The lack of firmware updates (with or without a new UI) for the past 6 months and the rumbling that Fetch TV had run out of money have finally all come to a head - it looks like IP Vision, who own the Fetch TV brand, have gone into administration. Strangely, the Fetch TV home page makes no mention of this, but at least the bottom of the IP Vision home page does.
It seems that administrators were appointed on 22nd December 2011 and a little bit more info can be found on a London Gazette page. I'm not sure if it was coincidental or not, but iPlayer and Sky Go apparently stopped working for a short while a couple of days ago, but when I checked iPlayer and Fetch TV's PPV stuff just now, it seemed to be all be working OK.
If IP Vision don't come out of administration, then they'll obviously turn off their servers - not only will their Web presence disappear, but so could 8320HD functuionality, including Fetch TV PPV (obviously) and even the disappearance of iPlayer (which I personally think shouldn't require box registration or the use of any of IP Vision's servers, but that's just me).
I am not too surprised. It is a shame as the product was almost very good. A few glitches were enough to make the box somewhat infuriating, certainly not ready for mass market. I suspect that it was not a lack of hardware sales that really killed them off but a lack of PPV purchases.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not surprised. The FetchTV offerings were poor, the box is/was buggy and missing some major features.
DeleteI'm guessing the business model was based on getting subscribers, but who is going to subscribe to a service with no content.
I'll probably keep my box as long as iPlayer still works, the box is still quite capable even with its bugs.
Iplayer not working for me tonight.
ReplyDeleteGet the OS Opensource and lets have a go at fixing those bugs!
ReplyDeleteSecond that! but I doubt it will happen. Even when they were in business the techie's didn't seem keen on letting anyone know about the any API let alone the OS or internals.
DeleteAnnounced today, ShopTo.net acquires Fetch TV.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=4363
Users are saying that there is now a message when logging into Sky Go saying the service will be turned off on the 16th May. Does this mean the end of iPlayer too?
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