Review Insights · Google Play
SBS On Demand
SBS Corporation · 15,263 ratings · ★ 3.8
3.8
★★★★★
15,263 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 49 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"update"
11 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this is a painful app ad's always buffering Just had to update the app now it plays through to the first set of ads buffering all the way through then resets another set of ads and buffers then restart the show at the beginning In a way we …" - Andrew Molloy
2
"watching"
7 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this is a painful app ad's always buffering Just had to update the app now it plays through to the first set of ads buffering all the way through then resets another set of ads and buffers then restart the show at the beginning In a way we …" - Andrew Molloy
3
"watch"
7 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this is a painful app ad's always buffering Just had to update the app now it plays through to the first set of ads buffering all the way through then resets another set of ads and buffers then restart the show at the beginning In a way we …" - Andrew Molloy
4
"screen"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this possible the worst app ever. it goes back the beginning of episodes after ads or jumps to tge end of the last episode someone else watched in the household. it is soooo frustrating. the afs say they are happening and dont or say they a…" - Cathy Phillips
5
"longer"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "what happened to this app? it used to be one of the better if not best Australian TV app, but it's an awful experience now. signing in to a tv is no longer a breeze, so if you're the one that has to sign in older relatives, it's now a part …" - J1
📋 All 49 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
this is a painful app ad's always buffering Just had to update the app now it plays through to the first set of ads buffering all the way through then resets another set of ads and buffers then restart the show at the beginning In a way we do pay for this app we spend our time watching all the ads. absolute joke
There are soooooo many ads, its worse than commercial TV
this possible the worst app ever. it goes back the beginning of episodes after ads or jumps to tge end of the last episode someone else watched in the household. it is soooo frustrating. the afs say they are happening and dont or say they are happening and sit there un a black screen
what happened to this app? it used to be one of the better if not best Australian TV app, but it's an awful experience now. signing in to a tv is no longer a breeze, so if you're the one that has to sign in older relatives, it's now a part time job. this app literally gives the impression that they don't want you using the it. it's free to air, why am I jumping through hoops here? I'm not saying it's the worst app, but it's bad enough to go in the do not use pile.
ridiculous amount of ads.
no longer works on Android
great!
hate that you've forced me to update the AndroidTV app to the latest. the older worked so much better. the new is slow and crashes and is generally not a good experience, as bad as abc's, yours used to be so much better. and this version on my phone won't continue a show from where i stopped when casting and it always turns on the subtitles each time. i miss the old stuff that worked.
can't find the connect to TV option. absolutely horrible site and App.
Pointless app. We've had SBS on demand on the digital TV we've owned c. 10 years. we've had an in screen message suggesting a need to 'update the app', but we dont have an option anywhere to do so. I've ininstalled the app entirely, planning to download and reinstall.. Then; I've found nowhere on Google play store to download from, & browsing through a web page on our so-called 'smart TV, we see another onscreen message suggesting the app that is available is not compatible with our de ice!
i like when you go to watch a movie and 2 hours in the screen blacks out to ask if youre still watching and then the app freezes
Your coverage is very amateurish, not allowing recording, or pause and having great chunks of empty air while ads are played ! People have to go to the toilet and attend to children or aged parents. Why don't you go back and look at how ESPN did it in the good old days. No ad breaks at all we missed nothing. We could pause it and we could record it. Do you really think this is a good experience for anyone. You must remember how it was !
Such a glitchy app, constant issues.
it will at times just stop and i will have to find where I was in a show requiring me to watch more adds, then it won't remember my location in a show when I open it back up again making have to find it, resulting in me watching more adds. surely it would be possible to add software that would limit the amount of adds you see in a certain amount of time so when this happens I don't have to watch 10min of straight adds to find where I was up to.
Favorites not currently working
Absolutely useless - all I see is ads 😡
I can't favourite any programs any more. When the 'are you still watching?' shows up, it doesnt register that I've pressed yes. I have to close the app and reopen to restart the program I was watching.
Too many ads. Favorites do not synchronise with the website. Good to know Australians pay tax for SBS to watch ads.
culture for some? are you really that out of touch? grow a good damned face and learn to talk before you speak to me again!
why no subtitles? It really goes against spirit of SBS to not have them. maybe there's some, but I've not seen them. of course, foreign language films have, but what about English programs?
