Apple has announced that its Apple TV set-top box will have access to live news programmes for the the first time since its launch in 2007.
Those programmes will come from Sky News which was added to the platform, along with WatchESPN, HBO GO, Crunchyroll and Quello. HBO GO carries on-demand programmes from US cable network HBO and the Apple TV channel requires a subscription to a US cable TV provider. Crunchyroll is a Japanese network, and Quello broadcasts concerts and music programming.
Channel availability varies from country to country; WatchESPN and HBO GO aren’t available in the UK, for example. While the move into live programmes is a small step, it indicates the possibilities for Apple TV and the way in which it could become a full TV service.
Apple also announced today that 800,000 TV episodes and 350,000 movies are purchased on iTunes ever day, making a total of one billion TV episodes and 380 million movies since the iTunes Store started selling video content.
Tim Cook described television as ‘an area of intense interest’ at the D11 conference last month.
