ESPN has unleashed a redesigned streaming app for tvOS, the operating system for current-gen Apple TV box.
Now called the ESPN App (rather than WatchESPN), the redesigned platform for the Apple TV box includes several new features, including the auto-play of a live stream from one of ESPN’s networks for authenticated users, and a new interface that shows “Featured” content and the ability to browse videos by sports, events or channels.
The new app also includes a curated VOD library that features “hundreds” of hours of additional content from 30 for 30, E:60, Outside the Lines, SC Featured, World Series of Poker, and X Games coverage.
ESPN said it introduced the update ahead of the network premiere of We the Fans, an eight-episode original series that chronicles the lives of Chicago season ticket holders in Soldier Fiel’s Section 250 during the 2016 season. ESPN will offer the first episodes of the series via the WatchESPN app and the ESPN App (for Apple TV) on April 9, two days before its debut on regular TV.
“From replays to full episodes of on-demand content prior to their telecast premieres, ESPN’s tvOS app is now so much more than our live streaming networks,” Ryan Spoon, ESPN’s senior vice president of digital product, design and audience development, said in a statement. “With this latest update, authenticated users now have the full benefit of engaging with a wide range of live and on-demand video content from the very first click into what is now the ESPN App on Apple TV.”
