# Jme TV — user reviews

> 75 indexed App Store user reviews of Jme TV by NHK Cosmomedia America, Inc., rated 2.40/5 from 45 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/jme-tv/id6467057139/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/jme-tv/id6467057139.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 10 · 4★ 5 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 22

## What do users think of Jme TV?

Overall sentiment: negative

**Pros**

- 📺 Access to Japanese programming and NHK content
- 🎬 Good variety of dramas and movies with some English subtitles
- 📰 Live streaming channels with news and variety shows
- 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Educational content for children available
- 🌍 Official legal way to watch Japanese TV internationally
- 💬 Bilingual interface (English and Japanese options)

**Cons**

- 🐢 Extremely slow app performance and frequent freezing
- 🎥 Poor video quality, dark and washed-out picture
- 💾 No recording/DVR capability for live programs
- 📺 Very limited on-demand content compared to predecessor
- 💰 Expensive subscription ($25-30/month, $250-350/year)
- 📝 Lack of subtitles (Japanese and English) for most content
- ⏰ Inconvenient scheduling for North American time zones
- 🔄 Inconsistent app interface across platforms (Web, iOS, Apple TV, Android)
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and login errors
- 📱 Limited device compatibility (no Samsung TV, no Chromecast)
- 🔍 Poor search and navigation functionality
- ❌ Cannot resume watching from where you left off
- 🎭 Outdated and repetitive content library
- 📞 Poor customer support and communication

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Gray overlay on Apple TV that doesn't disappear
- App freezes and long load times (5-20+ seconds)
- Frequent disconnections during live streaming
- Login errors and password requests multiple times daily
- Play/pause button not working on remote
- Screen refresh rates extremely slow (15-20 seconds)
- App crashes when selecting certain shows
- Menu navigation freezes and gets stuck
- Schedule page shows 30-90 minute gaps before/after midnight
- Search function is buggy and unreliable
- Connection errors claiming internet is lost despite working connection
- Error messages like 'missing page' and 'oops, something went wrong'
- Inconsistent episode numbering and sequencing
- Language settings require changing to play content
- App performance varies significantly across platforms

**Most requested features**

- DVR/Recording capability for live programs
- Extended on-demand replay window (24-48 hours or 1 week)
- Japanese and English subtitles for all content
- Chromecast support for casting to TVs
- Samsung TV app and broader device compatibility
- AirPlay support
- Better program scheduling for international viewers
- Resume watching feature that persists
- Detailed program guide/calendar view
- More recent and diverse content library
- Auto-generated captions option
- Cast button functionality
- Improved search functionality
- Tutorial/help screens for elderly users
- More on-demand options for news, variety, and educational shows
- Music show programming

## Newest reviews (13 of 75)

### 2/5 — 日本語だと遅い

*2026-01-01, version 1.151.2*

年間契約をしたばかりです。放映可能な番組の種類、時間帯による制限については、色々な都合があると思いますが、何とかコンテンツの種類、そして見逃し配信が可能な番組両方を、増やしていって欲しいものです。アプリが遅いことは他の多数の方々が書いていられる通りですが、言語を英語に戻すとリスポンスは改善するようです。NHK受信料を払っている日本国内の人達を思い浮かべていただいて、アプリとコンテンツをより良くしていって欲しいところです。

### 2/5 — 観たいものが観られないはがゆさ

*2025-12-10, version 1.141.0*

すべての番組がオンデマンドで観られるわけではなく、かなり限られています。ドラマが観たい人にはいろいろ選択肢がありますが、NHKの良質なドキュメンタリーを期待していたのに見逃し配信が少なくて残念です。

### 1/5 — Latest app version is sluggish

*2025-03-23*

The latest app upgrade was supposed to fix the bugs with ioS like having to change language in order to play content but now the play/pause button on the remote doesn’t work on the app AND the screen refresh rates is more than 15 - 20 seconds. The screens are effectively frozen until they are refreshed. This is over a Fiber connection.  App development needs to be completely overhauled.

### 1/5 — Unbelievably Bad

*2025-02-23, version 1.118.0*

This replaced the cable TV channel, TV Japan, and the streaming service, dLibrary about a year ago. Both of which were vastly superior to JME. We lost the ability to record programming on our cable DVR, and the streaming service/ on demand has had numerous problems. On Apple devices, especially Apple TV, it frequently complains that internet connections is lost even though other apps have no problems. It randomly drops the feed and I have to kill the app and restart it to rejoin. We have had to re-sign in often. This is what happens when there is NO competition for a service or product. Perhaps they have hired the lowest bidders for software development.

### 1/5 — Expensive

*2025-02-21*

Nothings works, getting worse every day and no solution in sight.

