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ESPN's Apple TV app streams four live feeds at once
Just in time for football season, ESPN updated its Apple TV app to include a handy new feature for sports fans. Thanks to tvOS MultiCast, you can now watch up to four live streams at once across all of the network's programming options. This means you can put shows and events from ESPN's broadcast channels beside the online-only streams at the same time. It sounds fairly straightforward, but it's sure to come in handy when you're trying to follow multiple things that overlap in your viewing schedule.
Recommended Reading: The rise and fall of 'Mortal Kombat'
'Mortal Kombat's' 1997 Was the Opposite of a Flawless Victory Matt Gerardi, AV Club The Mortal Kombat franchise was riding high... and then 1997 rolled around. AV Club takes a look at the hot streak before the release of two games and a movie in the fall of that year. All three fell flat. That trio of shortcomings didn't kill the franchise completely, but it did enough damage to end Mortal Kombat's reign atop the video game world.
ESPN’s standalone streaming service arrives in 2018
Disney bought a majority ownership in consumer streaming company BAMTech for $1.58 billion as part of plans to start its own video services. The first one up under the ESPN name offering coverage of multiple sports and launch in early 2018 -- and they're making it easy for existing television package subscribers to key into the upcoming subscription service.
Disney will shun Netflix for its own streaming service in 2019
Today during an earnings report, Disney announced that it plans to no longer stream its content on Netflix. Instead, it intends to launch its own streaming service sometime in 2019. This comes just a little over a year after the company made Netflix the exclusive streaming service for Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar movies, which brought a lot of new films to the service just last September. Disney, which some have suspected for some time was looking to buy Netflix, will part ways with the company at the beginning of the 2019 theatrical slate.
PlayStation Vue's $10 sports add-on includes NFL RedZone
You already get a healthy dose of sports with a PlayStation Vue subscription, but what if you need more? Sony is happy to help. It just launched a $10 per month Sports Pack that adds 13 channels, including season-specific and regional networks. It's particularly big for football fans: you'll get the game day-focused NFL RedZone and (for college games) ESPN Goal Line. ESPN Bases Loaded provides a college baseball fix during the NCAA championship, ESPN Classic offers on-demand sports and Outside TV caters to the adventurous crowd.
The traditional sports world is taking eSports into the mainstream
Five years ago, you couldn't have imagined video game competitions being broadcasted on the same channel as traditional sports. TV networks have been historically obsessed with pastimes such as baseball, basketball, football and soccer, but times are changing. Thanks to the massive popularity of eSports, driven in large part by the internet-streaming generation, the entertainment landscape has transformed drastically over the past couple of years. Nowadays, US channels like Disney XD, ESPN, NBC and TBS are all trying to put eSports on the same level as traditional sports, with the end goal being to reach new, younger audiences. Want to watch a EA's FIFA or Rocket League tournament on ESPN? Well, you can do just that.
Drone Racing League season two starts tomorrow on ESPN
In case you were looking for a new sport to follow now that the NBA and NHL seasons have ended, ESPN is giving something different a shot, and it's not esports. The second season of the Drone Racing League -- now branded Allianz World Championship Series -- is about to get started Tuesday night at 8PM ET, with pilots directing identical Racer3 aircraft through larger courses than last year. The drones themselves are more powerful and rugged enough to possibly survive a collision, which DRL head of product Ryan Gury explained "also makes it a much more sexy and attractive drone." Of course, if you're spending this week tuned in to draft / free agency news, the entire broadcast schedule is included below.
Recommended Reading: A second act for 'Guardians of the Galaxy'
'Guardians of the Galaxy 2:' Twice Is (Still) the Charm Christopher Orr, The Atlantic Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters this weekend, the sequel to the 2014 film that introduced us to Star-Lord, Gamora, Groot, Grax and Rocket on the big screen. While the new installment appears to be just as entertaining, the plot suffers where the original shined. The Atlantic has a full review of the film if you want to read up before, or after, you go see it. And yes, there are spoilers. When you do decide to head to the theater though, don't forget to sneak in your Doritos.
ESPN's Drone Racing League returns with faster, bigger races
Last year, I asked a simple question: Can drone racing become as big as eSports? While we wait to find out, one of the leading race organizers -- the Drone Racing League -- is making all the right moves this year to make that answer yes. One of the keys to achieving that, the DRL hopes, is the introduction of the Racer3 drone, which will be the standard craft all pilots in the DRL race with. Unsurprisingly, it's more powerful and agile than its predecessor (the Racer2, obviously) and could be the shot in the arm the sport needs to go mainstream. The Racer3 should make races -- which air on ESPN starting June 20th -- even more thrilling, luring more fans (and, by association, lucre) to the game.
ESPN's new Apple TV app behaves like your cable box
As great as the streaming TV era may be, it frequently lacks the immediacy of conventional broadcasts. You can't always flip to your favorite network and start watching right away like you can with cable or satellite. ESPN, however, wants to recreate some of that experience. It just released a revamped Apple TV app whose centerpiece is automatic live streaming. If you've authenticated with a TV provider, the app will start playing a channel as soon as you hop in. This won't help much if it's playing the wrong channel, of course, but it could make the difference between catching a big play live and having to visit the on-demand video. Thankfully, that last part should also be easier.
