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Super Bowl 51 will stream for free on Fox Sports Go
The Super Bowl has been streaming for awhile now, but watching the commercials (arguably the best part) has been hit or miss in the past. Remember when all that streamed was the game? Yep, that was pretty terrible. This year, however, Fox Sports has a new plan in place: showing local commercials from some 170 affiliate stations, in addition to the national commercials.
Fox and Intel will offer a player's perspective during the Super Bowl
Over the last year or so, Fox Sports has been keen on bringing the latest tech to its live broadcasts. When the network hosts Super Bowl LI in a few weeks, its plans to offer viewers a player's perspective without requiring the participants to wear cameras. Using Intel's 360 Replay technology that's already been employed in MLB and the NBA, Fox will "allow a moment to be recreated in 3D space" to show fans exactly what a player saw during a play. The network is calling it "Be the Player."
Hollywood forces VidAngel to stop streaming its movies
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Warner Bros, Disney and Fox have won an injunction against "family values" streaming service VidAngel. In the aftermath, VidAngel has announced that it will "cease streaming all works for which it has not obtained licensing." The company has also pledged to appeal, taking the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Refs will wear GoPros for Fox's Big Ten championship broadcast
During this weekend's Big Ten football championship game, Fox Sports will offer fans a different kind of on-field views during its coverage of the match-up. When Wisconsin and Penn State take the field Saturday, December 3rd, referees will be wearing hats equipped with GoPros to give fans another perspective of the action on the gridiron. The network says it worked alongside GoPro and Big Ten officials on a hat that would capture footage it could use immediately during its broadcast.
'The Martian' VR experience comes home
It's been a long time coming, but The Martian VR Experience is finally ready. Fox has released its virtual reality take on the stranded-on-Mars movie (plus Andy Weir novel) for the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, with Oculus Rift support coming soon. Spend $20 and you can fill the boots of astronaut Mark Watney as he struggles to survive and make it back to Earth, both in 3D sequences and 360-degree videos. As Fox explains to Variety, this isn't just a polished version of the demo we saw at CES in January -- there are many "technical and narrative improvements" that could make it feel fresh.
Hulu's live TV options will include Fox and Disney, of course
Hulu will roll out its live TV lineup in early 2017, complete with shows from the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox, two of Hulu's founding partners, the company announced today. The agreement brings more than 35 networks to Hulu's live service, including ABC, FOX, Fox Sports channels, ESPN channels, Disney Channel and XD, Freeform, National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild.
Google rumor hints at 'Unplugged' streaming TV service
Since rumors about Apple's TV attempts are in their ebb phase, now it's time for Google to take the stage. In a pattern that seems very familiar, sources tell the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and CNBC that Google has cut a deal with CBS to include its channels in a streaming "skinny bundle." The rumored service is apparently planned for launch in 2017 under the name "Unplugged." While Apple's long-rumored service has yet to appear, we have seen similar efforts appear in the form of Dish Network's Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and the upcoming DirecTV Now.
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.
Fox Sports Go is streaming on Chromecast and Roku too
Just in case you need another way to watch college football, Fox Sports Go has launched apps on a few more platforms. There's now an app available for Roku, as well as the ability to stream on Chromecast (at least on Android and from the web, I didn't see an option to do it from iOS yet). Neither platform mentioned support for the 60fps or Multiview Display support that's in its just-released app for the new Apple TV, but if all you want to do is stream a game quickly, they should get the job done.
Watch Fox Sports Go on Apple TV, if you have cable
The start of both NFL and college football seasons are imminent and Fox Sports is giving viewers another option for streaming the action. The network announced today that its Fox Sports Go app is now available on the 4th-gen Apple TV. Yes, you'll need a cable subscription in order to stream events spanning NFL, MLB, UFC, NASCAR, Big 12 and Pac-12 Football, Big East Basketball, FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League soccer. Though they aren't specifically listed in the announcement, a MLS and Bundesliga soccer match are part of the weekly lineup during their respective seasons as well.
Fox News broke UK broadcasting rules with pro-Brexit views
UK communications regulator Ofcom has ruled that Fox News broke broadcasting guidelines when it aired a program discussing the EU referendum on the day of the vote. Your World with Neil Cavuto, a show produced in the US, was broadcast in the UK at 9pm on June 23rd, one hour before the polls had closed. During the business and financial news program, Cavuto said:
Fox starts the Bundesliga season with a soccer VR broadcast
Fox Sports and NextVR are at it again. The two have paired up for live sports broadcasts in VR before and now they're bringing those immersive views to the pitch in Munich. This weekend marks the beginning of the Bundesliga soccer season in Germany, so what better way to celebrate the kickoff than with a virtual reality live stream. Friday's matchup between defending league champions Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen will be available in VR for owners of Samsung's Gear VR headset. What's more, this is the first time Bundesliga action has been available in virtual reality.
