In addition to today’s announcement of the Apple TV 4K, Apple also announced that it will be expanding its ‘TV’ app to seven additional countries over the next few months, beginning with Australia and Canada, as well as adding Live Sports and Live News section to the TV app, integrated with providers such as ESPN.
Apple appears to have involved a number of international content providers as part of the rollout of the TV app, including many that don’t yet take advantage of the single-sign-on capabilities that many U.S. providers do.
It is not yet clear whether the TV app will simply integrate with the existing tvOS app offerings or whether some of these content providers will expand the options available to Apple TV users.
While live news was only mentioned in passing during the presentation, the Live Sports feature will allow users to see sporting events related to their favorite teams directly in the “Watch Now” section of the TV app, and will also provide advanced features such as notifications of close games, and an optional display of scoreboards for games that are currently in progress or have recently concluded.
Australia and Canada are expected to gain access to the TV app later this month, with expansion to France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK later this year.
It appears that Live Sports may remain limited to the U.S. for the time being, however.
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