Fellow Britons, the wait is almost over. iPlayer is finally making its way to the Apple TV. The BBC announced via its official Twitter handle that its popular catch-up and live-streaming service is making its way to the brand new Apple TV in the coming months. The company didn’t confirm exactly when the iPlayer app for new Apple TV would arrive, and from the looks of things, it won’t be coming to the current Apple TV. Although it doesn’t say explicitly that iPlayer won’t be coming to the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TVs, the fact it states ‘new Apple TV’ suggests pretty strongly that it will only be on the new, 4th gen model.
[tweet https://twitter.com/BBCiPlayer/status/659641075624226816 align=’center’]
For UK Apple TV owners, the lack of a native iPlayer app has been a constant source of frustration. Right now, customers are forced to use AirPlay from their iPhones or iPads if they want to view iPlayer content on their Apple TVs. Once the app launches for tvOS, we’ll be able to put our iPhones and iPads down, and just watch great programming right from the Apple TV. More important than the convenience is that we’ll undoubtedly save precious battery life.
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I wonder if it will support 30 day downloads like the phone etc
Let’s hope that ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 all follow suit. And Curzon Home Video. And BFI Player. And Blinkbox. And Amazon would be completely mad (and petty – though that hasn’t stopped them in the past) not to develop a tvOS version of their Prime Instant Video app.
Reason enough to get a VPN for those outside of the UK…
If only they would license their current season outside the UK.
Good news and long overdue. BBC iPlayer is the biggest streaming service in the UK, so this is a real must have for any streaming platform.
Still plenty of other holes to fill though. ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 should step up the mark, and AMAZON, for goodness sake Amazon, grow up and go back to being a platform agnostic provider. There is a reason why Netflix is synonymous with streaming video.
I’d also like to see MUBI on the new Apple TV. It’s a fantastic movie streaming service for fans of non mainstream fare – art-house, non English language, classic, indie, genre etc.
Also I read that the TVPlayer app (which streams UK TV channels) is coming to the new ATV.
Can I get my Doctor Who in the US?