### 1/5 — Love the content, hate the app

*2025-02-19*

Love the NHK news, conversation shows, history, sumo… but the app crashes! The current problem (Feb 2025) has been going for three weeks with no explanation and no resolution.  I would love to update this review with good news some day soon.

### 1/5 — One of the Worst Apps

*2025-02-15*

The JME App is the ONLY way to get streaming content from NHK and affiliates. It is region specific and the subscription fee is huge at $350 plus per year. For that amount you would expect a high-quality app for Apple TV or for iOS devices.  It is one of the worst. The menus are inconsistent between app. The menu system requires you to choose 4 times to get to an actual episode to watch. Selecting a different date often results in the menu option popping back to current date. The app is buggy and can crash or simply refuse to let you select a scheduled program, instead returning you to a higher level menu. To fix you have to restart the AppleTV app or even delete the JME app and re-download  - that suggests the JME app programmers do not know how to program and cannot properly clear cache between app usage. In all, a very lame app - but we we feel we are being held hostage: it is the only way to see a lot of NHK related programs and TV series and movies, many with english subtitles, many without.

### 2/5 — Buggy on Apple TV

*2025-02-08*

I signed up for the kids' educational channel, which is great, but the app is poorly developed and needs significant improvements. I can’t even select some shows on my Apple TV.

### 1/5 — The worst

*2024-12-23*

Just subscribed because it’s the only way to allow my Japanese speaking 80+ yo mother to watch Japanese TV. The weird hours when programs air, combined with inability to record, and the lack of a detailed program schedule make it impossible to plan to watch shows she actually likes. 

I hate being held hostage to such a lousy “service” but there is no alternative.

### 1/5 — Expensive with little content

*2024-12-10, version 1.118.0*

The price is massive for such little content.
No Japanese or English subtitles for a majority of the content and little customer support. Truly awful.

### 1/5 — Terrible service

*2024-11-21*

I paid $250 for an app with no subtitles in English or Japanese!  I have Japanese family members who are older and rely on subtitles to help listen. 

Tonight we tried to watch and are getting “Error: missing page” making the app totally useable on the Apple TV and on mobile. 

Will not be renewing and actively looking if apple will refund my account for failure to deliver adequate services.

### 1/5 — No captions?　ε=(￣｡￣;)ﾌｩ

*2024-07-06, version 1.95.5*

So glad to finally have Japanese programs that I actually want to watch in one location.  The bad news is:

1. There are no captions for ANY of the programming.  If you are hearing imparied or, like me, are a non-native speaker of Japanese, you are out of luck.  It is laughable that I can download the latest AsaDora from the intenernet fully captioned, but an outfit like NHK cannot be bothered to make these available to their customers in the west. 

2. Some of the most popular programs are not available ON DEMAND, but can only be viewed on the app's rotating program schedule (a block of 6 hour programming that repeats four times per day).

The monthly price ($25) is pretty steep considering that these two things are missing; things that no other modern streaming service is without.

### 1/5 — poor service

*2024-06-02, version 1.95.5*

This service is terrible replacement for TV Japan. Poor picture quality, not replaying system … No more programs I loved watching. Do I have to stay up if I want to watch my favorite shows? And when I saw tv guide schedule some tv program for little kids in the middle night. It’s ridiculous. Need improvement right away otherwise I’ll cancel

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Zero star

*2026-04-13, version 1.151.2*

カスタマーサービスに問い合わせたところ2026年4月期新番組のオンデマンド放送予定は皆無。
このところ配信されるドラマも映画も、もうとっくの昔に見たような旧作ばかり。
もうjmeのオンデマンドでは日本とほぼ同時期に最新の作品を見ることはできないと理解せざるを得ないようです。

When I contacted customer service, I was informed that there are no plans for on-demand streaming of any new programs scheduled for the April 2026 season.
Lately, the dramas and movies being released for on-demand are nothing but old titles.
It is no longer possible to watch the latest Japanese content at roughly the same time it airs in Japan via jme on-demand.

### 1/5 — Nope

*2026-03-29, version 1.151.2*

The shows are ho hum, the app sucks, the user interface sucks, lacks common sense or intuitiveness. Have to login multiple times during a session, and their customer service is bad. They charged me 2 days early, right before I intended to cancel my subscription. When I told them this, they said too bad, no refunds as per their policy, which also sucks. Avoid these people.

### 1/5 — Awful

*2026-01-05, version 1.151.2*

Their service is awful. Most of their contents are so old. Not worth it to subscribe.

### 1/5 — Still no Japanese subtitles for the hearing-impaired/non-native speakers of Japanese

*2025-12-30*

Posted about one year ago to voice my dissatisfaction with the service because there were no Japanese language subtitles.  The app developer responded with something along the lines of “we’re working on it”.  Several months later, there are now English subtitles for a few select shows.  But the lack of English subs was NOT my complaint.

