Android TV in the UK 2020?

by FalsePhoenix

Last summer i set about updating my parents TV while home from school for a few months, since we have google homes galore in the house i naturally picked up an official Android TV OS box (Cant member the model rn) and within days realized that from a UK perspective it lacked any UK catch up channels and the like. (We get our live TV via plex however which was the only working thing in the end...)

So i ended up just buying a new Fire TV Stick and giving up, given that justifying a Sheild TV and its cost to my technically inept parents was a no go.

So i wanted to ask if anyone from the UK could tell me on the situation with catchup UK TV in 2020, i couldn't find much in the way of news on the interwebs but i dont imagine a new tv app would make headlines anyway. If there has been some new developments id be going for a Mi Box S

nifta_13

On a Shield you can get iPlayer, ITV Hub and My 5 natively. All4 mobile app can be Sideloaded if you are okay to use a mouse to navigate.

If you have a VPN (and can spoof your location as Switzerland) then Zattoo TV gets you live versions of most Freeview channels (SD for free or HD if you subscribe).

There's an IPTV app from a guy called PrinceOlivier that adds a bunch of the Freeview channels to the Live Channels app. The app has changed names many times recently... I think it's called IPTV Tuner at the moment.

PrestigiousFall8

You could check out Britbox

Yahiroz

In terms of catch up TV, it's still mostly spread across their own apps ( BBC Iplayer, ITV Hub, etc ). And due to new TV licencing rules, you will need to create an account for each service just to prove you are in the UK.

Freeview Play was supposed to appear for Android TV which pretty much sounds like the perfect live/catch up app but I have yet to even see it exist for my Nvidia Shield TV, I've no idea if it's only for TVs with Android TV built in only.

EDIT: I've been corrected, thanks everyone, the Freeview Play app is for actual TVs that has it built in, so sadly is not available for any model even if they run Android TV OS.