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Apple TV adds ABC News, AOL On, PBS Kids, Willow TV, and redesigned Flickr app

Apple-TV-June-2014

After adding the Watch ABC app to Apple TV late last year, today ABC News arrives as its own channel on the device offering users access to a lot of the network’s content free of charge. While the WatchABC app provides full TV shows from the network and requires a cable subscription, the new ABC News app offers mostly news, clips of new shows as well as the same live stream that is also accessible from ABCNews.com. The new ABC News app comes alongside PBS Kids, Willow TV, AOL On, and a redesigned Flickr app. 

The ABC News app, unlike the WatchABC app, will be accessible to all users for free. When it comes to Apple TV, that means that you won’t have to log-in using a supported cable provider in order to access the content. The app will also offer local news from nine TV stations in the US, hourly video news updates, original programming, and ABC News archives with historical footage.

Also arriving on the Apple TV today is PBS Kids (the main PBS channel arrived on Apple TV last year), which provides access to the network’s programming for children. This channel requires activation online but it’s free and doesn’t require a cable subscription like some of the others.

We’ve also spotted some other new additions on the Apple TV today including AOL On, AOL’s video service and original programming. The service, also available through the company’s website, offers video content for a long list of categories from News, to Sports and Video Games, as well as a lot of original AOL produced shows.

Completing the new channels hitting Apple TV today is sports broadcaster Willow TV and a redesigned Flickr app. Willow is the Official Broadcaster of Cricket in the United States and Canada and requires a $15/month subscription for access to most content, while the redesigned Flickr channel now includes a detailed Explore view, a “Your Flickr” section, improved search, a redesigned icon, and a curated iPhoneography section.


ABC US News | ABC Sports News

ABC’s full press release is below:

ABC News Launches on Apple TV

Immediate Access to Live & On-Demand Video Content, Entertainment News, Live Hourly Updates, Original Programming and Video Highlights from “Good Morning America,” “World News,” “Nightline,” “20/20” and “This Week” 24/7

ABC News on Apple TV Delivers Local News Updates and Video from 9 Major Market ABC Television Stations Across the Country; 50 Years of Historical Footage from the ABC News Archives 

ABC News Continues to Lead the Industry in Digital, Delivering Live, Original and VOD Programming Across Desktop, Mobile, Tablets and Now Connected TVs                                                           

ABC News announced the release of ABC News on Apple TV today, providing viewers with a new way to experience live and on-demand news content. ABC News on Apple TV offers immediate access to live, multi-streaming video and on-demand content, entertainment news, live hourly updates, original programming and video highlights from “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer,” “Nightline,” “20/20,” and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ABC News on Apple TV also delivers local news updates and video highlights from nine major market ABC television stations across the country, along with 50 years of historical video footage from ABC News’ archives. ABC News continues to lead the industry in digital, delivering live, original and VOD programming to millions of users across desktop, mobile, tablets and now connected TVs. For 28 consecutive months the Yahoo-ABC News Network has remained the #1 source of news and information online, delivering more content to more users than any other online news competitor.

READ: What You Need to Know About ABC News on Apple TV

WATCH: “David Muir Explains features offered in the all new ABC News on Apple TV”

ABC News on Apple TV invites users to see the whole picture with instant access to a robust lineup of original, live, local and on-demand programming. Personalized for the individual news consumer, ABC News content is specifically curated for young, video-hungry audiences that crave immediate, 24/7 access to news programming from an unrivaled lineup of ABC’s trusted anchors and correspondents.  ABC News on Apple TV offers more choices for how, when and where to get the video content you want. Unlike other news offerings, ABC News provides a robust line-up of original and on-demand content and up to four live streaming events at once, allowing viewers to select and view the live news they care about most. From court trials and breaking news to the daily White House press briefing, live continuous coverage of the day’s top stories, videos and more are instantly accessible with ABC News on Apple TV. Other highlights include:

-Constant Video: 24/7 access to live and on-demand video from an unrivaled lineup of ABC’s trusted anchors and correspondents. ABC News on Apple TV also features four separate live video streams allowing users to alternate between live events and breaking news throughout the day.

-Hourly Video Updates/4-5 Live Reports Per Day: ABC News on Apple TV delivers video updates on the hour and 4-5 live updates per day from ABC News correspondents and reporters around the world. From the Ukraine and Iraq to the World Cup in Brazil, ABC News’ powerhouse team keeps you informed on the latest headlines anytime you need a hit of news.

-Local Content: ABC News on Apple TV extends the local power of ABC News, featuring the best video content from nine ABC television stations, with others rolling out in the near future. Stations at launch include: WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago, WPVI in Philadelphia, KGO in San Francisco, KTRK in Houston, WTVD in Raleigh, KFSN in Fresno and Hearst station WISN in Milwaukee. From extreme weather updates to breaking newswith just a click of a button, ABC News on Apple TV delivers up-to-the-minute local video content from the biggest markets across the country.

