FreeviewPlus is live and here's what's on offer

FreeviewPlus is officially out this week, after long delays due to technical hold-ups and fighting between the networks. Freeview has delivered perhaps Australia's most visually impressive and tightly integrated Catch Up TV experience – but only if you shell out for a new Smart TV. Even then there are teething problems.

The FreeviewPlus ecosystem is built around the FreeviewPlus EPG, which you can call up on your television using the green button on the remote control. Alternatively you can press the red button to launch the Catch Up TV app for the network you're currently watching. The apps rely on the new Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) standard which is only built into a handful of new Australian TVs and set-top boxes, but should become more common over the next few years.

So far only a handful of TVs from Sony and LG have the official FreeviewPlus tick of approval. Panasonic is surprisingly absent from that list, even though it's been closely involved with FreeviewPlus development. Panasonic's omission is less to do with technical issues and more to do with Freeview and Panasonic failing to strike an agreement over Panasonic's involvement in FreeviewPlus. There are also a few HbbTV-compatible Personal Video Recorders on the market, such as the Beyonwiz T3 or Humax 4Tune, which don't have Freeview's official blessing.

There's no technical reason why FreeviewPlus shouldn't work on all new HbbTV-compatible devices coming to our shores, although Freeview says that there's no guarantee that the apps will work unless the new gear passes the FreeviewPlus certification testing. Freeview will use this certification process to drive shoppers towards hardware which suits Freeview's agenda – such as Personal Video Recorders which disable ad-skipping and limit fast-forward speeds to 30x.

Freeview has been using Panasonic televisions as FreeviewPlus reference devices, so the fact that my 2014-model 60-inch Panasonic 60AS740A review unit isn't on the official list shouldn't excuse the technical problems I encountered.

All aboard

While Freeview's antics can be frustrating, the networks have invested a lot of time and effort in their HbbTV apps. You'll know if your television or set-top box supports FreeviewPlus because as you flick between the live free-to-air channels the green FreeviewPlus logo pops up in the top left corner of the screen. You should see it even if your television isn't connected to the internet, prompting you to get online.

All the hard work by the networks and their app developers has paid off and the FreeviewPlus ecosystem certainly looks very impressive. Unfortunately the apps are sluggish and flaky at times. It remains to be seen how long it will take to work out the bugs. It's not a matter of tweaking the televisions, it's a matter of tweaking the streaming servers, Content Delivery Networks and HbbTV apps which include media playback software. The fact that each network uses a different configuration makes life difficult.

To be fair, the TV networks have been working hard behind the scenes to offer decent cross compatibility. Regardless of where the fault lies, if compatibility is hit and miss between televisions then FreeviewPlus will struggle to be taken seriously. As I said, my 2014-model 60-inch Panasonic 60AS740A review unit is certified by Panasonic but not Freeview, even though Freeview has been using Panasonic televisions as FreeviewPlus reference devices. The bulk of HbbTV-compatible televisions in Australian homes right now are from Panasonic.

Bending time and space

The EPG interface is visually impressive, offering plenty of detail with useful colour-coding and large logos for each free-to-air channel. The interface isn't cluttered and is easy to read from the couch. As well as scrolling up and down through the free-to-air channels, you can also scroll forward and back through time. Scrolling backwards through time is a clever feature known as a "reverse EPG".

Once you venture into the past you can see programs which are available to stream via the Catch Up TV services. You're presented with a list of available shows from that network for each day, going back up to seven days. This makes more sense than displaying yesterday's full EPG, which would draw attention to how many programs aren't available to stream.

The FreeviewPlus EPG looks impressive but it's still flaky. Sometimes you press the green button and nothing happens. Other times it freezes up completely when loading and you're left looking at a frozen green spinning icon. Occasionally the onscreen red icon is for the previous channel you were watching, rather than the current channel. The individual network apps can also be slow to load, even when you've recently launched the app. This sluggishness is not encouraging after months of testing.

Seemingly spoiled for choice...

The flexibility of the HbbTV platform has allowed every network to develop its own app with a custom look and feel. This can be a little disorientating at first, although the basic navigation remains consistent.

The ABC app launches full screen and is the most impressive of the bunch. On a large screen like our 60-inch Panasonic review unit, iView content such as Doctor Who looks significantly sharper than some of the content on the commercial channels.