Adds and more adds. Streaming quality is poor. More adds. Hangs regularly and then you get to watch more adds. Just terrible. If you fast forward, rewind or try to re-watch, look forward to more adds. App crashes, adds. Watch from previous point, adds. In short....Crashes, pauses, skips, resume watching = adds. Add crashes = adds. 8 years on I will amend my review by saying this. It is an absolute disgrace that the taxpayer spent even one dollar on this utter POS. Zero Stars!
Movie was interrupted and ended
had to update now I can't ❤️ anything. tried uninstalling and reinstalling still motor working. upgrades i thought were meant to be improvements!
SBS has always been my news source but now that I have to sign in I find it annoying
I'm unsure how an 'update' could be a step backward. - App crashes during play. - No playback from last play/watch. - Subtitles always come on by themselves. - Mark as watched, doesn't remove the watched episode.
since the update, the app keeps going to sleep even so I have activated the never go to sleep function 😭😭😭 absolut frustration.
it keeps cutting out
It won't do the simple task it needs to operate- which is casting. I have 2 TVs and didn't work on either. Tried restarting etc still getting error messages. Also other basic functionality like changing your password (so I can sign in via smart tv) doesn't work. I changed my password via website and when I sign in it claims the email & password don't match. Good luck trying to use this app.
nightmare app, everytime there is an advert the screen freezes and I need to restart on Google tv. please fix.....
all sudden sign in despite having an account
I've never used any app with as many ads as this. Every time SBS Chill is selected, I'm thrown 3 unskippable ads. 15-30 seconds each. Even if you exit the app for a second (but keep it running) and go back into it, the ads don't continue, they start again, another 3, unskippable. Additionally, the last time I used the app, it crashed midway through the ads. Had to close and re-open the app, and guess what? Another 3. I'm uninstalling and going back to the browser, which is what I've always used.
can no longer cast to chromecast
An update today made the app useless. Can't cast to TV (via Chrome Cast) anymore. 401 issue. ABC Iview works fine. so SBS app update is the issue. Not happy Jan! Update. This update needed a log out of the app then a log in to make it work. Shouldn't be needed. Restarted phone s well for good measure .
hate it give me back the old app!
I updated today and picture in picture options went away. can you please reinstate
continually tries to re-format tv login. Probably after LG tv Web OD update
They advertise shows on TV like bingable box sets. which ARE NOT EVEN ON HERE. Northern exposure us just a 1 minute ad. This ap sux.
does not work at all keeps crashing doesn't even load a movie, instantly deleted it!
Sloppy programming!
Hi SBS. Fantastic content. But please fix the playback functionality. This is the same review in March 2026 as 2020. 6 years and no improvement. The app cuts out during shows all the time. App struggles if you try to fast forward or rewind. and often misplaces location in episode. Please strengthen the development team. There has been no improvement over an eternity.
Disaster. Doesn't return to where you watched, ads are prolific Content is fine, and I do realise it's free but still, it should work in this day and age but it doesn't edit: Feb 26: app just gets worse. cannot watch anything..... something so simple should work. but it rarely does hate that I have to use it for content
i enjoy the free content. but unfortunately since the recent update the app is even more unstable. it fails to remember your preferred resolution forcing you to re-enter every time. doing this often removes full screen mode. exiting forces more ad watching, the main goal of the app. they've also removed comprehensive search options. Previously I could search by continents or genre. now it's the exact title only. Something needs to be done to resolve the technical issues.
Live streaming and casting no longer functioning on Google TV.
would be higher, but throwing SEVEN 10 to 15 second ads at you every 4 ish minutes is honestly unusable. isn't sbs an Aussie gov media organisation that's meant to be free for Aussies? 7 ads is diabolical
On demand movies are having to be reloaded, they freeze a hell of a lot and I've had to back out completely and go back in 4 times for 1 Movie!! it's taken 40 mins longer just to watch 1 movie! Do Better SBS!!
I updated this app yesterday, and now all of my favourites have disappeared, and I cannot add any favourites now!!!!
the app plays up regularly since the latest "upgrade". Now a new update , hopefully to fix all the problems from the last update!!!
I have your app on 3 devices. I am having problems with my favourites not working on 2 of them and none will bring up continue watching which I use all the time. I had to login a couple of days ago, so I assume that the app has had an update. All were working before then. I hope you can help me. I have uninstalled and installed but nothing changed. Thank you, Diane
you openly flog gambling, a disgusting thing for an organisation like yours to do. Sometimes it seems that you rarely introduce new stuff. you have great programming on current affairs and great programming on Australian first nation issues.
Sentiment summary
66%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
33%
Negative (1-2★)