Considering the fact that I, and I imagine many others, only watch news on television when visiting grandma (please, no more sugar-free hard candies, grandma!), it makes sense that the combination of television and news was due for an update. Now, thanks to Watchup and Apple TV, we have it.
Most techies and Apple fans are familiar with the Apple TV, the device that hooks up to your television and allows you to stream content from mobile devices, purchase and watch content from iTunes, and use services like Hulu and Netflix. But, as of today, added to that bevy of features will be Watchup, a new app that focuses on providing a streaming, customizable source of news that aggregates content from big-name sources, local television stations, and the web.
According to Adriano Farano, CEO of Watchup, “Personalization is the future of TV news, and Watchup for Apple TV fulfills that promise with custom-made newscasts, a seamless user experience and an unparalleled breadth of content.”
To deliver this breadth of content, Watchup has teamed up with 160 news sources including traditional outlets like “Bloomberg, PBS, CNN, CBS Interactive, Financial Times, Fox News, Fusion, Sky News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post” as well as providers geared more toward millennials like “The Verge, Vox, CNET, Gamespot, AJ+, [and] Eater.” But the revolutionary aspect of Watchup isn’t so much its breadth of content as it is the way viewers can watch it.
Likened to Pandora or Flipboard, Watchup allows users to build their own custom news feeds by choosing topics of interest, as well as liking or disliking reports. According to these topics and preferences, the Watchup news stream will change in real time. This will essentially let users cut through all of the noise, and hone in on what is most relevant to their personal preferences. Viewers can also either watch a continuous stream, or have “a daily, customized newscast that is delivered to their device at whatever time of day they desire.”
Previous to its launch on Apple TV, Watchup was available on the iPad, as well as tons of other platforms like the Apple Watch, iPhone, Nintendo Wii U, and Xbox 360. But with its foray into Apple TV (as well as Amazon’s Fire TV, where it has been since 2014), Watchup is aiming directly for cord cutters. It seems that they too, know that many of us only watch news on television when visiting our elderly relatives.
Now if they could only do something about the hard candies…
What do you think about Watchup coming to Apple TV? Are you surprised it took so long relative to Amazon’s Fire TV? Are you impressed that there is no “Watchup doc?” pun in this whole article?! Let us know in the comments section below!
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HT: The Verge
Image: Watchup