The apps for the other networks only take up the bottom half of the screen when they first launch, so you can still see the program underneath. These apps switch to full screen mode as you delve into the content, but sometimes remain translucent. Within any app you can always hear the free-to-air audio in the background until you play an online video.

When you click play on a Catch Up show you usually see a 15 or 30-second pre-roll advertisement, except for ABC iView, with other ads dropped in every few minutes. You can't skip ads, but they're dropped in where you'd normally expect an ad break – unlike some video services like Crackle which just cram them in anywhere.

Unfortunately there can be long pauses as you wait for ads to load, during which you might hear live TV in the background. Sometimes the Seven and Nine apps crash at an ad break and dump you back into free-to-air – perhaps a technical issue when jumping from DASH adaptive streaming to the ads and back again.

The apps don't remember where you were up to in your program, but you can jump forward in small increments to get back to where you left off. At this point you discover that the apps can also crash when you're jumping forward. After millions of dollars, months of testing and a soft launch you'd really expect better – although your mileage may vary here depending on your television and which network app you're watching.

… but plenty is missing

Whether or not you encounter stability issues, you may be underwhelmed by the Catch Up content on offer via the FreeviewPlus apps. The problem is that each network has different rights to screen different content on different platforms. This means that programs you find on the Catch Up websites aren't necessarily available in the FreeviewPlus apps or the other various Catch Up apps.

It's rather frustrating to be treated as a second-class citizen simply due to your choice of screen, although the blame lies with the rights holders as much as the broadcasters. Probably more so.

The ABC and SBS are the most consistent when it comes to offering the same content on every platform, but it's hit and miss with the commercial networks. Plus7 is pretty disappointing, for example, partly due to an exclusive content deal with Samsung.

When you scroll back through the EPG, Seven's reverse EPG list offers;

Monday - Million Dollar Minute, Seven News, Home and Away, The X Factor

Sunday - Seven News, The X Factor, Sunday Night, Royal Pains

Saturday - nothing available

Friday - Sunrise Extra, Million Dollar Minute, Better Homes and Gardens

Thursday - Sunrise Extra, Million Dollar Minute, Home and Away, The World's Oddest Animal Couples, Parks and Recreation

There's not a lot here to get excited about. When you call up the A-Z list on the HbbTV app, you find 38 shows. Do the same on the website and you're presented with 79 shows. Some premium US shows such as Bates Motel, Castle and Criminal Minds are missing on FreeviewPlus, but there's also a lot of B-grade reality TV on the website which hasn't made it across. It's a similar story at Nine and Ten, although the gap between the web and TV interfaces seems to be much greater on Ten.

What's the alternative?

Chances are you've got other lounge room devices with Catch Up TV apps – perhaps a smart TV, Blu-ray player, Personal Video Recorder or games console. These might meet your Catch Up TV needs, but you'll struggle to find one device which supports all five Australian networks.

My Sony Blu-ray player supports every Australian Catch Up service except Nine. The Blu-ray player's Plus7 app only offers 27 shows, compared to 38 on FreeviewPlus, but there are programs on the Blu-ray player which aren't on FreeviewPlus. Meanwhile with Tenplay you get around 70 shows in FreeviewPlus and 35 on the Blu-ray player. It's a different story again as you jump to other home entertainment devices. It's really pot luck as to what you'll be able to watch, but the Catch Up websites are still your best source of content.

So what's the verdict?

FreeviewPlus is a great concept, but the networks need to sort out the haphazard rights deals which leave Catch Up viewers in the lurch, especially if the networks want to shift the focus to FreeviewPlus as their primary Catch Up offering. This is certainly what Freeview would prefer, but the networks might be happy to leave FreeviewPlus on the backburner and focus their efforts on individual projects such as Nine's StreamCo. You can hardly blame them when so few Australians can watch FreeviewPlus right now. Talk of 10 per cent FreeviewPlus penetration within 12 months seems rather optimistic.

While the reverse EPG is handy, and it's easy access to all five Catch Up TV services, there seems little point in buying a new television just for FreeviewPlus when there's so little to watch and the apps aren't rock solid. If you're keen then a FreeviewPlus-capable PVR might be more practical and cost-effective than upgrading your television, although you'd want to-the-minute accurate EPG data if you're relying on it for Season Passes.

Or simply forget about FreeviewPlus for now and ask about it next time you're in the market for a new television. It's still early days, but Freeview's new HbbTV services needs to offer more before it's worth ditching your current television for one with a FreeviewPlus sticker.