Comparison

Sparklight TV vs shotby

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Sparklight TV

Transform your devices into a TV to stream live cable and local channels. Record your favorite shows with cloud DVR, manage recordings, and utilize parental controls. Available in select areas with a required subscription.

Highlights
  • Stream live cable and local channels
  • Record shows with Cloud DVR
  • Multiple stream options
  • Parental controls
  • Video on Demand
Features
Read full description

Never miss a show with Sparklight® TV – Turn almost any screen in your home into a TV and record your favorite shows at the touch of a button. Available in select areas only. Visit www.sparklight.com/about-sparklight-tv for details. With Sparklight® TV: - Your Favorite Cable TV & Local Channels streamed LIVE to almost any device in your home - 3 streams with optional upgrade to 6 streams - Record and watch your favourite shows with Cloud DVR - 10 to 200hrs of DVR recordings - Parental Controls - Video on Demand Subscription to Sparklight® TV Required

About

shotby

Discover the creative minds behind music videos. Follow directors, cinematographers, and editors to see their full filmographies and discover new content. Rate videos and explore collaboration networks.

Highlights
  • Music video credits database
  • Follow directors and creators
  • Personalized content feed
  • Build custom video channels
  • User-generated ratings
  • Collaboration network visualization
  • Submit new content for indexing
Read full description

Every music video has a director. You just never saw their name. shotby is the credits database for music videos. Who directed it, who shot it, who cut it — and everything else they have made. FOLLOW THE PEOPLE, NOT THE ALGORITHM A director's work hides across a hundred artist channels. Follow them here and everything new lands in one feed, under their name instead of somebody else's. YOUR TV Build channels out of the directors and artists you follow. Shuffle them, sort by newest or best rated, and play the whole run end to end. THE PEOPLE'S RATING Score anything you watch, or put two videos side by side and throw the one you like. Your taste comes from what you actually watch, not from what an algorithm decided to push. COLLABORATION GRAPHS & 6 DEGREES OF ASSOCIATION See who works with who. Every director joined to every artist they have shot, drawn as a map you pull apart with your fingers. Run six degrees between any two names. CREDITS, PROPERLY The full crew on every video — director of photography, editor, colorist, production designer, producer. Tap any name to open their filmography. GET INDEXED Shot something that is not in here? Send a channel or a single video and the team indexes it, credits and all. shotby is free. Claiming your page is free.

Screenshots

Sparklight TV4 screens
shotby4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: shotby at 100% against Sparklight TV's 4%. shotby also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.1) and monetization model (free vs subscription). Sparklight TV's advantage is ratings volume (76 vs 6) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

shotby holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sparklight TV has 76 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 4% of Sparklight TV's written reviews are positive against 100% of shotby's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sparklight TV ships an update every 4 months, shotby every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Sparklight TV versus shotby: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSparklight TVshotby
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.1 (76 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews3.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings76 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB9 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperTiVo Platform Technologies LLCshotbyTV, Inc.

Customer experience

Sparklight TV

All ratings74 ratings
Positive20.3%
Neutral6.8%
Negative73.0%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive3.6%
Neutral10.7%
Negative85.7%

shotby

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Sparklight TV

No in-app purchases

None

shotby

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sparklight TV free?
Sparklight TV is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is shotby free?
shotby is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Sparklight TV or shotby?
shotby is rated higher. Sparklight TV averages 2.1 out of 5 from 76 ratings, while shotby averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Sparklight TV or shotby have ads?
Neither Sparklight TV nor shotby shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sparklight TV or shotby?
Sparklight TV ships an update every 4 months, and shotby every 4 days. Most recently, Sparklight TV was updated on October 25, 2026 and shotby on October 24, 2026.

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