What are ITV Player and STV Player?

ITV Player and STV Player are the on-demand catch-up and live streaming TV services for ITV in England and Wales, and STV in Scotland.

They’re similar, but with some differences in what you can watch and additional premium services. Both services are available across a wide range of TV platforms and devices, although they’re not as ubiquitous as the BBC iPlayer.

Latest news for ITV Player and STV PlayerMost shows are available immediately after broadcast, but some may take between 30 minutes and two hours, such as if they require some editing from the broadcast version for online. ITV Player and STV Player do not currently support downloading to watch when you’re offline.

UTV, covering Northern Ireland, does not have a catch-up or streaming player.

What are ITV Player and STV Player?

What can I watch on ITV Player?

ITV Player and STV Player both host most programmes which have been on ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 or CITV.

Anyone within the UK can watch TV for free from the past seven days, and registered users can watch programmes up to 30 days from the date fo broadcast.

ITV2, ITV3, and ITV4 are available to viewers across the UK, but ITV Player will use IP geolocation, a postcode request or GPS to determine whether you are in England or Wales and able to watch ITV.

ITV is also running trials with ITV Player on different platforms, which allow users to watch exclusive paid-for content online, programmes from the ITV archive and paid-for previews of programmes before they’re broadcast on digital TV.

Some content is not cleared for use on mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android phones, including The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl and Real Housewives.

How much does ITV Player cost?

Both ITV Player and STV Player are available free, with adverts paying for the services.

It’s also possible to pay a monthly subcription of £3.99 to watch ITV Player without a subscription on the PC, Mac, and iOS but not yet on other devices. The iOS subscription also adds ITV3 and ITV4, which are not available in the free version. STV Player does not have a subscription option.

PC and Mac viewers can also pay £1.29 per episode for ITV Player Premieres of selected shows such as Law & Order: UK, which can be seen weeks before they’re broadcast on TV.

Older dramas like Lewis can be rented on PC/Mac for 99p an episode, or £4.99 for a complete series of six episodes.

Rentals last for one month, or three months if you purchase a series.

What are ITV Player and STV Player?

How can I get ITV Player and STV Player on my TV?

ITV Player through your digital TV service

Although Freeview HD supports streaming services, ITV Player is not available on any Freeview boxes or TVs.

Freesat includes a seven-day ITV Player (not STV Player) on its Free Time from Freesat boxes and some Freesat HD boxes from Humax, Sagem, Bush, Goodmans and Grundig, although it doesn’t have the full range of catch-up seen on the PC/Mac or YouView.

YouView hosts a seven-day ITV Player for users in England and Wales, and STV Player for Scots, on both the retail, TalkTalk and BT versions. Programmes can be launched by browsing through the player, or directly from YouView’s seven-day backwards programme guide.

Sky includes an ad-free seven-day ITV Player section within the Catch Up part of Sky On Demand.

Virgin Media TiVo boxes provide an ad-free seven-day ITV Player experience, accessed both through the Catch-UP menus and the seven-day backwards programme guide.

BT Vision includes a seven-day ITV Player catch-up service on the Vision+ box.

ITV Player on PC or Mac with VGA or HDMI connection

ITV Player on PC and Mac is a Flash Video application running in your browser, which requires Windows 7, Vista and XP or Mac OS X (version 10.6 and above).

On PC, it will run in Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3+, or Chrome 11+, and on Mac it requires either Safari 5+ or Firefox 3+.

If your TV has a VGA input and audio input, you can connect from the VGA ports on most laptops and PCs, or via HDMI for audio and video if your computer is suitably equipped. Macs can connect from the Thunderbolt port using either a VGA or HDMI adapter.

ITV Player on a smart TV or Blu-ray player

ITV Player is exclusive to Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray Players until 2014, with a seven-day catch-up selection available via the Smart Hub menu on 2011, 2012 and 2013 models.

ITV Player using your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, plus Apple TV and AirPlay

Both services can be downloaded as apps for iOS devices and wirelessly streamed to your TV screen via Apple TV and AirPlay Mirroring with iOS 5, or using an HDMI adapter on previous versions of iOS.

Catch-up programmes can be streamed over WiFi only, but live channels can be streamed of both WiFi and 3G.

ITV Player is available on all devices with iOS 4.3 or better:

iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
iPad 1
iPad 2

Apple AirPlay needs your home WiFi network to work and you’ll need to plug an Apple TV receiver into your TV’s HDMI slot.

Once you’ve done this, connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch to WiFi, load up the ITV Player app and then tap the AirPlay icon to stream programmes to your HD TV set.

ITV Player using an Android phone or tablet and an HDMI cable

ITV Player is exclusive to Samsung phones and tablets, and a limited range of other Android devices, until August 31, 2013. It requires Android 2.3 or higher and Adobe Air 2.6:

HTC Desire HD
Acer Liquid Metal
Xperia Play
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Samsung Galaxy Note, Note 2, Note 10.2
Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, S4

If your Android phone or tablet has a HDMI slot or a micro USB port with MHL connections, then you can connect your phone to your TV using an HDMI-HDMI cable or a micro USB-HDMI cable.

Load up the ITV Player for Android app on your phone or tablet to play programmes on your TV this way.

ITV Player on your Playstation 3

Apps for both ITV Player and STV Player app can be downloaded for the PS3 to enable seven-day catch-up. However, some programmes are not cleared for viewing on the games console.

How can I find what I want to watch on ITV Player or STV Player?

Users can search for programmes by name, browse by category, scroll through an A-Z list, find the latest and most popular programmes on the home page, and will also be guided to related programmes when they select something to watch.

What are ITV Player and STV Player?

Latest news for ITV Player

30 days of TOWIE for 49p

ITV has taken the wraps off of the slick new-look ITV Player which lets you pay to watch advert-free episodes of Downton Abbey and The Only Way Is Essex.

Individual episodes are going from 49p a pop or can be ordered en masse in ‘box set’ form for £4.99 each. Single episodes can be streamed for 30 days after purchase, while the box sets have a greater longevity of 90 days.

For example you can rent single episodes of Brideshead Revisited for 99p, or get the whole lot for £4.99, saving £5.90.

What is ITV Player? 30 days of TOWIE for 49p

Seemingly taking a leaf out of Spotify’s book, you’ll be able to stream programmes from the last 30 days for free as before, but you’ll have to put up with ad breaks.

In order to get 30 days of ITV programmes you’ll need to register first; otherwise you’ll be able to stream the last seven days like normal.

The freemium method however doesn’t let you access archive content like Brideshead; you won’t be able to get your hands on everything without coughing up a bit of dough.

What is ITV Player? 30 days of TOWIE for 49p

ITV will also be launching premieres of upcoming programmes, letting viewers get a sneak preview of next episode material online, ahead of broadcast.

Check out the action yourself by heading over to ITV Player here and signing up for the beta.

October 29, 2012