'Futurama' gets its own quote search engine
Ever since The Simpsons got an encyclopedic search engine through Frinkiac, many TV fans have been wondering one thing: where's the Futurama version? Relax, it's here. The creators of Frinkiac have launched Morbotron, a quote search tool that lets you dig through every season of Fry's adventures (complete with 861,414 screenshots) to create meme-worthy pictures and animated GIFs. You can find every moment that Professor Farnsworth has good news, Morbo proclaims doom for the human race, or Bender invites someone to bite his backside.
Now Fox is live streaming its prime-time TV across the US
CBS All Access, NBC and Watch ABC were first to live streaming network TV on the internet, but this week Fox Now became the first broadcast network to stream its live TV nationwide. Unlike the CBS app, Fox is tying this "beta" access to the live streams to TV Everywhere authentications, which means cord cutters are not invited unless they snag a login from someone with cable TV (Disney-owned ABC and Comcast-owned NBC do the same). We'll have to wait and see if Fox ever opens things up for people to simply buy internet access, but for now its says 98 percent of pay TV subscribers should have access, representing some 96 million homes.
'Walking Dead' creator's new show to debut on Facebook in Europe
Cinemax's upcoming show Outcast will debut on Facebook Live in Europe and Africa tonight. Outcast is an adaptation of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman's comic book series of the same name. Dealing with the supernatural and demonic possession, the comics are dark, scary and pretty fun. The TV show apparently sticks closely to the original's vision, offering straight-up horror and gore rather than The Walking Dead's focus on drama. Fox has purchased international syndication rights to the show, and will air episodes in 61 countries shortly after their US transmission. It's using Facebook Live to promote the show in the territories where it has the rights. Only the pilot will stream in this way, and the series itself begins its regular TV run on June 3rd. This will be the first time Facebook's burgeoning live video service has hosted a TV series, but Fox has already experimented with the platform, live streaming a London X-Men: Apocalypse event earlier this month. Outcast will go live at 10PM CET tonight in over 61 countries, including the UK, Germany, South Africa, Spain and Sweden.
Hulu will offer live TV in early 2017
That talk of Hulu getting into live TV? It's real. Company chief Mike Hopkins has announced that you'll see live entertainment, sports and news on the streaming service in early 2017. He didn't say which networks were involved or what it might cost, but the Wall Street Journal leak had suggested that at least Disney and Fox (including channels like ESPN and FX) were signing on. You'll hear more about Hulu's plans over the course of this year, Hopkins says.
Sling TV tests a multi-stream service with catches
As helpful as Sling TV might be for cutting the cord, its one-stream-at-a-time model has its limits. It rules out your family watching across multiple TVs, for instance, or (gasp) sharing with friends. Thankfully, the Dish-owned service isn't deaf to your requests: it's beta testing a $20 per month multi-stream option that lets up to three people watch at once. Besides giving you more freedom, the move also brings Fox channels that aren't available with a single stream, such as Fox Locals, Fox Sports and FX. You'll also get a few other channels that were either previously unavailable or limited to add-on packages, like Univision (normally an extra).
'Deadpool' used way more CGI than you probably think it did
The folks behind last month's raucous Deadpool movie lied to you more than you probably could've imagined. That intro sequence that serves as a narrative framing device for practically the whole flick? Almost entirely composited together in post processing. As you'll see in the video below, during the opening car chase, even the merc with a mouth kicking the goon riding shotgun out of the Chevy SUV was a collection of polygons. But when an entire movie is as over the top as Deadpool, finding stunt performers who could withstand the level of abuse that's on display would probably be pretty difficult.
PlayStation Vue TV streaming is now available across the US
Sony is launching PlayStation Vue nationwide across the US, shaking off the "passion project" image that's haunted the service since its inception. If you live outside Vue's existing seven markets, however, you'll notice that channel availability and pricing is now a little different. Sony is pushing into the rest of the country with three smaller bundles called Access Slim, Core Slim and Elite Sim, the cheapest of which offers around 55 TV channels for $29.99 per month. That's slightly less than the regular Access tier, with the difference being that you'll only get on-demand content from ABC, FOX and NBC. There's no live viewing for these networks.
Fresco News teams with Fox stations for crowd-sourced coverage
Back in January, Fresco News launched an Apple TV app to deliver a curated feed of crowd-sourced breaking news coverage. Now, the citizen journalism app is working with local Fox affiliates to make user-submitted photos and videos part of regular new coverage. Television stations in 11 cities will be able to send out location-based alerts through the Fresco iOS app in hopes of getting first-person coverage.
