If you’re into sports, you’re going to love this. ESPN’s new Apple TV app lets you watch up to four different streams within the same screen. That is, if you have a pay subscription with some TV provider that has ESPN and you have to have the most recent version of Apple TV. But if you do, you’re in for a treat. Over all, the app looks pretty user friendly. This isn’t the first app to use the multicast feature in Apple TV. There is also an MLB app, but it only allows you to watch two screens at once. And the ESPN app is pretty neat. Have a look for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g3uIOyAot8
It may look really cool, but would you watch that much TV all at once? Further do you NEED to watch that much TV all at once? Also, it is only ESPN, so if you want to watch the news and a football game, you’re out of luck. But during the fall, ESPN shows up to 55 college football games in a day. So maybe it is something that you need to do?
I also wonder how many people are going to use this? I mean, is it worth ESPN putting a lot of money into it’s production? Don’t get me wrong. I really like the idea, I just wonder if there are that many hard core sports fanatics out there that would watch four different games (or whatever) all at once. That being said, if there wasn’t a draw, ESPN wouldn’t do it. If your’e at a sports bar, though, this is kind of how it goes. There are often several screens playing at once. Your attention is diverted from one game to another, over to one of the ESPN talk shows. So how would this be any different? Short answer – its not.
There are a couple different layout options. You don’t have to watch four screens at once. You can choose one (lame), two or three feeds and arrange them in different layouts. Depending on what suits your wants. You can switch it up, so if you’ve got one college game on the side, and it’s a bit smaller, don’t fret. You can re-order them so you can make that game larger when the game starts to heat up.
Is this something that you would use? It’s a really good time to release this app, considering that football season is just around the corner. I don’t think that I have the attention span to really make this work. I could see myself watching two, but I’m not sure if I would watch three or four. But I’m not a hardcore sports fan. That’s not to say that I don’t like sports. And I could see myself watching two football games at once, but I only have one or two teams that I HAVE to watch. So perhaps this app isn’t designed for medium level sports fans. I also wonder how many people won’t be able to use this because they don’t have the latest version of Apple TV. Perhaps this is incentive for them to go out and get it. Win for ESPN and a win for Apple, if that’s the case.