NCAA announced that it will allow direct access to all the March Madness 2016 games across more platforms than ever before, including the new Apple TV. NCAA March Madness Live app will be available on the Apple TV App Store this Thursday, in time for the playoffs, which kick off March 15.

The app will come with an exclusive Apple TV feature that lets users watch two games simultaneously via a split screen. You’ll need to be a paying TV subscriber to use this feature.

Pay-tv subscribers will also have unlimited live streaming coverage and on-the-go access throughout the entire championship. NCAA March Madness Live will offer a temporary preview period giving users access to live game streaming before login is required.

Additional content will include “excitement” alerts for big moments throughout the tournament, as well as fan-favorite features including live game scoring, the official bracket and real-time game alerts for their favorite school. Fans will also have direct access to live radio broadcasts.

New for the 2016 NCAA March Madness Live:

• Platform expansion – This year’s product will expand to 12 platforms – more than ever before –including desktop, Amazon Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV, iPhone, iPad, Android handset, Android tablet, Windows handset, Windows desktop, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Roku players and Roku TV models.  Exclusively for NCAA March Madness Live, fans watching via Apple TV can enjoy two live games at once with the Split Screen feature.

• GameCenter – The epicenter of NCAA March Madness Live has been re-engineered to provide fans with an immersive live video experience featuring improved navigation, Google Cast and Airplay support and more curated social content from the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social arena.

• Video on Demand – This year’s enhanced video on demand capabilities allows fans to access classic tournament moments, match-up analysis, game previews, top plays, featured videos and more.

• Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge – This year, the official bracket game of March Madness – available via desktop, smartphones and tablets – is upgrading with new game features and more tools to help fans make their bracket picks as well as a chance to enter into a sweepstakes to attend the 2017 Final Four® in Phoenix.  In addition, this is the only bracket game to integrate access to the live video stream of every match-up during the tournament.

For the NCAA Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, April 2, from Houston, NCAA March Madness Live will provide three distinct live video streams of both games to provide unprecedented viewing options for fans – live streaming of the traditional game coverage provided on TBS, along with “Team Stream by Bleacher Report” coverage or team-specific presentations offered via TNT and truTV.  This year’s NCAA Tournament will include the National Championship airing on TBS, the first time the championship has ever been televised on cable television.

Search for “NCAA March Madness Live” on your Apple TV on Thursday download the app.

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I woke up this morning to the news of two major content additions to Apple TV. This has been a routine lately but the difference here is that neither of these adds a new channel icon to the home screen, but instead streams within existing apps. Thank God they do!

First and the more exiting one is that The Oscars will be available for live stream first time ever. Yep! ABC is bringing live telecast of the Academy Awards night and the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Oscars‘ show to the Watch ABC channel on Apple TV and the corresponding iOS app. But apparently not everyone is entitled to the privilege as they’ve laid down a pretty complex and long list of restrictions on who can access the stream.

The show’s livestream will be available to Watch ABC authenticated users through eight providers: Comcast, Cablevision, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Midcontinent Communications, Verizon FiOS, Google Fiber and AT&T U-verse. The service is available only in ABC’s eight owned-station markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Fresno, Calif.

To know whether you can watch the content or what you need to do the get access, visit this link. However if you can’t get it, a special highlights show ‘Oscars Backstage‘ will be released soon after the event for all users.

Coming to the other half, ESPN has added about 15 Collegiate Sports Conference channels to its WatchESPN channels on Apple TV. Thankfully, these are much less complicated than the former as anyone can follow their favourite College conferences with just a click.

The included channels are America East, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Big West, MEAC, SWAC, CIA, Horizon, MAC, MAAC, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Southern, Sun Belt and Southland.

However analysts are confused to see the ACC Network among these new channels ‘coz this sports streaming giant was rumoured to be in talks with ESPN for a full-fledged dedicated network. Anyway, these channels are planned to cover more than 2000 men’s and women’s events starting with the Basketball tournament.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Best Accessories for Apple TV

Wondering how to watch live sport streaming on Apple TV? The answer is easy: XBMC, AirPlay, Mac/PC screen mirroring and, of course, native Apple TV sport apps. Finding football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, UFC, WWF, or anything else on your Apple TV can feel like and impossible task to anyone one who sits down and sees the limited options in Apple iOS interface, with its limited content partnerships. Though it looks bleak there is a very bright cloud to this quandary and that is the never-ending combination of features we can through at this magical little box.

XBMC

If you have read any of my other pieces, you already know that I am an XBMC fan-boy. XBMC is the best thing to happen to the Apple TV for many reasons, the least of which being its ability to stream live sports content. There are many addons that can be found at forums.xbmc.org to fill your gaming needs! Here is a list of the most popular, stable tools:

• SportsDevil

This is easily one of the more popular, and better-known, add-ons when it comes to sports and XBMC. This add-on is great because it works 95% of the time. I have only ever missed one college game with SportsDevil. This add-on is free and there is no charge for connecting to the streams it makes available.

Download SportsDevil addon (note: you’ll need to add the Max Mustermann repository to get SportsDevil working on your Apple TV.)

Read more about SportsDevil

• LiveTV

This is another great source for sporting content. The truth is, if you want to view a LIVE TV event… one of your best bets would be to view it via this Live TV add-on. With in this add-on you are able to choose different categories of TV, specifically Sports. You are then given a large list of links for currently streaming sports channels: ESPN, CBS, NBC, etc. And again… this add-on is free to use.

Download LiveTV addon

• Navi-X

Navi-X is one of the best tools, yet sometimes tricky to utilize. This add-on often has more links than any other source out there for LIVE streaming TV and specifically SPORTS. The trick is finding them. If you are unfamiliar with Navi-X you will simply want to use the search feature found on the main screen. Otherwise, often you can scroll through the MOST POPULAR OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS and you will see all of the Live Sports Streams posted on this page.

Download Navi-X addon

Check out this tutorial to learn how to install XBMC addons on Apple TV (1st and 2nd generation).

AirPlay

If XBMC is the best thing to happen to the apple TV, AirPlay is certainly the second best! Quite often you can find the game you want on apps that are available in the AppStore for you iOS device (iPhone, iPod, iPad). With these apps, or perhaps a webpage link, you are able to AirPlay content from your mobile device’s screen to your Apple TV, or even XBMC on your Apple TV, without skipping a beat.

• Justin.TV (iOS)

Justin.TV is a long time king of live sports streams. Though this app can be more hit and miss than its XBMC counterparts, it does often have what you are looking for. Simply download the app, search for the game, and choose the AirPlay option to through the video to your Apple TV.

• CBS SPORTS (iOS)

Get CBS Sports for iPhone! The app delivers comprehensive news, video and scores for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Golf, Tennis, NASCAR, College hoops and more. Follow your favorite team and sport, and catch up on the latest news, scores, stats and video highlights of the day. Plus, the app offers live streaming College Basketball and Football

• TO MANY TO COUNT (iOS)

To be fair, when it comes to the ability to AirPlay there is a limitless number of options that are available in the form of the AppStore apps. For this reason, here is a link to the AppStore offering all of the apps labeled “sports”.

• Android 

Though Android devices do not have the iOS 5 feature of AirPlay built in, XBMC does! With this remote installed on your mobile device, you can send any “ONLINE” video content to your XBMC installation on your Apple TV. This is true AirPlay functionality with out the name, or the help of Apple.

Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Best Accessories for Apple TV

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