Watch Blinkbox or BT Sport? Ditch Google Chrome now!
Latest update to Chrome browser kills support for streaming services' plugins
Blinkbox, Now TV, amd BT Sport are urging subscribers to switch their browsers from Google Chrome, which no longer supports the plugins necessary for these streaming sites.
The latest update to the Chrome browser appears to have dropped support for NPAPI plugins including Microsoft Silverlight, which powers the three video-on-demand services.
On Blinkbox, this causes the website to display an error message when the user tries to play a film, asking them to either switch to a different browser or play in their new "Chrome-friendly" video player.
The message Chrome displays when trying to access Blinkbox
Google warned the streaming services of the change over a year ago, but have chosen not to switch to an alternative such as HTML5 video.
Instead, customers must change their browsers in order to continue using their respective service without interruption.
In its support pages, Blinkbox told customers: "Because our HTML5 player is newer than the Silverlight player we use in other browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox on PCs and Safari on Mac, you might need a faster broadband connection than usual to have the same experience that you're used to, whilst we work to further optimise streaming using HTML5.
"Because of this, for the best experience, we recommend that you use a different browser right now, particularly if your internet speed is close to our recommended minimum speed or you've got an older computer."
No matter what, Microsoft is planning to discontinue Silverlight and so all services that have not yet migrated will be forced to in the near future.
The @BTCare Twitter account took a less proactive approach in light of the problem, telling customers: "If you use Chrome to watch BT Sport you may get a Silverlight error. Silverlight is no longer supported in Chrome, pls use another browser."
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