 unless they add it, as the competition is so good.
Wake up Channel 4. It’s all very good offering your on demand service to people watching on the tube. But the vast majority of people still prefer to watch television on an actual television. There is a reason so many of us invested a good deal of money in flat screens in recent years. Yes, upgrading your service for mobile use is still important. But don’t forget the real home of television – your competition hasn’t.
Not even on Sky yet either, but it is coming next summer!
It’s on the PS3 and Xbox. Even if i plug my iPad or iPhone via HDMI it comes up majorly undersized to about half the size of the screen.
Just read on the original report that later in 2013 a Samsung Smart TV App may be released as well. As far as internet connected TV platforms, only the Samsung one was mentioned, so no idea if Panasonic, LG, Sony etc users are in luck.
Also, as with the ITV fiasco, there is no indication which Samsung models will get the App. ITV was restricted for a while only to 2012 higher end models, with 2011 models only now slowly getting it.
Also no mention of when they’ll ditch flash and use HTML5, I can’t watch 4oD on my Nexus 7 because of that.
Just sideload the Flash .apk then use firefox to watch it?
Works great for me on the Nexus 7
I’ve heard you can do that, I’m not particularly happy with doing all that and then having to use to 4od site instead of app. Plus, with Firefox installed Android constantly asks me whether I want to use either Chrome or Firefox.
Good. Their last update (which doubled the ads, removed the Airplay and made the app crash constantly) was shocking.
Looking forward to this being re-worked
I think the iPlayer app is far from perfect on Android, Yes I understand it is difficult with many versions of the OS but it seems such a hash now having to use a combination of two apps just to view!
IOS users already have offline viewing available? Its not just issues with Flash stopping them? surely Android users could use the same content?
iPlayer on iOS isn’t perfect at all, I was watching it last night and around the 15 minute mark it went back to the start of the program, really confused me, but this constantly happens now.
Damn these free apps!