ITV releases gorgeous new viewing experience for Windows Phone

By Rich Edmonds
published

Following in the steps of the BBC, ITV has also launched its catch-up service on Windows Phone. The app is the initial release but we're already seeing a rather polished product. There's content from ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV for consumers to enjoy, catching up with their favorite shows while out and about. ITV have also added a few hidden gems in this app too, including a stunning user experience.

ITV as a network has undergone some major re-branding lately with a new logo to boot, and the official ITV Player app for Windows Phone doesn't disappoint. the overall look and feel of the app itself fits in well with both ITV and Microsoft's Modern UI, offering interactive Live Tiles and a fluid, beautiful user interface (seriously, even the splash screen is gorgeous). As one would expect with such an app, consumers are able to check through their favourite shows for episodes they may have missed.

ITV Player

The development team have gone one step further, however. There's not only catch-up functionality in this initial release, but also live TV. As is the case with standard ITV content, there's advertisements included, but they don't hinder the experience with a constant stream products and services thrown in the viewer's face. Also, when viewing the list of available content on a channel, a quick swipe to the left or right will take the user to the next channel without having to go back through through multiple screens.

ITV Player

Expanding on Live Tile support noted above, it's possible to pin individual shows to the Start screen, for convenient access to favorite content. Did we mention the app was also built for Windows Phone 8.1? Give it a try and see what you think. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

