TVNZ+ Upgrade - What's Changing?

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Smpl Mnmlst
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#3483620 24-Apr-2026 05:57

halper86:

eracode:

May have missed it but haven’t seen any reference to this in other media.

Apart from the UI mess, that may be because, unlike people here on GZ, the average viewer doesn’t really care (or know or understand) about resolution and picture quality. Many of our friends would be oblivious to this and would just watch it.

Well I'm sure they wouldn't bag their own platform on 1News :).

Well of course not - but what about other media? I would have thought they would relish putting a boot into TVNZ.

Finally this morning this story in NZH. Pretty accurate and appropriately scathing.

TVNZ is quoted as saying the majority of its customers have had no issues with the release of the new app in the past week. You have to wonder if that’s true.

NZH says TVNZ “,,, won’t say how many of its 771,500 TVNZ+ account-holders are estimated to be affected by the glitches, or exactly what is causing the problems.”

It seems NZH is going to get its teeth into this - “Are you affected by glitches and bugs with the new TVNZ+ app? Please email with your experiences and any TVNZ response to shayne.currie@nzme.co.nz”

I’d be surprised if he’s not aware of it but just in case, I sent Shayne Curry a link to this thread.

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johno1234

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#3483624 24-Apr-2026 07:24

The TVNZ+ app works flawlessly on my AppleTV 4K as long as I reboot it each time before opening the app! 🤯

ascroft

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#3483625 24-Apr-2026 07:33

Yes needs a reboot - I was deleting and reinstalling to make it work properly but reboot seems ok. It’s a feature not a bug!!!! 🐜

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eracode

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#3483631 24-Apr-2026 08:09

johno1234:

The TVNZ+ app works flawlessly on my AppleTV 4K as long as I reboot it each time before opening the app! 🤯

Definitely not true here.

When I force-close the app then re-open, if I select ‘Channels’ (live TV) it will play - but then I can do nothing more than watch. i.e. the back button doesn’t work, so I can’t choose something else to watch.

So I need to force-close again if I want to do something else.

There’s other faults too - eg. weirdness around the control for selecting/deselecting subtitles.

Also when you say ‘flawlessly’ I assume you’re excluding the total crap resolution we’re now getting.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Senecio

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#3483633 24-Apr-2026 08:21

I'm experiencing all of the other issues that everyone else has mentioned but when I can get it working I've had no issues with picture quality. ATV 4K for reference.

thewabbit

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#3483635 24-Apr-2026 08:40

Watching the One News last night (starting at ~7.15pm so well after the live broadcast) I was able to skip through one section of broadcast ads completely, but the other times as soon as I fast forwarded it played the unskippable ads.

A few nights ago I headed into the kitchen when the broadcast ads started, it hadn't gone to the unskippable ones. It was the segment just before the weather, and the toyota add had just started. I went to fast forward through that and got hit with 7 (!) unskippable ads!!

I've also noticed that ever night since the upgrade the news replay stops well before the end of the weather. One night it stopped when it got to Wellington, last night was the first night I actually got to see more than tomorrow weather.

Overall pretty unimpressed!

2025 QN3EF so not an old device by any means

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johno1234

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#3483649 24-Apr-2026 09:25

eracode:

johno1234:

The TVNZ+ app works flawlessly on my AppleTV 4K as long as I reboot it each time before opening the app! 🤯

Definitely not true here.

When I force-close the app then re-open, if I select ‘Channels’ (live TV) it will play - but then I can do nothing more than watch. i.e. the back button doesn’t work, so I can’t choose something else to watch.

So I need to force-close again if I want to do something else.

There’s other faults too - eg. weirdness around the control for selecting/deselecting subtitles.

Also when you say ‘flawlessly’ I assume you’re excluding the total crap resolution we’re now getting.

By flawlessly I mean it is the same as pre-update in perceived resolution and functionality. It just needs the ATV to be rebooted prior to starting!

johno1234

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#3483651 24-Apr-2026 09:27

thewabbit:

Watching the One News last night (starting at ~7.15pm so well after the live broadcast) I was able to skip through one section of broadcast ads completely, but the other times as soon as I fast forwarded it played the unskippable ads.

