Live news channels come to the iEmpire’s TV app for iOS and Apple TVs

By Kris Wouk February 9, 2018

Apple TV 4K — Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

When Apple first introduced the Apple TV 4K in September, one of the new features it touted for it as well as the earlier fourth-generation Apple TV was the integration of live-streamed news. Now that feature has finally arrived, neatly integrated into the platform’s TV app, which means it is also available on the iPhone and iPad, as 9to5 Mac reports.

The news services included are all U.S-focused, so at least for the time being, this feature is going to be useful mostly to those located in the U.S. Networks providing news content include Bloomberg, CBS, Cheddar, CNBC, CNN, and Fox News. After navigating to the News tab in the TV app, you’ll see an icon for each news service. Tapping that icon will bring you to that app if you have it installed, or prompt you to install it from the App Store if you have not yet installed it.

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Once you have the apps installed, you don’t need to bother with opening the TV app if you don’t feel like it, or even finding the app entry on the home screen. Instead, you can use Siri and a command like “Hey Siri, let’s watch Cheddar,” or “Play Bloomberg.”

If this feature sounds a little familiar, it’s because it’s pretty much the same as the sports integration that came to the Apple TV in November, only with news sources instead. Still, if you’re a news junkie, this makes keeping up to date much easier, especially if you prefer to have news on in the background and don’t feel like reaching for the remote every time you want to switch to a different news network.

This feature is currently live, and should be available to you as long as you’re running the latest tvOS 11.2.5 or iOS 11.2.5 update. While we weren’t originally thrilled with the Apple TV 4K, these new features, combined with a fix to the forced-HDR problem it originally shipped with and more support from popular streaming services, is making it look like a better and better option, especially if you’re heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem.

If this still doesn’t have you convinced, there are plenty of other streaming boxes out there, so take a look at some of our favorites.

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