This could be the ultimate Sky TV rival for live and streaming services

When it comes to watching your favourite shows, you now have a choice between live TV and a litany of streaming services offering movies and TV shows on demand. If you’re like me, you probably spend as much time binge-watching new series as you do watching live channels.

Live channels are essential for sports, news, and discovering new things, while I love the immediacy of streaming services like Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix. Swapping from live to on-demand services is rarely smooth, though. Switching HDMI inputs and remotes makes the experience feel disparate.

There are plenty of ways to do both in one place, of course. TV service providers such as Sky and Virgin have streaming apps built into their platforms, while the best smart TVs also allow you to access streaming apps directly from their operating systems.

If, like me, you want the best experience from both live and streaming options, you may still use separate systems for each. My favourite streaming box is the Apple TV 4K, so I choose to use this over any built-in systems or TV boxes. With the new EE package, I no longer have to choose.

Live TV on the Apple TV 4K

EE TV subscribers have a choice of the EE TV Box Mini or Box Pro set-top boxes, but also the Apple TV 4K box as part of their package. This is a special version of the Apple TV 4K box that includes the EE TV app to access the live channels, as well as EE’s on-demand and rental options.

The actual Apple TV 4K box is identical to the one you can buy from Apple, although it features a dedicated EE remote. This is larger than the standard Apple remote and is finished in black plastic rather than the brushed aluminium, so it doesn’t feel quite as premium. However, there are additional buttons for your TV guide, channel up and down, fast-forward, and rewind functions.

The EE TV app opens up the complete EE TV user interface. Its home screen provides you with a handy list of shows that are on now, recommendations, and films starting in the next 30 minutes or so. You can also view the full live TV guide, or EPG, to browse everything that’s on now or coming up.

The Apple TV 4K delivers 4K Dolby Vision picture quality, as well as Dolby Atmos sound, which EE TV takes advantage of. It offers most channels in HD, with some, such as TNT Sports, available in 4K.

In addition to live TV, you can also access a full catalogue of TV shows and movies from the EE TV app, as well as titles to rent or buy. Most of the free content comes from other streaming partners, such as BBC iPlayer, ITV X and Apple TV+, and requires you to log in to them first. After logging in once, though, the process is very smooth.

All your TV in one place

In many ways, the EE TV app can become your new starting point for the Apple TV, as from the EE Home screen, you get recommendations for all streaming shows and channels you watch. However, I find the main Apple TV app is useful for your continuing series management.

EE TV can deliver a wide range of channels, including all of the Sky channels via NOW TV, as well as a full selection of sports and movie channels, depending on your subscription. With such a huge selection, the home screen recommendation list and most watched channel list become even more useful. There are also filters for channel type, to help you get to things like sports, films or news quickly.

If you know exactly what you’re looking for, you can also use the search function to find shows, either by typing or speaking into the remote while holding the mic button. EE TV shows and channels also appear in a general search on the Apple TV, using Siri.

Is TV better from an Apple TV 4K box?

While EE TV isn’t the first live TV service to appear on the Apple TV (the likes of Sling TV and YouTube TV have done this for a while), it is one of the best I’ve tried. Using the app feels just like using a dedicated streaming box and has all the extra features you would expect.

The only potential disadvantage in choosing the Apple TV 4K box over EE’s own TV Box Pro is the lack of local recording functionality. The EE TV Box Pro includes a 1TB hard drive for up to 600 hours of recording, from two channels at the same time (or four for TV aerial channels).

Even here, though, the Apple TV app has a solution. EE TV has just introduced Watchlists. These allow you to save future programmes to a range of custom-named lists for watching later. While it’s not actually recording anything, the shows are available on-demand, either from EE or through one of the linked streaming services, and so you can watch them anytime.

I’ve been using the EE TV for about a week now and while I don’t have a full-fibre connection for my broadband, the signal has been flawless, with no sign of lag and full 4K quality on selected channels. It’s actually really nice to go back to just one remote without having to give up on my Apple TV box.

So while traditional live TV fans might still prefer the EE TV Box Pro, if like me, you watch a good mix of TV and streaming channels, the Apple TV 4K option is the perfect choice. I’m surprised it’s taken so long for one of the big providers to offer their TV service in this way, as it definitely feels like the logical way to watch live TV these days.