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Apple Adds ESPN and Local NPR Stations to iTunes Radio

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple has expanded the content available on iTunes Radio with a new ESPN Radio station and more than 40 local National Public Radio (NPR) stations. First noticed by AppleInsider, the new stations can be accessed directly within iTunes Radio on both iOS devices and desktop computers via a search, though the new stations may be available to some users in the Featured section.

The ESPN Radio station on iTunes Radio offers the same live streaming content that is available through traditional ESPN radio affiliates, and the schedule of content can be found on the ESPN Radio website. Content includes national sports talk shows including Mike & Mike, The Freddie Colman Show, The Dan LeBatard Show, and more.

espnnprstations.jpg
Special events, such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Major League Baseball playoffs and World Series, and college football will be broadcast on the station, kicking off with the broadcast of the Atlanta Braves vs. the Colorado Rockies game on Wednesday, June 11 at 5 PM Pacific Time.
"We are thrilled to make our industry-leading sports talk and championship play-by-play content available to fans via iTunes Radio," said Traug Keller, senior vice president, ESPN production business divisions. "And we are excited to partner with Apple to expand our digital reach. Our fans can look forward to expanded ESPN Audio offerings on both the national and local sports levels in the future."
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Along with the new ESPN station, there are over 40 new NPR stations from cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Austin, and more. NPR first came to iTunes Radio back in March with the launch of a national news channel and at that time, NPR officials promised additional content from local stations. Content provided will include a mix of live and taped news.

iTunes Radio, which launched alongside iOS 7 last September, is still limited to the United States and Australia. Apple does, however, have plans to expand iTunes Radio to the UK, Canada, and New Zealand in the near future, eventually bringing the service at least 100 countries.

Article Link: Apple Adds ESPN and Local NPR Stations to iTunes Radio
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/10/espn-npr-itunes-radio/
P

PJWilkin

macrumors 6502
Jun 24, 2010
265
761
Still no iTunes Radio in the UK

Still waiting for iTunes Radio to reach the UK

as it stands apple we have other alternatives, some of which have been here years

Poor showing apple, it's been a long time since iTunes Radio was announced
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
Should we take this as an indicator that Apple is still clueless about what the competition is doing? Or is Apple confused about who their competitors are? It sounds more like Apple is trying to outdo I Heart Radio, which I don't think can be done (how could you possibly beat free, nearly every station, and available on every device?), but shouldn't their target be Pandora and Spotify?

They should have bought Pandora or Spotify if they really wanted to buy their way into this arena... Buying Beats for it was just dumb.
 
D

Delorean2006

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2012
989
599
Wow this is great! I can finally listen to mike and mike and the herd without having to watch them, I still find it weird watching a radio show
 
T

TsMkLg068426

macrumors 65816
Mar 31, 2009
1,498
343
I wish Apple would unlimited track changes for iTunes Match customers and choice of radio edit version of songs not only that improving where the same song does not repeat when changing tracks. Maybe one day iTunes Radio will be like Spotify only time can tell.:apple:
 
IJ Reilly

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
NPR stations (and all of their streaming content) have been available through the NPR app for years, so it's difficult to see it being added to iTunes Radio as big news.
 
D

DoubleU

macrumors regular
Aug 10, 2008
129
9
Dunk the Lunk said:
Nine months. Two countries. Pretty poor...
Click to expand...

It's those record company executives. They only allow licensing on a region by region of for large markets country by country basis to ensure that new music services don't drastically reduce their already dwindling income. It took Spotify two years to get set up in the U.S. after it had covered most of Europe.
 
K

kavika

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2007
11
0
What will become of Beats Music - as in the music service? Will it 'become' iTunes Radio, will iTunes Radio become Beats Music, with they exist separately, will one disappear?

And why won't Olivia Wilde return my calls?
 
M

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
IJ Reilly said:
NPR stations (and all of their streaming content) have been available through the NPR app for years, so it's difficult to see it being added to iTunes Radio as big news.
Click to expand...
Exactly! Today, before the announcement, I was switching between both our local and the national feed. I just don't see what having it in the iRadio section accomplishes. :confused:
 
P

petsounds

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,493
519
I hope this doesn't mean Apple is planning to remove the Internet streams section from iTunes. Do the public radio stations on iTunes Radio have Apple commercials inserted into them?
 
A

atmc

macrumors regular
Jun 28, 2009
177
62
Porto, Portugal
And still no iTunes Radio in Europe. And because of that, I left iTunes and iTunes Match and started using Spotify.
iTunes is declining, and Apple doesn't seem to be aware of that. They need to bring iTunes Radio to Europe, and need to have a Spotify-like service. And they need it NOW! Tomorrow may be too late.
 
J

jroadley

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2009
124
6
Norwich, UK
Agree about Spotify taking off in Europe, even the free version with adds is more than adequate. Also stuff like TuneinRadio is just amazing.

Really shocked iTunes Radio not being taken serious by Apple outside of US/Oz
 
Wild Warg

Wild Warg

macrumors member
Jun 6, 2014
44
0
Really wish Apple would sell me on something that would draw me away from Google All Access Music. I love All Access, but it seems like Apple should be doing a bit better in this arena.
 
HobeSoundDarryl

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
Feb 8, 2004
12,242
15,617
Hobe Sound, FL (20 miles north of Palm Beach)
jroadley said:
Really shocked iTunes Radio not being taken serious by Apple outside of US/Oz
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that iTunes Radio is not driving huge sales of music. That was the stated idea: that the masses would listen to iTunes Radio, hear a song(s) we like on streaming radio, then buy it in the iTunes Store. Perhaps the U.S. was the principle test market? And I'm guessing that the conversion of iTunes Radio listens to music buys is disappointing, so Apple is not as interested in it.

Second, I'm also going to guess that not as many people are listening to it as Apple had hoped. If so, the ad numbers are not that appealing, which de-motivate ad buying.

Both are guesses. While I'm probably far from representative, I played around with it a bit when it first launched but haven't used it since. I'm sure others are using it much more than me but I just didn't "get it" when it was a rumor and still don't "get it" since it became reality. To me, it feels like yet another innovation aimed at burning data (to probably make AT&T, Verizon, etc happy).
 
5

576316

macrumors 601
May 19, 2011
4,056
2,556
This service was launched a year ago and it's still not available in the UK. What's with that?
 
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