streaming – Page 2

TCL TVs will use films made with generative AI to push targeted ads

ads, AI, culture, films, generative ai, movies, streaming, tcl, Tech, TVs / Kris Guyer / December 11, 2024

Advertising has become a focal point of TV software. We’re seeing companies that sell TV sets be increasingly interested in leveraging TV operating systems (OSes) for ads and tracking. This has led to bold new strategies, like an adtech firm launching a TV OS and ads on TV screensavers.

With new short films set to debut on its free streaming service tomorrow, TV-maker TCL is positing a new approach to monetizing TV owners and to film and TV production that sees reduced costs through reliance on generative AI and targeted ads.

TCL’s five short films are part of a company initiative to get people more accustomed to movies and TV shows made with generative AI. The movies will “be promoted and featured prominently on” TCL’s free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, TCLtv+, TCL announced in November. TCLtv+has hundreds of FAST channels and comes on TCL-brand TVs using various OSes, including Google TV and Roku OS.

Some of the movies have real actors. You may even recognize some, (like Kellita Smith, who played Bernie Mac’s wife, Wanda, on The Bernie Mac Show). Others feature characters made through generative AI. All the films use generative AI for special effects and/or animations and took 12 weeks to make, 404 Media, which attended a screening of the movies, reported today. AI tools used include ComfyUI, Nuke, and Runway, 404 reported. However, all of the TCL short movies were written, directed, and scored by real humans (again, including by people you may be familiar with). At the screening, Chris Regina, TCL’s chief content officer for North America, told attendees that “over 50 animators, editors, effects artists, professional researchers, [and] scientists” worked on the movies.

I’ve shared the movies below for you to judge for yourself, but as a spoiler, you can imagine the quality of short films made to promote a service that was created for targeted ads and that use generative AI for fast, affordable content creation. AI-generated videos are expected to improve, but it’s yet to be seen if a TV brand like TCL will commit to finding the best and most natural ways to use generative AI for video production. Currently, TCL’s movies demonstrate the limits of AI-generated video, such as odd background imagery and heavy use of narration that can distract from badly synced audio.

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Apple TV+ spent $20B on original content. If only people actually watched.

Apple, Apple TV Plus, streaming, Tech / Kris Guyer / November 19, 2024

For example, Apple TV+ is embracing bundles, which is thought to help prevent subscribers from canceling streaming subscriptions. People can currently get Apple TV+ from a Comcast streaming bundle.

And as of last month people can subscribe to and view Apple TV+ through Amazon Prime Video. As my colleague Samuel Axon explained in October, this contradicts Apple’s long-standing approach to streaming “because Apple has long held ambitions of doing exactly what Amazon is doing here: establishing itself as the central library, viewing, search, and payment hub for a variety of subscription offerings.” But without support from Netflix, “Apple’s attempt to make the TV app a universal hub of content has been continually stymied,” Axon noted.

Something has got to give

With the broader streaming industry dealing with high production costs, disappointed subscribers, and growing competition, Apple, like many stakeholders, is looking for new approaches to entertainment. For Apple, that also reportedly includes fewer theatrical releases.

It may also one day mean joining what some streaming subscribers see as the dark side of streaming: advertisements. Apple TV+ currently remains ad-free, but there are suspicions that this could change, with Apple reportedly meeting with the United Kingdom’s TV ratings body recently about ad tracking and its hiring of ad executives.

Apple’s ad-free platform and comparatively low subscription prices are some of the biggest draws for Apple TV+ subscribers, however, which would make changes to either benefit controversial.

But after five years on the market and a reported $20 billion in spending, Apple can’t be happy with 0.3 percent of available streaming viewership. Awards and prestige help put Apple TV+ on the map, but Apple needs more subscribers and eyeballs on its expensive content to have a truly successful streaming business.

Apple TV+ spent $20B on original content. If only people actually watched. Read More »

Amazon ends free ad-supported streaming service after Prime Video with ads debuts

ads, Amazon, amazon prime video, streaming, Tech / Paul Patrick / November 13, 2024

Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, as it heightens focus on selling ads on its Prime Video subscription service.

Amazon, which has owned IMDb since 1998, launched Freevee as IMDb Freedive in 2019. The service let people watch movies and shows, including Freevee originals, on demand without a subscription fee. Amazon’s streaming offering was also previously known as IMDb TV and rebranded to Amazon Freevee in 2022.