– Original Programming: Unlimited access to the best of ABC News programming and original video series.

-Editorially Curated Top Stories/Videos: From entertainment news and politics to original programming like ABC News’ “Second Tour” and GoodMorningAmerica.com’s “GMA Live,” Apple TV offers a editorially curated selection of the top stories and videos that are continuously updated throughout the day.

-ABC News Archives: Over 50 years of historical footage and video from the ABC News video archives. ABC News on Apple TV also features special sections such as “This Week in History” and “The Day in Pictures,” showcasing the best in historical video footage and photos from around the globe.

“We are delighted to deliver ABC News to a whole new and growing audience,” said James Goldston, President of ABC News. “Now the stories that interest you most and anything that’s happening live is instantly available to you on Apple TV from ABC News.”

“Our goal is to put our users in control of their news,” said Joe Ruffolo, SVP of ABC News Digital. “We are very excited to be extending our leadership and innovation onto an amazing platform like Apple TV. Utilizing hours of live video each day, opening up our archives, extending our strong local brands, and bringing the trust of ABC News to our users when and where they want it.” 

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Comments

  1. Samuel Goodger - 10 years ago

    Up to about a year and a half ago, Apple TV didn’t even have access to Hulu plus, let alone HBO, ABC etc.. Seriously, when Apple adds universal voice search and an app store, the Apple TV will be king of the streaming boxes once again. For now though, unless you use airplay, Fire TV and Roku are the best options.

    • shareef777 - 10 years ago

      Agreed. They need to at least add folder support. Just too many boxes to flip through. Especially when using the iOS remote app as the lag over WiFi makes it difficult to use.

      • observer1959 - 10 years ago

        At least they do offer the ability to turn off channels so they don’t show up. That can thin it down quite a bit.

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      As with all things to do with Apple TV though, you have to add the caveat … “in the USA.”

      Anyone using AppleTV outside of the USA has little to no access to any of this stuff. Every time they announce a few new channels, we go to our AppleTVs, realise that most of the channels they just “added” aren’t even there. Then you realise that the one’s that *are* there are heavily US centric and full of advertisements (or in fact that you have to pay for them). You hide the ones that are in these categories, and then you just have what you always had which is half a dozen items.

      It’s good that they finally have a working Flickr app though. It only took Yahoo like, 3 years to get that done. Probably in a few more years, Flickr might have an iPad app too!

  2. chrisl84 - 10 years ago

    People pay 15 bucks a month to watch Cricket in the US and Canada?

  3. myke2241 - 10 years ago

    Cool but that interface needs to be redesigned. starting to look a little long in tooth!

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      It was pretty awful when brand new and roundly criticised at the time. For starters almost everything you see on the screen when you start it up, is advertising and links to the store. They should at bare minimum, just have one link to the store instead of taking up virtually the whole top row so that you have to scroll down to see the actual content icons.

      Even for local iTunes content it’s horrible. It’s just old iPod software ported to the new device. It’s all endless lists within lists, within lists, with no artwork. It’s boring, inefficient, ugly, and it takes forever to find the content you want to watch. It doesn’t even group TV Shows by name.

  4. maxweaver - 10 years ago

    Will any of the 20 or so countries that are NOT America miss out again? I guess we’ll get the Flickr app at least.

    • maxweaver - 10 years ago

      Will all of the 200 or so countries that are NOT America miss out again? I guess we’ll get the Flickr app at least.

  5. MOBHOME (@MOBHOMES) - 10 years ago

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  6. fanaticalabouttech - 10 years ago

    I am very happy to see that Apple are including more channels on the Apple TV. It sounds as though that these channels are all good features at the moment, but I feel that these channels will lose interest in a couple of months. What I think Apple need to do, is to add more channels, that are of better use such as Amazon Instant Video and Love film, as at the moment, that is where I feel they are lacking, they also need to take in account people that live in the UK as a lot of this content will not be available to them. I would also like to mention, like people have below, that Apple need to re design there UI, so that it represents a look that is similar to iOS 7 on the iPhone and not iOS 6.

  7. omalansky - 10 years ago

    Apps that allow viewers to watch tv on internet-capable devices are useless when they require cable subscriptions to activate. The whole point is to loosen the iron grip that cable companies have over video entertainment. Forcing consumers to pay exorbitant monthly fees for truckloads of channels they never watch has got to stop.

  8. marchellolandi - 10 years ago

    Roku has made some serial inroad into streaming, but to get the most out of it, you really have to select a paid service like Netflicks. The free stuffs pretty good though. Apple will undoubtedly benefit from the head-start it has due to interface support it enjoys on most TV’s and entertainment centers as the result of the iPod/iPhone.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.