Yes, I think that's their motivation. They allow web streaming of broadcast TV and standard catch-up to a PC in line with what channels your package includes, presumably because they can slap a third party DRM/player onto that process and don't have to code it themselves. They allow the same to phones and tablets, unless their software 'detects' that the OS has been rooted or modded. This is shit and doesn't work properly so that dozens of perfectly un-modded and un-rooted phones are disallowed. Virgin won't address this fault.
They do allow streaming of recordings from the Tivo V6 to phones and other mobile devices and there doesn't seem to be any checking on whether the phone is modded or not. My phone streams recordings but not broadcast TV.
Streaming to mobile devices is reputedly buggy and hit & miss as to whether it works. Virgin won't address this fault.
You are allowed a maximum of two devices (PC, Mac, mobile). Once these are registered, you are only allowed to make one change of registration in any calendar month. This process is buggy. Registrations fail because devices are not properly detected and you are left with a month's wait to try and troubleshoot because your 'choices' are locked. Devices that work fine for ages suddenly stop working for no obvious reason and are reported as unregistered. You can go to make a change and be told that you've made the maximum number already when you've done nothing. Virgin won't address these faults.
The reason for this lack of urgency is the fatuous argument that fixes are 'low priority' because the streaming service is 'free'. This is, of course, rubbish. Avoiding chip-shop related metaphors, it's a bit like a car manufacturer touting a high performance radio/cd/usb/bluetooth entertainment centre as standard and then refusing to fix the numerous faulty ones because they're 'free'.
I'm told there are problems with the Sky Q offering as well. My conclusion is that both of these companies have their thinking stuck a good ten years behind the technology and spending strategies some twenty years behind that.
never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead |
