Traditional TV has undergone a series of increases in costs which has often led to streaming platforms either raising prices, or removing channels. This evening, Spectrum has opted to black out all ESPN and Disney channels for subscribers amid a dispute with the “House of Mouse” which has led to YouTube TV getting a moment in the spotlight.
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If you enjoy following live sports games on Twitter while you watch them, you may soon to be able to watch pay-TV live broadcasts from within the Twitter app.
New televisions and boxes running Android TV have been released throughout the year and Android N will add new features like a picture-in-picture mode. Google I/O tomorrow might see more announcements including ‘new Nexus Players’, but until then ESPN is launching a new app that will allow subscribers to stream live sporting events.
T-Mobile is expanding its Binge On initiative that allows users to stream content in certain apps without using up their data allowance, and with today’s update YouTube and Google Play Movies are now officially supported.
The ESPN app on Android is notorious for sluggish performance and feeling like a web wrapper. Good news: an update today vastly improves performance and gives it a Material Design refresh. Version 4.7.1 also brings support for Marshmallow’s permission model for users on 6.0 devices.
YouTube announced its new Red ad-free subscription service last week and we’ve slowly been learning the specifics on how content will be affected by it. Disney’s sports network ESPN has now announced that it has pulled all of its content from YouTube due to the YouTube Red subscription service.
Popular iOS and Android apps from companies like Walmart, ESPN, Slack and SoundCloud have been found vulnerable to password cracking, according to a recent report from AppBugs. The security firm found that dozens of the most popular apps are lacking, in that they allow you to make any number of attempts to login without restriction. These clearly opens up a gap for attackers who have the means to guess those passwords and gain access to your accounts.
In April of this year, it was announced that JW Player would soon be adding support for the Chromecast, and today the feature finally went live for everyone. For those unfamiliar, the JW Player platform powers a variety of popular websites including ESPN and millions of others. With today’s release of JW Player 6.9, it just got a whole lot easier to view web video on your TV.
Football season is only a few weeks away and while you’re busy making preparations for your office’s annual draft, ESPN has updated its Fantasy Football app. In addition to a refined UI, the revitalized software lets users create a team or league directly from within the app, tracking trades, injuries, scores and more.
Chromecast, Google’s $35 HDMI streaming stick, is about to support streaming of a lot more video content online as JW Player prepares to introduce support. Gigaom reports that the popular HTML5 and Flash video player that is used on millions of websites to host video content will announce today that it’s launching a beta of Chromecast support.
The company is also working on some interesting new features with its Chromecast implementation:
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Dish and The Walt Disney company announced today that they have reached a multi-year distribution deal that will see Dish subscribers gain access to a ton of Disney content including its ABC and ESPN networks. That means if you subscribe to Dish, you’ll now be able to access the WATCH ABC, WATCH ABC Family, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH DisneyXD and WatchESPN apps through your computer, smartphone, tablet and other connected devices like game consoles and set top boxes. The deal will also see Dish launch a number of Disney and ESPN networks while pending litigation between the two companies comes to an end:
The agreement will result in dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop. As part of the accord, DISH will disable AutoHop functionality for ABC content within the C3 ratings window. The deal also provides a structure for other advertising models as the market evolves, including dynamic ad insertion, advertising on mobile devices and extended advertising measurement periods.
DISH will make available Disney Junior, Fusion, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, as well as Longhorn Network and the upcoming SEC ESPN Network upon its launch. In addition, DISH, ESPN and ESPN Deportes customers will have access to the live and video-on-demand channel ESPN3… As part of the agreement, DISH will launch ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Disney Channel and ABC Family in high definition. ESPN Classic will be reintroduced as a video-on-demand channel.
For Android device users, the majority of the content is available through dedicated iOS and Apple TV apps including WatchESPN, WatchABC, and WatchDisneyChannel.
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Google announced today on its Google Fiber blog that Fiber customers will now be able to access content through the WatchESPN and Watch Disney apps at no additional cost. For ESPN, that means users can now login into the apps on Android, iOS, Apple TV, and Xbox 360 using their Google Fiber account:
WatchESPN provides live access to eight networks, including live events and all of ESPN’s sports and studio shows (including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater). You can watch at no additional cost by logging in with your Google Fiber account — visit WatchESPN.com or download the WatchESPN app from Google Play or the App Store on your Xbox 360, or on Apple TV.
The Disney content, including live and on-demand content from Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD, is available by logging into WatchDisneyChannels.com online:
You can watch at no additional cost by logging in with your Google Fiber account — visit WatchESPN.com or download the WatchESPN app from Google Play or the App Store on your Xbox 360, or on Apple TV… WATCH Disney gives you live access to Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD networks. Just go to WatchDisneyChannels.com and log in using your Google Fiber username and password.
Google’s Gigabit internet and TV service has only rolled out in Kansas City, Provo, UT, and surrounding areas since launching last year, but Google earlier this year announced it will be rolling out the service in Austin, Texas by mid-2014.
Google will launch its Google Fiber signup process tomorrow in qualified Kansas City neighborhoods, so folks can finally select their desired service plan, but the Internet giant has updated its TV offering today to help customers make a decision.
According to the Google Fiber Blog:
We just added a number of additional channels covering a variety of genres, including arts, family, faith, lifestyle and sports. Google Fiber TV service already includes almost two hundred channels, but we’ll continue to add more over time. And since our TV service runs on a gigabit network, we can offer access to all our HD channels for no extra charge.
The new channels include:
ABC Family, ABC News Now, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Longhorn Network, Ovation, SOAPnet, TBN, TBN Enlace, and Velocity
With that said, check the Google Fiber Blog tomorrow for the final announcement of qualifying neighborhoods. Kansas Citians in those “fiberhoods” will have the option to choose between Google’s Gigabit + TV plan, Gigabit Internet plan, and its Free Internet plan.
The full list of channels is available at the Google Fiber website.
Digital world measurer comScore released its monthly analysis of United States-based web activity for March 2012 today, and Google debuted at No. 1 in two of the survey’s categories.
Google websites came out on top in the Top 50 Properties category with 189.7 million visitors in March. Meanwhile, Microsoft sites landed the No. 2 spot with 178.9 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! sites at 175.4 million visitors. The Mountain View, Calif.-based Company’s Ad Network also grabbed the crown in the Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking category last month with a reach of 91.7 percent of Americans online. AOL Advertising netted 83.1 percent, and Google itself closed out the top three at 81.7 percent.
Google and ESPN have announced they are now offering sports scores, presented through microdata, straight into Google Search results. For now, Google and ESPN will only be offering Baseball, but more sports will be following very soon. A simple search of “Baseball Scores” returned the following results.
Besides making the obvious search, you can also search specifically for teams, players, and scores. The results include up-to-date game scores and statistics, and link off to content on ESPN.
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