A few nights ago I headed into the kitchen when the broadcast ads started, it hadn't gone to the unskippable ones. It was the segment just before the weather, and the toyota add had just started. I went to fast forward through that and got hit with 7 (!) unskippable ads!!

I've also noticed that ever night since the upgrade the news replay stops well before the end of the weather. One night it stopped when it got to Wellington, last night was the first night I actually got to see more than tomorrow weather.

Overall pretty unimpressed!

2025 QN3EF so not an old device by any means

There's always been unskippable and skippable ads IIRC.

Despite this unmitigated disaster of an app release I am pleased that they previously got rid of the rinky-dink music in the skipable ads for TVNZ upcoming content.

eracode

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#3483668 24-Apr-2026 10:30

johno1234:

eracode:

johno1234:

The TVNZ+ app works flawlessly on my AppleTV 4K as long as I reboot it each time before opening the app! 🤯

Definitely not true here.

When I force-close the app then re-open, if I select ‘Channels’ (live TV) it will play - but then I can do nothing more than watch. i.e. the back button doesn’t work, so I can’t choose something else to watch.

So I need to force-close again if I want to do something else.

There’s other faults too - eg. weirdness around the control for selecting/deselecting subtitles.

Also when you say ‘flawlessly’ I assume you’re excluding the total crap resolution we’re now getting.

By flawlessly I mean it is the same as pre-update in perceived resolution and functionality. It just needs the ATV to be rebooted prior to starting!

I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you meant 'closed and restarted the app'. So I tried rebooting the ATV - then restarted the app.

Made no difference whatsoever. The issues described in my post above are still there. Seems to work OK in on-demand shows - but totally borked with live TV.

So do you reboot your ATV every time you want to use TVNZ+?

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

eracode

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#3483670 24-Apr-2026 10:43

Would be grateful to hear from a few people using the new app on ATV. If you select 'Channels' and watch live TV, does the back button on the ATV remote take you back to app Home so that you can select on-demand shows and watch them without problems?

Our back button does not work and the only thing that can be done is exit the app by long-pressing it.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

enserf

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#3483672 24-Apr-2026 10:45

eracode:

Would be grateful to hear from a few people using the new app on ATV. If you select 'Channels' and watch live TV, does the back button on the ATV remote take you back to app Home so that you can select on-demand shows and watch them without problems?

Our back button does not work and the only thing that can be done is exit the app by long-pressing it.

Intermittent. Initially didn't work; then it did, now it doesn't again.

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sleemanj

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#3483673 24-Apr-2026 10:50

They seem to have sorted out the problem with 2017 Samsungs and the APP-000005 error. Quality was abysmal starting a playback of "Can you keep a secret" last night, total potato vision, it did eventually sort itself out though. UI is pretty laggy, but at least it works.

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gzt

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#3483674 24-Apr-2026 10:51

freitasm:
rb99:
I want it to block ads as well. They are annoying. I'd rather pay a sub, like I do for, you know, Geekzone.

TVNZ could follow the same model we have: ads for free content, no ads for subscribers.
I do think the subscription would still have a low uptake.

Ads are the primary reason I hardly watch anything on tvnz app. When I do, I very rarely make it past the first ad break. I'd be interested in a subscription for tvnz. I'm not sure how much I'd pay.

mclean

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#3483767 24-Apr-2026 16:29

eracode:

Would be grateful to hear from a few people using the new app on ATV. If you select 'Channels' and watch live TV, does the back button on the ATV remote take you back to app Home so that you can select on-demand shows and watch them without problems?

Our back button does not work and the only thing that can be done is exit the app by long-pressing it.

Yes, same. Except the long press doesn't actually exit the TVNZ+ app, it takes you back the ATV main menu. The TVNZ+ app is still crashed if you go back to it.

johno1234

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#3483778 24-Apr-2026 17:00

I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you meant 'closed and restarted the app'. So I tried rebooting the ATV - then restarted the app.

Made no difference whatsoever. The issues described in my post above are still there. Seems to work OK in on-demand shows - but totally borked with live TV.

So do you reboot your ATV every time you want to use TVNZ+?

Not watching live channels. We watch the 6pm news on demand typically at around 7pm. After the update it usually refuses to start playing until I restart the AppleTV.

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