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New Sports Section Goes Live in Apple's TV App in iOS 11.2 and tvOS 11.2

Wednesday November 29, 2017 8:12 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple this morning launched a new Sports section in its TV app, which appears to be available on devices running iOS 11.2 and tvOS 11.2. Sports can be accessed through the new dedicated Sports tab at the bottom of the app, located next to the "Watch Now" button.

First announced in September, the TV app's Sports section is designed to allow users to watch live sports games through integration with ESPN. Right now, ESPN appears to be the only app offering content through the TV app's Sports category, but additional Sports-oriented apps could offer support in the future.


Right now, since it's basketball season and there are several basketball games this afternoon, the TV app focuses heavily on basketball content. There are links to NBA games, men's college basketball, and women's college basketball, along with re-aired content and separate browsing sections for football and rugby.

Apple plans to change the focus of the app regularly to highlight relevant sports games that are upcoming, so when there are football games on, football will be more heavily prominent.

In a "Favorites" section of the app, there's an option to pick all of your favorite MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, and other teams, which will tailor the content displayed in the app to your interests. The TV app will also send out notifications when important games you're interested in are airing, and those notification options can be customized in the Notifications section of the Settings app. You can also choose whether or not to display live sports scores in the TV section of the Settings app.


Beta testers who are running iOS 11.2 or tvOS 11.2 should be able to access the new Sports portion of the TV app starting today.

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[ 66 comments ]


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Football Dad
12 months ago
Whatever happened to the Amazon Prime app?
Rating: 25 Votes
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KazKam
12 months ago
I really miss the Videos app. I hate having to wade through all the streaming/store crap to get to the videos I have loaded on my device, which is all I want to use it for.

I don't know why the two (TV & Videos) can't coexist together. They have/had radically different functions/uses/audiences, IMO.
Rating: 7 Votes
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MLVC
12 months ago
US only, I'm not interested yet again
Rating: 7 Votes
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busyscott
12 months ago

Whatever happened to the Amazon Prime app?

My guess is Amazon wanted one more holiday shopping season with no Apple TV on Amazon to compete with their products. I’d expect a launch sometime after December 26.
Rating: 3 Votes
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newtestleper
12 months ago
Once my iOS notifications begin appearing on my TV (without having to mirror the screen from my phone), I'll be a happy camper. Looks like I'm going to be a sad moteler.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Futhark
12 months ago
The UK just wants the TV app never mind all the new additions to it
Rating: 2 Votes
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al256
12 months ago
Focusing on sports is one of the reasons why I hated Scott Forstall.
Rating: 2 Votes
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MrGimper
12 months ago
Excellent, more channels I can watch on the non-existent TV app here in the UK...
Rating: 2 Votes
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bookwormsy
12 months ago
Ooh, I hope Fox Sports and Sunday Ticket get added soon.
Rating: 2 Votes
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femike
12 months ago
With the most popular tech blogs being US based (and Apple too) the AppleTV will get better PR coverage because of adding popular US sports. They rarely, if ever, write about the experience from the point of view of a different country. They'll realise its very different.
Rating: 1 Votes

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