DIRECTV Now and Roku have yet to fulfill their promise to deliver an app that will enable Roku owners to watch the live streaming service.
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And the failure is starting to get to some DIRECTV Now subscribers who have taken to social media sites to vent their growing anger.
“It would be nice if your customers could watch the DTVN app on Roku!” tweeted Rick Cox yesterday.
@directvnow what’s the deal with no Roku support??? I’d switch over to you guys but that kills my $120 investment in my @RokuPlayer,” writes Twitter user @CaptRedBeard7.
“Is (One America News Network) *really* going to be on DIRECTV Now or is this another lie like Roku support will be added in Q1?” asked DJ_tweets_MN, referring to a press release earlier this month in which AT&T said One America News Network would be added to DIRECTV Now. (It hasn’t been yet.).
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AT&T and Roku said last November that the Roku app would be launched in the first quarter of 2017. But in March, the Roku blog, which first announced the DIRECTV Now partnership, updated that original post with an ‘in 2017’ rather than its previous ‘1Q’ launch date.
The companies never provided an official explanation for the delay, or even an acknowledgement that it would be delayed. While DIRECTV Now is available on the Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, the Roku omission is leaving many streamers on the sidelines. Roku is in more homes than any other dedicated streaming device.
@DIRECTVNowHelp, the streamer’s Twitter customer help team, continues to say the Roku app is being developed.
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“We don’t have a time frame, but, rest assured that Roku is still part of the plan! Please stay tuned!” @DIRECTVNowHelp tweeted yesterday.
But that’s cold comfort for the many Roku owners who assumed they would be able to watch DIRECTV Now by now on their streaming device of choice.
“We haven’t forgotten how we were promised Roku support in Q1, @directvnow,” tweets @thoed_e.
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“I just cancelled my @directvnow plan. They promised Roku support MONTHS ago and they never delivered. HUGE waste of money,” adds @erinbiba.
— Phillip Swann
SlingTV keeps looking better…
Slingtv SUCKS. Directv Now blows it out of the water in all honesty. I’ve used Slingtv, Playstation Vue, and Directv Now.. Directv Now wins hands down.
I use Sling TV and it lacks a lot of channels that Directv Now has (Chiller, FoxNews, VH1, among others). Not to mention a lot of On-Demand content consistently lags. Normal streaming seems fine on Sling but On-Demand lags. HBO & Cinemax add-on $15 & $10 (respectively) for Sling, $5 for each on DirectvNow
Should be a no brainer for directv, they are losing a lot of customers to sling because of this delay.
Must be your Internet provider I have zero problems with sling anything. I love the packages I have with sling and compared to cable and satellite services it’s a no Brainerd. My only complaint with sling is no discovery Channel available anywhere but heard it’s in process along with the beta DVD services.
Whats with V Media on the roku system. I downloaded the app to my roku box but couldnt use it. They told me i had to sign up for thier imternet service and tben pick a tv package in order to use their servces. I was ok with paying for one of their tv packages but i dont need their internet setvice im happy with the one i have.
Right now, the best of the top 3-streaming providers is Vue. Good picture, Okay channel selection and their cloud DVR blows the competition out of the water. Their negatives for me right now are pricing and lack of “quality” channel expansion.
However, Directv Now is gaining, I believe, because of their ability to provide more channels and cheaper cost. Those are two big pluses. Directv Now is still behind Vue & Sling when it comes to how they stream their content. Their stream quality is below Sling and Vue. (The time it takes to load a channel and video/audio sync are not good.)
Sling has been at it a while and I just sense that Dish still doesn’t know what to do with the streaming service. Their programming packages are so disjointed, I gave up subscribing to them partially because of this reason. Dish wants to bring the “a-la-carte” trend to Sling but when you add up the cost you would do better with a 2-year commitment from the satellite company. Maybe that’s their design and wish.
“Please stay tuned!” @DIRECTVNowHelp tweeted yesterday. I cannot STAY TUNED!!!! There is NOTHING to tune. DTVN doesn’t tune ANYTHING on my Roku !!! Many, many companies, large and small, have reliable, rich-function Roku channels. There is no excuse for the mighty AT&T to have failed (lied) this badly. Something smells -very- fishy to me. Maybe, just maybe, Apple and Amazon have a sweetheart deal with AT&T to delay delivering a channel on Roku to unfairly steal market share from tiny Roku. To steal share from a superior box to the inferior Fire Sticks and Apple IV’s. Does this sound like something they would do?
I’m having to wonder if the reason we have Fire TV and Apple TV versions is because those devices are little more than customized versions of their smartphone and tablet OS counterparts.
Fire TV is a limited function Android 4.4 device and Apple TV shares the same relationship with iOS phones and tablets. Since I own both Apple and Android devices, it’s easy to see the DIRECTV Now app is the same as on the Fire TV. Roku doesn’t use either of those two OSes. As such, coding an app specifically for the Roku would have to be done from scratch.
Of course, it could be as simple as DIRECTV Now doesn’t have the capacity to meet the data throughput requirements of adding millions of Roku players to an already stressed network.
Keep up the pressure on Directv Now!