AppleTV 4K and Apple Video Services.

I think it's less about 'intercepting' more about rights. There are some situations where the broadcast rights situation for 'mobile' devices are different to those for 'TV' devices. Restricting mobile apps to only displaying content on the mobile device, and not an external display, means those licensing rights are enforced.

That said, many of the catch up apps offer Chromecast support (on Android and iOS) so it does seem odd that they don't allow for AirPlay, too.

I’ve had my AppleTV+ sub unilaterally extended to Feb 2021, I presume this is to count for the delay in launching the bundled product subscription offer that’s incoming from Apple, which was due to launch ‘in Autumn 2020’.

I got that email too. The Fitness app (which was a key part of the bundle) is now saying "late 2020" which I assume is code for December. Is there anything on Apple TV yet? I wonder if its partly being extended bc there's not that much content...

I really enjoyed The Morning Show, you do however have to sit through one of the worst pilots of all time. Dickinson and their LGBT on TV doc are really good too. I quite like how there's not an overwhelming amount of content at the moment, the idea that I could 'complete' Apple TV is weirdly compelling whereas I can find myself wasting ages scrolling endlessly through Netflix.

There's an amount of dross on there too of course. Sitcom Trying is one of those lazy British Americanised shows with red phone boxes everywhere and trying to make out that Camden Town is a desirable place to live. It's worth watching a few minutes of Oprah's Book Club just to see her creepy followers fawn over her in an otherwise deathly dull programme.

I read a few theories that the free extension might have happened to coincide with the launch of their big scifi series Foundation and give it enough of a shot at getting some buzz to make it a cornerstone of the service and finally attract some paying subscribers.

Admittedly the interface needs work but 4K YouTube has finally appeared in the last few days. The App container itself hasn't been revised but the content layer within has.

What codec is being played for YouTube 4K - have they implemented software decode of VP9, or is it an h.264/h.265 flavour being hardware decoded?

VP9 is being used, with limitations, no HDR at the moment.

If Apple have implemented VP9 software decode on their ARM SoC that shows just how good the Apple silicon is. It's the only ARM-based platform that I've found that can properly software decode 4:2:2 h.264 1080i stuff and deinterlace it in Kodi - sorry - MrMC...

Going by the current thinking, macOS 11 is probably going to be released on, or a week after, the next Apple Event on November 17.

Wonder whether we'll get dates for some of the streaming services / bundles at the same time.

Seems that over in the States, T-Mobile USA is launching on Sunday a cable-TV-like service that like eir TV uses Apple TV as it’s exclusive set top box but unlike eir TV isn’t tied to a particular broadband provider (though it is being limited to T-Mobile subscribers at present). Has the disadvantage of no CBS though.

https://investor.t-mobile.com/news-and-events/t-mobile-us-press-releases/press-release-details/2020/Get-Apple-TV-on-Us-with-Select-TVision-LIVE-Packages-from-T-Mobile/default.aspx

After many years, the latest NOWTV app has launched on AppleTV today, fully equipped with HD, Boost and the extra streams. There's a discussion as to the audio standard availability. Still no catalogue of Sports Replay though although that's common across platforms.