After launching on iOS last year, Nine Entertainment has finally taken its place in the Android catch-up TV space with the launch of the 9Jumpin app for Android phones and tablets.
The 9Jumpin app offers streaming TV shows on demand from Channel 9, Go and GEM with homegrown shows like Big Brother, The Voice and The Block, as well as overseas properties like Arrow, Survivor, Ellen, and Mike and Molly. You’ll also find a lot of Thunderbirds episodes there, which you won’t find us complain about, along with a good selection of cartoons like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Yu-Gi-Oh, Looney Tunes and other kids entertainment programs.
9Jumpin is proving to be quite a popular way to get access to catch-up TV, reporting over 5.1 million streams last month, with around 50% of those streams coming from their responsive site, while 40% of that number came from their iOS app. With Android accounting for a large share of the phone and tablet markets in Australia, we’re expecting to see those numbers shift around a bit with the app now becoming available on Android.
Pleasingly, the app is not just a port of the iOS version, having been designed and built internally by the technology team at Mi9, Nine’s digital business, from the ground up specifically for Android. It offers a native experience with distinct phone and tablet interfaces in the one app. There’s the familiar slide-out navigation drawer on the left giving you access to different sections of the catalog, with easy access to a full list of programs, the latest episodes and content that’s about to expire.
It’s quite a good experience in the app, which smooth and responsive. Video quality seems good, and streaming over mobile data is supported. The app has also been tested on a range of devices from HTC and Samsung and of course our favourite, the Nexus 5. They’ve also been testing on a number of Samsung tablets. The TV Guide also doesn’t seem to have come across from the iOS app, but there’s other apps out there that provide that functionality.
With all the major Australian broadcasters now offering Android catch-up TV apps, it’s time to turn our attention to the next big feature we’re after – Chromecast support. It’s all well and good to have access to this content to watch on our phones and tablets, what about putting it on the largest screen in the house? Most Australian broadcasters have been tight-lipped about Chromecast, with even the ABC (announced as a Chromecast launch partner back in May) lagging on their implementation. Some good news, then: we’re told that the team behind 9Jumpin is confident of adding Chromecast support to the app early next year.
Have you tried the 9Jumpin app? Let us know what you think in the comments!
The best to be said here is that it is a joke ! Maybe one step up from totally useless.
Get the app working properly first before going “hi tech” trying for Chromecast.
Hi has anyone been able to the 9jumpin app on their samsung smart tv?
Good quality video and performance. Channel 9’s devs have achieved a great result for a version 1.0 app!
Knowing channel 9 it’ll be plastered with ads all over it.
Installs and plays fine on my Aldi Bauhn tablet! 🙂