According to a report from Deadline this week, Freevee is being “phased out over the coming weeks,” but a firm closing date hasn’t been shared publicly.

Explaining the move to Deadline, an Amazon spokesperson said:

To deliver a simpler viewing experience for customers, we have decided to phase out Freevee branding. There will be no change to the content available for Prime members, and a vast offering of free streaming content will still be accessible for non-Prime members, including select Originals from Amazon MGM Studios, a variety of licensed movies and series, and a broad library of FAST Channels – all available on Prime Video.

The shutdown also means that producers can no longer pitch shows to Freevee as Freevee originals, and “any pending deals for such projects have been cancelled,” Deadline reported.

Freevee shows still available for free

Freevee original shows include Jury Duty, with James Marsden, Judy Justice, with Judge Judy Sheindlin, and Bosch: Legacy, a continuation of the Prime Video original series Bosch. The Freevee originals are expected to be available to watch on Prime Video after Freevee closes. People won’t need a Prime Video or Prime subscription in order to watch these shows. As of this writing, I was also able to play some Freevee original movies without logging in to a Prime Video or Prime account. Prime Video has also made some Prime Video originals, like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, available under a “Freevee” section in Prime Video where people can watch for free if they log in to an Amazon (Prime Video or Prime subscriptions not required) account. Before this week’s announcement, Prime Video and Freevee were already sharing some content.

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Max needs higher prices, more ads to help support WBD’s flailing businesses

ads, max, streaming, Uncategorized, warner bros. discovery / Tim Belzer / November 7, 2024

At the same time, the rest of WBD is in a period of duress as the cable and movie industries struggle. Films like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice failed to reach the same success as last year’s Barbie, sending WBD studios’ revenue down 17 percent and its theatrical revenue down 40 percent. As WBD CEO David Zaslav put it:

Inconsistency also remains an issue at our Motion Picture Studio, as reinforced recently by the disappointing results of Joker 2.

Some things that helped buoy WBD’s legacy businesses won’t be around the next time WBD execs speak to investors. This includes revenue from distributing the Olympics in Europe and gains from the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes ending. With WBD’s networks business also understandably down, WBD’s overall revenue decreased 3 percent YoY. It’s natural for the company to lean more on its strongest leg (streaming) to help support the others.

WBD wants more streaming M&As

Today, Zaslav reiterated earlier stated beliefs that the burgeoning streaming industry needs more mergers and acquisitions activity to maintain profitability. He discussed complications for users, who have to consider various services’ pricing and are “Googling where a show is, or where a sport is, and you’re going from one to another, and there’s so many.” He added:

It’s not sustainable. And there probably should have been more meaningful consolidation… You’re starting to see fairly large players saying, ‘Hey, maybe I should be a part of you. Or maybe I should be a part of somebody else.’

Zaslav said that it’s too early to know if Donald Trump’s presidency will boost these interests. But he suggested that the incoming administration “may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different [and] that would provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed.”

It’s also too early to know if streaming consolidation would help subscribers fed up with rising prices and growing ad loads. But for now, that’s about all we can bet on from streaming services like Max.

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Proton is the latest entrant in the quirky “VPN for your TV” market

Apple TV, geofencing, geolocation, netflix, proton vpn, streaming, Tech, vpns / Mike M. / October 30, 2024

Netflix started blocking VPN and proxy providers as early as 2015, then stepped up its efforts in 2021. VPN providers aiming to keep up geofence-avoiding services to customers would sometimes lease IP addresses generally associated with residential IP subnets. This resulted in Netflix banning larger swaths of IP addresses that VPNs were using as exit proxies.

Amazon’s Prime Video, Parmount+, and other services, including the BBC, have similarly ramped up efforts to block anything resembling tunneled traffic. Proton has, for example, a guide to “unblock Amazon Prime Video with Proton VPN“; Proton also writes on that page that it “does not condone the use of our VPN service to bypass copyright regulations.”

You can search the web and find freshly updated lists of the best VPNs for getting around various services’ geo-filtering blocks, but the fact that so many are dated by the year, or even month, gives you some clue as to how effective any one solution may be.

For the purposes of getting back to the content you’re entitled to view, or maybe keeping your viewing habits private on an Apple TV you’re using outside your home, Proton VPN is likely more useful. As for the other stuff, hey, it might be worth a shot. Using the Apple TV app requires a paid Proton VPN plan.