My wife is a hearing-impaired Japanese native speaker, and I am a bilingual English/Japanese speaker.  Why are there no subtitles in Japanese for any of the shows?  Are the not broadcast with subtitles in Japan?  Does NHK not care about deaf/hearing-impaired native speakers of Japanese?

I live in North America and would like to watch many of the shows, but find the dialogue much easier to follow when there are subtitles with Kanji—this makes things much easier to comprehend.

I find it laughable that I can download many of these shows from the internet WITH JAPANESE subtitles, in many cases the next day after the Japanese airdate.  It can’t be that large a technological challenge to include the subtitles in your streaming, as they are clearly there when the show airs in Japan on TV.

### 1/5 — 50% off? Didn’t work!

*2025-12-10*

I signed up for a year at the new customer 50% off but in the end was charged the regular price. Forget it. Now I have to ask for a refund. What a headache!

### 1/5 — Expensive and limited content

*2025-07-22*

This app is very expensive for the very little content that you get. My kids like to watch Inai Inai baa! And there’s only about a dozen very old episodes. The kids weekday tv is just the same episodes of the same shows over and over. The dramas and other tv shows are dated and the choices are also limited. Overall terrible app.

### 1/5 — App is horrible

*2025-06-24*

Overall, we enjoy the content provided by the subscription, but the service is very expensive and the app is horrible (very slow with poor menu design). For the cost, I expect a better experience.

### 1/5 — Please fix slow navigation on Apple TV

*2025-05-03*

When ever the app goes top screen, there is always long freeze.  This is really annoying and never get fixed since the start of the service. I still cannot believe this quality of the app was made in public.

### 1/5 — つまらない番組ばかり

*2025-04-18, version 1.118.0*

面白くない番組ばかりで見るものない。　日本国内で流行っても海外の日本人に興味ないものばかり。　クラシックといって60年前の作品を恋しがる人などいない。　日本のバラエティも吉本も低俗すぎる。　俳優みんな同じ顔。　ユーチューブのほうがずっと面白い。　長く我慢して来たけど毎月お金が無駄だからもう解約しようと思う。

### 1/5 — Only game in town.

*2025-03-29*

The only reason to use this app is because they are the only option to legally watch Japanese programming. The app is horrible. It works sometimes - it feels like a beta project. NHK should be ashamed of themselves for selling such a poor service.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Good

*2025-04-04, version 1.118.0*

I’m so happy that I can watch the latest dramas in North America. The customer support was also very attentive.

### 5/5 — Horrible

*2024-04-07, version 1.95.5*

Why? I can’t watch record so many favorite programs, I work, I can’t be glued to the ipad, PC iPhone to watch. Disaster. Same cost $250 as cableTV,  Greedy business decision, Did not care 視聴者？？

### 4/5 — Great Japanese programming is back.

*2025-03-26*

My family and friends who have been able to figure out how to transition from the old TV Japan broadcast network to steaming have been grateful JME exists as the official replacement. The programming is great with 3 live streaming feeds and daily news shows, series, and movies on-demand. 
I’m glad that the the major bugs have been fixed in the AppleTV app (as of March 2025). 

However there is a new bug that was just introduced in the latest release, the pause / play button has stopped working, erg.

Will give the app 5 stars when JME fixes this problem, will lower the rating if it’s not fixed in a timely manner. 

The JME app seems to work perfectly on our Fire Stick. That’s both nice but also frustrating because Apple TV will run both JME and Spectrum but Fire Still does not.  The Apple tv tbypasses the need for a HDMI switcher or switching between TV inputs in the TV menu. 

I would love to for JME to release a fully working app on Apple TV (like I was mentioning earlier, it is currently mostly working but with one bug) . It would also bw great if JME developed an app for Samsung TV, that would cut out the need for spectrum users to buy a Fire Stick and or Apple TV.

### 4/5 — Some problems but offers generally good access to Japanese programming

*2024-10-13*

Good access to Japanese news programs, dramas and movies. No problem with watching dramas in sequence. Lack of recording ability is a negative. Some good cultural programs included (e.g. Traditional Performing Arts) on Select, but appear at irregular times, and so difficult to find. NGN channel available in Hawaii and on Spectrum offers better quality movie selection.

