The BT Sport app is closing on 12th October

[everybodyhatesChris]

@AndyFelixstowe BT Sport's coverage of Portugal's Primeira Liga NOS games has gone along with Sport Score and its daily football magazine show, ESPN FC (The Walt Disney Company). Aside from that the schedule seems relatively unchanged apart from presentation. 

Reading between the lines I would think that it was WBD's decision to axe Sport Score and that they were in favour of severing ties with ESPN to communicate the brand of TNT more effectively. It was only last season that the BT Sport ESPN channel was changed to BT Sport 4 HD. Perhaps that should have told us something.

As for Primeira Liga, it's possible that the deal simply ran out. I've noticed that ViaPlay no longer show Liga NOS matches either this season so it may be that no deal could be brokered with a broadcaster for UK & Ireland rights.

[everybodyhatesChris]

@AndyFelixstowe In essence I agree with you. The sports section of the d+ app is a mess (very poorly laid out compared to the BT Sport app with its rich and extensive archived content; also there is no such setting as a spoiler-free landing site). I'm amazed and impressed you were at least able to get an answer from WBD (that unless you emailed the BT support address) as my experience of its support has been almost non-existent

[everybodyhatesChris]

@DarrenDev Hello

I wish to raise what I hope is construed as constructive feedback and not a series of gripes concerning the d+ and TNT Sports apps. I would like to have contacted WBD direct (given that Discovery Digital is named as the developer for both apps) but past experience suggests to me that where support is concerned the company seems accountable to no one. I therefore apologise for the somewhat lengthy message but trust you will bear with me.

I'm sure you're aware of this but perhaps not given the current lack of feedback regarding the new TNT Sports app on this community forum.

It does not work with Android or Google TV powered TV/PVR devices despite claiming the contrary (I have tried it on BT TV, my Humax PVR (Android) and Sony (Google) TV and the app simply loads up the BT Sport logo then states that the app is no longer in service (or similar).

In terms of the TNT app itself on smartphone/tablet devices I have made a few observations:

Every time I load it up it directs me to a landing site with the option to Activate or go to d+ (eg it's currently promoting the UCL games). Although you can bypass this page by pressing the X on the top right hand corner is it completely necessary to go through this process every time (especially as there's no way to enter registration details if you're already a subscriber)? There are hyperlinks within the app which direct non-subscribers to sign-up for d+ if they wish.

I realise that the app itself is available for all users to view (as was the BT Sport app), however I think that given the app's suggested ease of customization (certain genres such as WRC are not listed - it feels very Eurosport-lite in terms of its UI and it's not easily navigable as well as being heavy on memory and not transferable to memory card) there should be settings to allow existing subscribers' login credentials to be entered to view more premium content, as was the case with the BT Sport app. This lack of feature did come as a surprise to me, I must admit. Similarly, the app is lacking any search engine or spoiler-free landing site. 

In terms of the sport section of the d+ app there is very little in the way of archived content and the search engine appears much less sophisticated than that of the BT Sport app - a cursory search for Marseille under the Sports sub-section reveals just two recent full length videos of Ligue1 fixtures:

-Nice (A) 21/10;

-Nantes (A) 01/09) and one short highlights video of the Le Classique game away to PSG (25/09).

Aside from this the search brings up the complete replay and short highlights package of OM's Europa League game at home to Brighton (05/10), a full replay of Ajax v OM UEL (21/09) plus 2 full length Eurosport videos of Grand Prix La Marseillaise (which dates back to 29/01). All in all a very random selection of matches at random intervals in time.

Attempting to search within the episodes sub-section simply lists programmes which feature 'Marseille' in the title. Nothing to do with sport.

The BT Sport search engine was sophisticated enough to recognise keywords as the user began typing and would display them accordingly (eg Olympique de Marseille). Additionally it featured the option to have a 'spoiler-free' landing page, which neither of the 'Discovery Digital' apps currently offer.

One thing I am pleased to see that Discovery Digital has incorporated is the option to view content which was previously broadcast/streamed etc live in 4K UHD in that format on the d+ app.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope that some of it has been useful.

Kind Regards,

Chris