The online TV service, Fetch TV, has just gone into administration.
The Fetch TV service started in 2008 and has been trying to make its place in the crowded Video-on-Demand space for some time. It looks like this week, it has lost its battle as the service owners IP Vision have called in UHY Hacker Young to act as administrators.
If you’re unfamiliar with Fetch TV, the service made use of Internet-enabled set-top boxes made by French firm Netgem, and offered on-demand content from the BBC, CNN and Sky’s on demand service, as well as live content from Freeview. Set-top boxes included the Smartbox 7000, the Smartbox 8000 and the Technika Smartbox 8320HD, the latter of which was later sold as a discount price by Tesco, before being discontinued.
We understand that IP Vision is continuing to look for a buyer for the service, although the UK VoD is very crowded, with the US firm Netflix appearing a few weeks back, and the much-delayed YouView service set for an appearance in 2012. It seems that 20 jobs at Fetch TV are in the balance.
From what we’ve been told, the Fetch TV service is still live at the moment, and IP Vision is hoping to continue to operate the service whilst talks are ongoing for a buyer.
About Fetch TV
None of the team here at Radio & Telly have any direct experience of the Fetch TV offering – We’ve asked on three separate occasions to review the service, but the company was unwilling or unable to supply us with any review hardware. Comments received from users of the service weren’t overly positive: “This has got to be one of the most awful bits of kit I have ever purchased” and “whilst it isn’t a complete disaster, it is pretty awful”. Nonetheless, the service was subscription-free, and plans were afoot for the service to become available on a range of Internet-enabled TV sets, and a rather nice iPhone Fetch TV app was launched not that long ago, showing that development was still ongoing.
We wish the 20 staff on the Fetch TV well for the future.
Alternatives to Fetch TV
If you’re looking for a set-top box that combines Freeview with on-demand content, consider BT Vision – The service includes an impressive library of TV shows and movies, and BT’s running some nice deals on its broadband and TV service at the moment – More details ont he BT Vision site, or see our BT Vision review.
Alternatively, consider Blinkbox, LOVEFiLM or the new NetFlix services, for on-demand TV and films.
Comments on Fetch TV?
Are you a past or present user of Fetch TV? Please add your thoughts in the box below
I bought the Smartbox 7000 when it was launched and most of the time it’s done most of what I required of it to do. However, Freeview has been updating just as the software for Smartboxes has been. At times, Freeview reception hasn’t been up-to-standard till I upgraded to the Satcure website’s WF 100 cables and securely-fitted connectors. I had to use signal boosters as well. Eventually Freeview became such good quality that I upgraded to the 8000 version with 2 TV tuners for same time recordings. The recent Ebay offer was a total of £67.50 not the standard £180+ price. The HD8320 box went through 30 software updates till July 2011. I declined to buy that after the hundreds of customer feedback posts on the AVForum.
I’ve still got Netgem IPlayers and the BT version, too. I’ve still got a few of the Smartbox 7000 boxes and a Netbox 8160 and a Smartbox 8000. The Radio and Telly Forum has details in the Netgem/Fetch TV section.
I rarely used Fetch TV’s on-demand services for their films and TV shows etc. I used the BBC iPlayer and the Sky Player as an existing Sky subscriber.
The Virgin Media Internet hub allows me to use the PC and the plug-and-play Smartbox 8000 to go online, so I saved some money by not using the Netgem IPlayer’s pay-as-you-go dialup service.
http://tinyurl.com/fetchtvstarter
I created 2 webpages to help get online. I saved these webpages to some USB pen drive and accessed 0000-websearch.html to go online, I then clicked the current version online link and refreshed the webpage, then saved it as a numbered bookmark Internet favourite. Several links on the webpage to search the Internet with.
The Fetch TV company had incredible feedback from many tech experts who assisted them in improving the products and services, but as the competitors are able to offer their products, too, we’ve seen more developments in Smart TVs as well as the Smartboxes.
If Fetch TV continues with the extended 2nd-year warranty cover as part of our box registrations, then OK. Perhaps more Smartboxes will be sold on Ebay.
RT Forum: http://tinyurl.com/rthome
Netgem/Fetch TV Yahoo Group: http://tinyurl.com/netgemgroup
I have a 8320HD box and have to say it’s very good. It plays BBCI Player and Sky Go over the internet and wirelessley plays films and music from my PC. I never used the Fetch TV service because i thought it was too expensive at 99p for an on average 6 year old film to up to £5.99 for a HD film so their going into administration will not bother me as long as my box keeps working. Great media player and great freeview HD+ box.
I have two boxes and network between the two.
I’m wondering about iplayer, for some obscure reason the box didn’t get iplayer until customers registered so I womder if that will still work.
Geffers
I would like to know if there is any software that could update my fetch smartbox (Technika 8320hd) so I can watch pay to view ie (lovefilm) through it. The company is now not broadcasting so my box is useless and only good for BBC iplayer which I can get on my laptop