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While many NFL fans have been hoping the Sunday Ticket subscription service will make its way to the Apple TV someday, the league appears set to make its first foray onto the set-top box with an upcoming NFL Now channel, reports 9to5Mac.

nfl_now_apple_tv.jpg
Announced earlier this year for a launch this month, NFL Now is a personalized digital video library of on-demand news, features, highlights and more, as well as live streaming of press conferences and other events, but not games. The new service will be launching across a number of platforms later this month as the 2014 NFL season begins, but Apple TV support had not been confirmed.

Sports content has been a major theme for Apple TV content, with MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, NHL GameCenter, and MLS Live subscription services all available on the platform. Other sports channels on Apple TV include Watch ESPN, action sports channel Red Bull TV, college-focused ACC + Campus Insiders, and cricket channel Willow.

Update 6:40 AM: 9to5Mac now says the new channel will be launching this week.

Article Link: 'NFL Now' Channel Coming to Apple TV Later This Week [Updated]
 

zedsdead

macrumors 68040
Jun 20, 2007
3,401
1,148
Great, of course a channel store that allows choice and developers would be far better.

Can't stand that Apple is not doing this. Really a poor choice.
 

Lord Hamsa

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2013
698
675
Well, Sunday Ticket is out of the question until DirecTV's contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. Unless DTV want to make some kind of deal to sell the subscriptions without the satellite packages, which doesn't seem like their style.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
random whatever happened to the The CW channel that was supposed to come like a year ago?
 
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Orlandoech

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2011
3,341
887
Well, Sunday Ticket is out of the question until DirecTV's contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. Unless DTV want to make some kind of deal to sell the subscriptions without the satellite packages, which doesn't seem like their style.


Thy already are lol. Where have you been?

The catch is you must be able to get their services.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/17/nfl-sunday-ticket-expands-beyond-directv/12752745/
 

iMacFarlane

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2012
1,123
30
Adrift in a sea of possibilities
All I personally need AppleTV to do is just have one giant Netflix button.

(though, as everyone in the world thinks, and App store would be fantastic)

And a YouTube button. Seriously, I've been using it for over a year, and all I do with it is bounce between NetFlix and YouTube.

I'm really surprised Apple never responded to Amazon's FireTV, what with its superior interface, voice commands, and app store, even games.
 

CFreymarc

Suspended
Sep 4, 2009
3,969
1,149
Well, Sunday Ticket is out of the question until DirecTV's contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. Unless DTV want to make some kind of deal to sell the subscriptions without the satellite packages, which doesn't seem like their style.

You just nailed the business behind this. The handwriting is on the wall that privately owned television networks is the next roadkill milestone on the growth of the Internet. No matter what legislation is invented, you cannot stop the exponential growth of data bandwidth occurring over the past thirty years. Any block will be bypassed even if it means reinventing and replacing IP addresses.
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
I support any channel that Apple adds that does not require a cable subscription to watch. If a cable subscription is needed, it is a complete waste of time. I say this because if you already have a cable subscription then it makes the Apple TV essentially redundant.

Keep adding channels that I can watch without having to buy cable and you will have a winning formula. Right now I hide most channels, since I cut cable years ago.

I hope that like the other sports channels this will not require cable.
 

dugbug

macrumors 68000
Aug 23, 2008
1,864
1,926
Somewhere in Florida
I just do not understand why NFL replay (edit: er its NFL rewind) is not offered through this. air play from the mac is useful in this regard, but the convenience of just having it directly on the atv is what I really want.
 
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GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
Great, another channel I need to remember to delete.

I suppose it could be quite bothersome that every channel is not catered to your tastes. Sad face panda for sure.


It would be great to see NFL Replay on this thing though. That would indeed be another nice addition.
 

Yelmurc

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2008
219
58
Houston TX
Pointless, you need the games available. I'm hoping all these sports leagues wise up and remove blackout restrictions and get rid of exclusives. I'm positive it would be healthier for the league in the long run.
 
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BJMRamage

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2007
2,710
1,233
This is a nice addition.

I wonder if this will be like HBO Go where you can not just watch the 4-5 most recent episodes but the whole catalog of shows, like the Football Life series or Hard Knocks.

I don't want to just watch this season's shows.
AND, I'd assume this would need a cable-subscription sign in as well.


SPEAKING of channels which NEED a cable-Subscription. with the Smithsonian Channel, I can watch some shows/episodes that are NOT on demand. So, that makes it nice to have. And, I could see using this in a room with a TV but no Cable Box.

I tried out the PBS Kids channel over the weekend and it was pretty nice. missing some PBS Kids shows and stuff like Sesame Street only had Clips not full Episodes. but overall nice.

Just seems a slight hassle to have to switch over the HDMI port and then get a third remote to use AppleTV. (using the iPhone Remote is a pain as it takes a bit to setup and isn't as great as I'd hope it to be.)
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,106
19,604
Got NFL Sunday Ticket with Madden 25 last year. Not very impressed. This new channel sounds even less impressive. Most disappointing thing was how I couldn't watch in-market games. I don't have cable TV because I wouldn't use it. I live in Columbia, MO—a college town of 115,000 in central Missouri—home of the Mizzou Journalism School and a bunch of TV stations, and I can't get a freaking signal for CBS to watch Chiefs games—even with a massive antenna that came in the attic of my new house. I eventually found a workaround. Apparently the Verizon tower I connect to is on the east side of Columbia, closer to St. Louis (out of market), so if I connected to a game on my iPhone using LTE and then used control center to quickly switch WIFI back on so it doesn't use my data, then I could get around it. But then I had to stream to the Apple TV, so I'd also have to turn Airplay back on when reconnecting to WIFI and sometimes that would cause the game to stop playing which would require me to juggle everything again just to get it to work. It was always a big hassle. I wish OTA TV would just die already—or at least have an internet option for streaming. If they needed to lock things down, you could get a code mailed to your address annually that would allow you to login to local TV websites and allow you to stream content from anywhere. All these stupid in-market rules and blackouts are stupid. I have no idea how I'm considered "in-market" for games that happen halfway across the state. We don't even share TV stations with KC. But I suppose on the upside it might prevent me from getting my hopes up like last season when I witnessed one of the greatest playoff game collapses of my lifetime. Being a sports fan from KC is agonizing on so many levels.
 

azentropy

macrumors 601
Jul 19, 2002
4,013
5,353
Surprise
Nice that they are adding content. But echoing what we really need is a app/channel store and a better way to organize the channels we want. I really think Apple is missing out on this market.
 

Mr Fusion

macrumors 6502a
May 7, 2007
841
1,061
Well, Sunday Ticket is out of the question until DirecTV's contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. Unless DTV want to make some kind of deal to sell the subscriptions without the satellite packages, which doesn't seem like their style.
The only way to get NFL Sunday Ticket w/o DirecTV is if you live in an area where you can't get DirecTV (i.e. an apartment that does not allow satellite dishes). http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2461013,00.asp

I expect DirecTV exclusivity will end when the current contract expires. Only then will NFL Sunday Ticket be available to everyone.
Good luck with that... AT&T's merger with DirecTV literally hinges on the latter successfully renegotiating that exclusive NFL deal. ;)
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,084
31,015
Great, of course a channel store that allows choice and developers would be far better.

Can't stand that Apple is not doing this. Really a poor choice.

I can't believe that Apple is not working on this. The issue is why is it taking so long to release something? Is it because they've got some grand vision and are waiting for all the pieces to come together? Or will we see something this fall? If Apple is running into issues with their grand vision I wish they'd at least update the hardware and UI and offer an App Store. Who knows how long it might take to get what they ultimately want.
 
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