### 4/5 — I have to get used to it still

*2024-04-14, version 1.95.5*

RE App: I’ve only used on iPhone. I’ve had only one problem with the app taking a long time to load (similar experience on google tv). Canceling and trying to reload again has worked each time. I did not have the experience of the other reviewer using Apple TV (live status bar that did not go away). RE service: No dvr capability is a huge loss. I would pay an extra $10 for it. (This would equal the combined cost of TV Japan and dlibjapan that Jme replaced.) Most programs are repeated both on NHK Premium and on Jme Select. It is still difficult for busy people to schedule not to miss their favorite programs or stuff for kids. Some of the choices of what gets put on demand is confusing. The taiga drama is, but the asadora is not. (Even just joining the 5 shows in a week together in a single on demand offering at the end of the week would be nice.) It is nice that NHK premium shows a couple older asadora. (I think TV Japan was showing 1 older one in the past year.) Adding the sumo to on demand would be nice because of the time difference. (The summary shows do not have the drama or guest interviews.) The on-demand offerings for other former TV Japan-curated offerings (Fuji TV, TBS, etc.) is great. On TV Japan, if you miss the start of a series, you cannot go back in time to schedule the dvr. With on demand, it is still there for a while at least. I miss the big TV Japan calendar. NHK premium has a calendar if you know the time difference. The app only loads that day’s calendar (sometimes not the full day). You. must close and reload if you keep watching beyond what was loaded (beyond midnight). I use the website. I’ve had zero problems watching on a mac at home or a pc at work (which I must do if I want to see one of the older asadora).

### 3/5 — So so ok

*2026-03-10*

Can not record shows or news so we can watch after work, we don’t stay home all day, so can not watch..

### 3/5 — Wish it Were better

*2024-09-22, version 1.118.0*

Update from my earlier review (below). Much improved video quality on Apple TV. According to developer notes posted on Facebook they are working on demand or look back options. That would be great. If auto generated captions - in my case English- were available that would be spectacular. YouTube videos often have this option. I’ll echo a couple of other reviewers. Most annoying is the poor picture quality when watching on a 65” TV via an Apple TV. The picture is cloudy and washed out. Hate to think I have to upgrade my TV to make it acceptable. Also, the lack of either a recording capability or, alternatively, more useful on demand options is frustrating. The news is a bit stale when aired and having to adjust my schedule to catch favorites like Somewhere Street, Gentle Journeys, etc is not likely to happen. This severely limits the value of this app. I hope it can be fixed.

Second update.  I feel like the app has made incremental improvements since it has been launched.  But I would still like more video on demand options. Now it’s mostly dramas and cooking.

The language for the program listing for the Premium channel has recently switched to Japanese. Puzzling as the other two are in English.

### 3/5 — Not enough subtitles

*2024-07-12*

Good catalog, but unfortunately most films don’t have English subtitles. If this app could improve it would be a nice service.

### 3/5 — Cast button

*2024-07-08, version 1.95.5*

Please add a cast button to this app.  The separate NHK World app has a cast button.  Japanese tourists in Hawaii can use it to watch on the hotel TVs.

### 3/5 — Has potential, needs work

*2024-04-07, version 1.95.5*

CONTENT:  The overall content is very good. The two Japanese language live stream channels have content similar to TV Japan (NHK news, Asaichi, asadora, taiga drama, and other dramas, variety/educational, and some non-NHK programs), and the on-demand (VOD) content is similar to that of dLib Japan, primarily with recent dramas from NHK and commercial broadcasters like Fuji, TBS, etc. 

APP FUNCTIONALITY:  Basic features are workable (select, play, pause etc.), though the lengthy home page and tile interface borrowed from dLib Japan’s app are inefficient to navigate/scroll.  Extra features like “My List” (favorites list) do work, if you happen to guess how to use them; the app could use a help screen. I am glad JMe has both English and Japanese language options for the user interface and the TV show descriptions. Ongoing app support in two languages can be a significant task, so this is much appreciated.

APP BUGS:  There are some annoying bugs, including a lingering gray overlay when starting a video/channel, and somewhat dark video quality. Only the Apple TV app has these two issues; I do not notice them on the iPhone or iPad apps.  (The overlay has a workaround (swipe or click up); it still needs a real fix.) Also, in the “schedule” page, all 3 channels have a 30-90 minute gap in the shows listed before/after midnight on Apple TV, iphone, and iPad.  The new weekly schedules sent on 4/6/24 by email will help. 

MAIN MISSING FEATURE: No recording function (DVR). Without a DVR feature, it is too inconvenient to watch more than a few shows, even if the JMe Select schedule is adjusted for North American time zones. An interim solution is to copy all live stream programs to an archive in the VOD section of the app, and retain them for an extended period, like you do for other VOD content (i.e., months, not weeks). This should include recent news, educational/variety, and all episodes of dramas, as well as sumo tournaments. JMe already uses this exact approach for the 2024 taiga drama; please do the same for the rest of the live stream shows, until you can add true DVR capabilities.

Overall, JMe has appealing video content, and it is by far the most convenient streaming source of Japanese TV programming (especially NHK). The app needs work to fix bugs and add a recording feature (or VOD equivalent).

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-08.*