Combining two of our favorite addictions, theTVaddict.com has begun periodically turning off the TV in order to review TV-related iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Apps.
If one of your New Year resolutions included increasing the number of ways in which you can watch live television throughout your house, you’re probably going to want to check out Rogers recently released Live TV App.
What Works: As the title suggests, Rogers Live TV App gives customers who subscribe to the company’s Hi-Speed Internet (Lite tier and above) and Rogers Digital TV (excluding Digital TV Starter Pack) the ability to stream live TV directly to their iPad. Also working in the App’s favor is the quality of the stream which is almost as impressive as the no hassle process that allows one to be up and streaming in seconds after simply logging on using ones My Rogers account.
What Doesn’t: Unfortunately for Rogers Communications, a whole heck of a lot. And while the inexplicably poor selection of channels that has the App arbitrarily capped out at 20, occasional loss of sound and lack of Airplay functionality is at the top of our list of gripes, they pale in comparison to the single biggest issue with the Rogers Live TV App (An issue so big that it actually forced us to remove the App from our iPad following testing). Simply put: Watching television on the Rogers Live TV App counts against our increasingly insufficient monthly data cap. Which means, despite the fact that we pay our cable/internet/cell phone provider a very hefty chunk of change each and every month, we still run the risk of possibly paying even more by using this App courtesy of the almost inevitable bandwidth overage charges (According to Rogers an hour of video approx. 600MB/hr of data).
Bottom Line: While we appreciate Rogers continued attempt to expand their digital offerings, this latest bandwidth-usage-heavy-effort comes across as more of a tricky trojan horse to make even more money rather than a much-deserved value add for their increasingly frustrated and cost conscious customer base.
ROGERS LIVE TV is available as a free download on iTunes. 