Ryan M Downey
Apple TV is becoming very aggressive about adding content to its Apple TV device. Its app lineup has nearly doubled over the last year. And while it likely will never have as many app options as its chief rival Roku, it seems obvious that Apple has taken a quality vs quantity approach. The apps offered by Apple are the most popular in their category and its latest additions are no exception.
Disney Jr is one of two giants in children’s entertainment along with Nick Jr. Nickelodeon’s programming which is already available on Hulu Plus, another offering on Apple TV. In addition Apple has also added the MLS app which now gives Apple an offering for each of the Major professional sports leagues in the US outside of the NFL which does not have an official web offering.
Explosive Growth
It has been an exciting year for Apple TV. In the past year Apple has added: The Smithsonian Channel, Sky News, The Weather Channel, Disney Jr, Watch ESPN, MLS, The Disney Channel, Disney XD, HBO Go, Vevo, Crunchy Roll, the Watch ESPN App and Flickr. That is a tremendous amount of growth for a product that just over a year ago did not even offer Hulu Plus. There are many who think that Apple should open up its platform to third party developers but the notoriously insular company is not going to be changing its stripes anytime soon and it shouldn’t. Keeping its ecosystem tight means that Apple can be certain that each of the apps it offers give users the highest quality experience possible. While Roku certainly offers far more channels including all of Apple TV’s offerings besides ESPN and sky TV, Apple now offers all of the same heavy hitters. Partnered with Apple’s popular Air Play technology as well as its iTunes integration Apple is in a very strong position as streaming gains more mainstream adoption.