QR: ITV Player

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

50 Comments
  • Wow. I spoke to them last week and they said they had no plans. Well done itv
  • Well .. thanks to cortana I have to change that region back to UK now :O Is there a way of doing that quicker via windowsphone.com to install and check this App out  ?
  • You can install apps via push...you just have to have the setting enabled on your phone...
    It should work.
  • Thought this will work but it checks the region settings. My phone is on US for cortana. Thought the Homepage will "ignore" that and just push it through
  • I personally got tired of the US specific search results that kept coming up when using Cortana (inevitable, I know...but I didn't feel Cortana was worth the drawbacks).
    Also, Cortana isn't very good at understanding British dialect. I would have to speak with an American accent to get her to understand me :).
  • Yeah its cack. Need to wait for the real thing. All my payments were in dollars too.
  • I have to do that with Kinect! and that's a full release. They should do a Yorkshire edition.
  • Totally awesome app. Really impressive and good to see more support for WP :)
  • Love iTV! My favorite TV Show is The X Factor.
    Hope I can see something in the app, even living here in Brazil. :)
  • Jeremy Kyle!!!!!
  • Leave. Now! ;¬)
  • Lol, no love for Jeremy.
  • You mean the fix factor
  • ITV or itv but never iTV!! :-)  
  • Anyone noticed how the ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5 apps ALL put the iPlayer app to shame in terms of design and UX? Native Windows Phone apps vs web wrapper. Nice work ITV!
  • Agree, BBC iPlayer update today was a let down, for their size was expecting more... much more.
  • Gorgeous app, absolutely love it. Great to see more and more support coming to WP. Seems like Sky are the only ones left standing seeing as we have BBC iPlayer, ITV, 4OD and Demand 5! Come on Sky+ and Sky Go, you're already last to the party, don't be too late!
  • Well done to ITV - though the STV player has been available for ages, and provides ITV content without issue (just put in a Scottish postcode).
    Looks to be shaping up to be a big few weeks of releases for Windows Phone in the UK. These are just the kind of apps that sell the platform.
    Now Whatsapp, stop being idiots and update the WP app!!
    Speaking of which, here was the reply I got from a Whatsapp representative;
    *********
    From: Jan Koum
    Sent: ‎27/‎05/‎2014 08:13
    To: Laurence
    Subject: Re: Windows Phone app availability?
    Laurence - Sorry to hear your whole family is running Windows Phone. Have you considered other platforms? thanks
    *******
    Not impressed with Whatsapp!
  • Excellent app. Don't compare the BBCs web wrapper html5 crap to this gorgeous app. Well done itv and hope for more improvements in the future
  • So an app for UK TV that we can't use over here because we don't have 8.1, or have I missed something??
  • Developer preview is a free way of getting 8.1 anywhere on the planet with an internet connection. You should give it a try. :)
  • WPCentral is a global website...
    You may have noticed that there are a lot of region specific news articles...
    If you aren't in our region, don't read the news :). But FYI, these news articles today are GREAT for the WP platform in the UK...which is itself a strong and growing market for WP.
  • I should have clarified, I'm in the UK and have a Lumia 620 but have no idea when 8.1 is coming out.
  • Ah, my apologies...I didn't read your initial comment fully!
    I'm running 8.1, and the app works perfectly. How come you haven't updated to 8.1 yourself? It's a great update....with just a very few small glitches (I'm running 8.1 on my 1020)
  • As others have said you can try the dev preview, otherwise you should get it officially in the next couple of months. I know it's annoying that apps are 8.1 only, but that's the future and the positive side is we should see a lot more official support with the new APIs and programming advances Microsoft have added with 8.1.
  • Guess I'm just wary of trying a pre-release. Mind you my phone no longer tells me when apps have been updated which is infuriating, tried everything to fix it to without success.
  • I would hazard a guess that pretty much everyone on WPCentral is running 8.1. Yes, there are a few small issues and glitches....but definitely not nearly enough to forgo updating to 8.1.
    Seriously, just sign up for your free dev account on AppStudio, download the Dev Preview app...then install 8.1! It is well worth it
    (Also, with regards to your issue - you can now manually search the store for updates...and you can also set apps to update automatically. All of these notifications are displayed on the notification panel).
  • It works on 8.0 fine, no need to spend an hour updating to the developer preview minus firmware.
  • BSkyB your up next ;)
  • Just need Sky Go now.
  • Great that we are getting the apps, and it is really well designed - but I'm a little disappointed that it isn't a universal app, and being released on Windows 8.1 as well as Windows Phone 8.1. My only issue. Currently streaming the French Open live!
  • I bet it will be released on Windows 8 too because it requires such little work to bring a Windows Phone 8.1 app to Windows 8 so they would be crazy not to especially as the app uses the hub style, the Windows 8 app could simply still be in the approval process because you can't submit them together
  • Great! Now we need SkyGo.
  • It also works on 8.0 BTW.
  • ITV makes tv for idiots
  • Wow, it's a really nice app too. Kudos to ITV for getting this out. STV (scottish equivalent) has been out for a while but is'nt as nice (and you have to pretend you live in scotland for it to work...) That's all the big UK broadcasters on Windows Phone now apart from Sky who still maintain that it doesn't have enough users on the platform... Rude!  Does anyone know if it's a limitation of Windows Phone that stops us from having the ability to download shows into these apps? They all stream nicely, but the equivalent apps on other platforms allow downloads too... Why isn't that available from any of these broadcasters?  UPDATE: BBC say it's because of cost vs small user-base rather than anything else: We would love to add features like downloads once the market share increases to the point we can justify the additional development and infrastructure costs.
  • Sky will probably make an app soon they can't hold off for too much longer
  • Ha, watch them hold off! Their forums are full of closed threads of people requesting WP/Win8 apps for Sky Go and we're just told "NOPE!" all the time.  Although, that's apparently what ITV have been doing and now look, so we can hope. I'm paying for SkyGo, so it'd be nice to be able to actually use it across all my devices...
  • So stupid, if they had used Xamarin then they could have built apps for all platforms using the same code. Them mentioning infrastructure is a complete lie because the infrastructure is already in place because the other iplayer apps support downloads
  • Can any guys tell me.. Is this the itv which telecasts indian premier league IPL ?
  • Yip
  • The splash screen alone makes this app worth it. Nice to see some quality apps coming to WP as its been a bit hit and miss lately.
  • It's a nice app with live tv as well. Had to change region back to Uk but it still worked when I changed it back to keep Cortana so its all good
  • Wow, what a nice app, I'm impressed for a v1.0 release.  Beautiful and native, it makes all the difference.  I also appreciate how the stream adjusts to your bandwidth automatically rather than just cutting out.
  • Very impressive app. Lovely layout and transitions. Search function nice and intuitive plus live tv! I don't watch much itv apart from footy and cycling on itv4 but the more well thought out and quality apps the better. Can't think of many v.1 apps so polished straight out of the box.
  • Just need sky go now. Perhaps itv player will come to 360 & one???? Like 4od, demand5 and bbc iplayer as they already have apps.
  • OMG! I LOVE ITV! I wanted this app so much!! My favorite show is Tipping Point ^_^
  • Not available on lumia 1020.... WTF???
  • Thanks ITV! i heard Sky Go is on the way?
  • "ITV as a network has undergone some major re-branding lately with a new logo to boot" The logo that they have been using for at least a year .....