Pik TV is now available on NVIDIA SHIELD TV & SHIELD TV Pro

[psl]

Hey everyone, as some of you may already know, the Pik TV app was recently updated with faster loading, improved navigation and a modernized user interface on the TELUS Android Pik TV Media Box. To further improve your viewing experience, we’ve released the Pik TV app on NVIDIA SHIELD TV & SHIELD TV Pro. Both products feature Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, advanced AI video upscaling, and 4K HDR entertainment.

If you are currently subscribed to Pik TV and have an NVIDIA SHIELD, simply download Pik TV from the Google Play Store and experience live TV with the ultimate Android streaming media player. You’ll need to sign in with your My TELUS username and password. If you forgot your My TELUS login, reset it at telus.com/mytelus.

Interested in getting Pik TV? Learn more by visiting telus.com/en/tv/pik

For additional support, please visit the dedicated Pik TV support articles.

Have a question about Pik TV and can’t find the answer? Pose your question right here on the Neighbourhood! 

[LucAI]

Hallelujah! Getting rid of the crappy, slow, old Android box ASAP!

[zulu53]

The Nvidia Shield IS an Android Box, just like every other streaming media box except AppleTV: its just not AndroidTV (Google version of Android for streaming) used in the PikMediaBox (through a "cooperation agreement" signed between Telus and Alphabet or Google). 

The pressure to have Telus release the PikTV app for other versions of Android is only because Android TV (by intention from Google) does not support the AmazonPrime app.  Nvida is not seen as a threat to Google.

[GAB78]

Nivida shield release date 2015.

It's almost 2021 way to move at the speed of technology telus

[Qix]

Will using the PikTv app on the shield count towards data usage? 

[KHR]

Hi @Qix 

Using the Pik app when connected to your TELUS home internet will not consume your data.

[Danger]

Thank you so much for the Androidtv app.

[zulu53]

Unfortunately Telus did not focus on the number 1 and 2 Android boxes (Roku and FireTV) and release them first, rather than the 3rd place NvidiaShield.  Certainly this was just pressure from Google on Telus senior management since these boxes (with RokuTV and AmazonPrimeVideo) and not Nvidia are seen by Google as the main threat to AndroidTV and YouTube (both owned by Alphabet along with Google).

Sadly I don't see us ever seeing further releases of PikTV (other than ones that coincide with AndroidTV release like the last major one we had).  The neglect is just of the downsides of the technology transfer agreement between Telus and Alphabet which presumably has many upsides in terms of network servers (e.g. routing and cloud database and computing services) and other network services (e.g. email).  Should have chosen Amazon and AWS.  Now that AWS are opening their huge datacentre in the old Vancouver Post Office (directly over the street from Telus) this looks like a particularly bad decision.  Google have never shown no interest in adding infrastructure to Western Canada and Amazon are going to poach all the best and brightest people from Telus Vancouver to AWS Vancouver.  So I was wrong - there have been, and are only, downsides to the Telus/Google agreement.  PikTV is just one of them.

[KHR · Accepted solution]

Hi @zulu53 

Neither Roku nor FireTV actually runs the Android TV operating system. While there are some similarities, and Fire OS is Android-based, they are still different operating systems with different app stores. Each operating system has different app development and certification requirements, and every platform has different commercial requirements, especially those that offer their own streaming service.

Nobody from Google 'pushed' TELUS into developing a Pik TV app for Nvidia. We did it because our customers have been asking us for it, the Shield is a great streaming device, and, importantly, because we were able to leverage the Pik app that is on the Pik TV Android Media Box.

We will continue to release new versions of the Pik TV app across all current and future supported platforms - tvOS, iOS, Android mobile and Android TV in order to bring new features and functionality to the platform. If there's anything you'd like to see - let me know!       

[Bokchoy]

Is there any details on whether the Telus PikTV app will ever become available on the next generation consoles PS5 and Xbox?

[WestCoasterBC]

I would say it’s highly unlikely, as it would have been done on the previous generation consoles already.