Amazon Fire TV reveals a full house as All 4 arrives on the service

Amazon gets All 4
Fire TV gets the full house

Amazon has today announced the last piece of its UK catch-up puzzle is in place as Channel 4's All 4 service joins the BBC, ITV and Channel 5 catch-up services on its Fire TV platform.

For the UK audience that makes the Amazon Fire TV box arguably the most versatile living room streaming box available right now. It also shows up its Google Android TV rivals in terms of giving users the widest range of content.

With all the terrestrial broadcasters now represented by Amazon's little bargain 4K box of tricks, the full range of Channel 4 content - from the mother lode of British comedy gold box sets to classic drama and documentaries - joins up with both Netflix and Amazon's own Prime Instant Video service.

Android shame

Sitting through the interminable adverts before and during All 4's programming can be a trial, but it's a pretty small price to pay for all this freely accessible goodness.

It really highlights just how far behind Android TV is by comparison, despite essentially being built from the same Android OS origins. All the Fire TV is missing really is a NOW TV app.

Android TV, on the other hand, is still lagging behind even its phone and tablet variations when it comes to catch-up apps which, more than anything else, is hobbling its wider take up.

Pity those Shield boxes and Sony TVs…