Watch ABC News, PBS Kids, & Other New Channels on Apple TV
Apple has added a few additional channels to the Apple TV, including ABC News, PBS Kids, AOL On, and Willow. Additionally, the Flickr app has received an update on Apple TV to improve the photo browsing experience for that service. All new channels are free to access, with the exception of Willow.
The ABC News channel is perhaps the most significant addition, which includes four separate live streams and tons of on-demand video. Additionally, the ABC News channel includes nine local affiliate stations from the USA, including WABC New York, KABC Los Angeles, WLS Chicago, WPVI Philadelphia, KGO San Francisco, KTRK Houston, WTVD Raleigh, KFSN Fresno, and WISN Milwaukee. The local affiliate additions to the Apple TV ABC News channel were first noted by MacRumors.
PBS Kids will be another popular addition, which parents and children should be particularly excited about, as it offers plenty of on-demand video of many kids favorite TV shows from PBS. The standard PBS station has been available on Apple TV for some time now, which also features excellent programming. Of course, even those without Apple TV can still enjoy PBS Kids and PBS Video streams online via their appropriate websites from any computer, or by downloading the appropriate PBS apps onto their iOS devices.
The AOL On channel apparently includes access to over 900,000 videos from AOL sites like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch. Many people are not aware of this, but yes that is the same AOL which once offered dialup internet services in the 1990’s. AOL’s dialup service is not required to access AOL On, and no AOL sign-up CD’s will be mailed to your house [ED NOTE: pull that out, come on].
Finally, Willow TV is a channel for watching Cricket matches, but is said to cost $15 per month for access.
For those who don’t have an interest in the new channels, there’s always the option to hide the channel icons from the Apple TV screen and reduce some clutter, or at least rearrange them to a more appropriate layout.
There are many other channels accessible with on demand video streaming on the Apple TV, with new additions being added from time to time. iPhone and iPad owners can also use AirPlay Mirroring to stream their iOS devices to an Apple TV for watching their own stored videos or even playing video games on a larger screen, wirelessly.
In Denmark we got like a fraction of your available services :P
..and yet, still no Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.
Still available from the PBS Kids website… just wish my kids could easily access his show on ATV.
Bummer, Mr Rogers is a great show. I’d expect PBS Kids channel will add it to Apple TV soon, perhaps they are just now opening their catalog? Sesame Street, etc.
Thanks.
Any rumors on when the next hardware rev of Apple TV will be out?
Apple TV updates have been rumored for a while now, but nothing concrete has surfaced through a major news organization. At this point it’s all speculation, as it often is with Apple rumors.
MacRumors has their always excellent RoundUp page about the topic here:
http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-tv/