Recommended Reading: Beats 1 is a powerful music marketing tool
Blink-182 and Apple Music Team up to Show Off Increasing Reach And Power of Beats 1 Steve Baltin, Forbes Beats 1 has been a key selling point since Apple Music's launch. The internet radio station boasts a number of big names and includes a slate of shows hosted by the artists themselves. Even if you don't have your own show like Dr. Dre, Drake or Run the Jewels, debuting new music with Zane Lowe can do wonders for your hype train. Forbes details the power of Beats 1 through the lens of rockers Blink-182. The Verge also has a look at how the platform helped catapult Drake's latest album to the top of the streaming charts.
Drone Racing League lands a title sponsor for the 2017 season
It doesn't quite have the cachet of something like the Winston Cup (yet), but the Drone Racing League says its 2017 campaign will be called the Allianz World Championship Series. In another move cribbed from traditional motorsports, the drone pilots will have sponsors too. This season is airing on TV again with 12 hour long episodes that will come to ESPN/ESPN2. Those identical DRL Racer 2 drones will fly through 3D courses at more than 90mph, with the league promising bigger courses and faster drones this season. The action kicks off in June, but for now, there's a preview trailer to feast your eyes on.
ESPN strikes deal with EA to broadcast 'FIFA' eSports tournaments
ESPN isn't slowing down its plans to make eSports mainstream. The network has now teamed up with EA to broadcast FIFA tournaments on most of its channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and the internet-based ESPN3. Last year, ESPN embraced competitive gaming with a dedicated section on its site, followed by coverage of different championships across the world. It's a significant cultural shift for a company whose president, John Skipper, not long ago expressed that he didn't see eSports as "real sports."
Apple's 'single sign-on' feature now works with HBO Go
Apple's "single sign-on" feature has only been live since mid-December but it's already attracted some impressive services. In addition to A&E, Bravo, NBC, Syfy and USA, which launched with the feature, WatchESPN added the functionality in January and, on Thursday, HBO announced that its HBOGo app will now support it as well.
ESPN brings Apple's handy single sign-on tool to its iOS apps
When it comes to streaming apps that are tied to a cable subscription, having to sign in repeatedly can become a bit of a chore. ESPN has updated its main app and WatchESPN with Apple's single sign-on feature so you only have to enter your cable log-in once and it gets populated across the sport network's software for any device connected to iCloud. While WatchESPN has had the ability to beam the action to your TV with Chromecast for a while now, that main ESPN app also gains the functionality with this new version.
ESPN takes you inside a college football rivalry with VR
Virtual reality has the ability to take us inside events and offer new perspectives for things we'd typically only view on TV. VR company Jaunt has been touting its "cinematic" platform for a while now and it teamed up with ESPN to give sports fans a behind-the-scenes look at one of college football's biggest rivalries. The Game: Michigan at Ohio State chronicles this year's matchup from the perspective of ESPN's College GameDay in the form of an all-access pass to the game. Of course, it's all in VR.
Comcast finally allows HBO, ESPN streaming via PlayStation 4
For those who maintain a cable subscription, one of the (many) annoying aspects is that sometimes channels have streaming apps you can't use, despite being a paying customer. Over the years, Comcast has decided that it's not going to allow customers to use whatever channel's app on one platform or another, but now the PlayStation 4 is off of that list. According to a tweet, owners with Comcast subscriptions can finally log in and use the WatchESPN and HBO Go apps on their game console.
WatchESPN's live and on-demand streaming arrives on PS4
Rejoice, sports and console gaming fans: ESPN's self-titled streaming app WatchESPN is now available on the PlayStation 4. According to the network, subscribers can now access ESPN's live and on-demand content on every major streaming device, and non-subscribers can use the app to browse short-form clips and highlights. So now you can switch between a heated game of Call of Duty and the drone racing championships without putting down your DualShock 4.
ESPN will air a drone race series starting October 23rd
ESPN's first experiment with drone racing coverage must have been successful, as it's committing to robotic sports in a big way. The TV network has unveiled a multi-year broadcasting deal with the Drone Racing League that will have both ESPN and ESPN2 airing races in the Americas, starting with the 2016 season. The series broadcast kicks off on October 23rd at 9PM, and will spread five races over the course of 10 episodes. It all comes to a head with two DRL World Championship episodes on November 20th.
Bloomberg: Amazon wants live sports streaming rights
Bloomberg believes that Amazon is considering buying the rights to a variety of live sporting events as a way of bringing more people into Prime. According to the site's anonymous sources, the firm has made discreet enquiries about picking up licenses for global sports including tennis, golf, soccer and car racing. The company is believed to have a beady eye on domestic sports like baseball and basketball, although knows that traditional broadcasters have that sewn up for the next few years.