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Few truly shocked that NFL player used illegal stream to watch his own team

DMCA, DMCA takedown, IPTV, iptv streaming, methstreams, nfl, nfl streaming, piracy, seattle seahawks, streaming, tariq woolen, Tech / Tim Belzer / October 23, 2024

Had Woolen been visiting his native Fort Worth, Texas, the local Fox affiliate likely would have been showing Detroit playing Minnesota. This would have meant purchasing a streaming service subscription to view the Seahawks (or, realistically, signing up for a free trial) after doing considerable research to determine the rules around local blackouts.

Woolen is actually lucky, presuming he only wants to watch his own team. A Sunday Ticket or similar package, or good Fox reception, would have carried Woolen through the next six weeks of Seahawks games (one of them a bye week) and then again until the Seahawks play Arizona on December 8 on CBS. On December 29, a Thursday, he would need a local broadcast or Amazon Prime to watch.

Of course, Woolen would waste a good portion of the cost of any streaming or cable package once he actually returns to his team and is playing games instead of watching.

Header from a letter sent by the UFC, NBA, and NFL to the US Patent and Trademark Office requesting faster turn-around for DMCA takedown notices relating to live sports streaming. Credit: US PTO

Networks want a faster DMCA for game piracy

So Woolen could do that kind of location/network/price/date work to find the best legal broadcast option. Or, as suggested by a DMCA takedown notice submitted to Google by Fox for that Sunday, turn to any one of dozens of pirate streams of the Seattle game available that day, including the MethStreams service he ended up on.

These streams tend to stay up, because removal measures by broadcast networks and sports leagues are not all that effective, by their own admission. The UFC, NBA, and NFL have asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow for infringing content to be removed “instantaneously or near-instantaneously.”

Currently, service providers like Google “frequently take hours or even days to remove content in response to takedown notices,” the sports leagues claim, which makes such takedowns beside the point when they arrive after a live event is over.

Woolen himself may not have a larger argument with availability versus prices. Responding to Kleiman’s salary/streaming call-out, Woolen wrote: “It’s free it’s for me,” prepended by two “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji. But even if the NFL wanted to provide players like him with a legitimate option to stream every game, from anywhere in the US, on any given day, it could not, because it does not exist.

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Streaming subscription fees have been rising while content quality is dropping

culture, netflix, streaming, Tech / Tim Belzer / October 22, 2024

In Q2 2022, 78.6 percent thought their ad-free SVOD service had “moderate to very good” stuff to watch. But in Q2 2023, that dropped to 77.4 percent, and in Q2 2024, the percentage fell further to 74.5 percent. For ad-supported SVOD services, the percentage dropped from 74.2 percent in Q2 2023 to 60.8 percent in Q2 2024.

Quality Perception by screen bar graph — Credit: TiVo

Ars Technica asked TiVo why subscribers may be feeling less satisfied with streaming content quality, and Scott Maddux, VP of global content strategy and business at TiVo parent company Xperi, pointed to some potential reasons while noting that other factors could also be contributors.

“As more and more consumers shift to ad-supported SVOD services, the perception of the content quality may have also shifted downward a bit,” Maddux said.

Maddux also suggested that streaming companies’ financial challenges could be impacting content quality:

The amount of new original content overall on SVODs may be down [year-over-year] as many streamers continue to struggle to hit profitability targets. Without new original content (or exclusive content deals), perceptions of value/differentiation may decline.

Similarly, a CableTV.com survey of 7,130 US streamers released in January 2024 pointed to a drop in subscriber satisfaction with streaming content quality. The publication asked respondents how satisfied they were with their streaming provider’s original content. Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, and Paramount+ all saw their satisfaction rates fall from 2023 to 2024. However, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and Peacock all improved from 2023 to 2024.

In September 2023, Whip Media released its 2023 US Streaming Satisfaction report, which surveyed over 2,000 US streaming subscribers. The report said that the 2023 analysis:

clearly indicates that satisfaction among the top tier of streaming platforms is gradually declining while mid-tier platforms rise in overall satisfaction. The narrowing competitive market suggests there is high demand for showing the right mix of original and library content—and consistently maintaining a delightful viewer experience—in order to drive an overall value that subscribers expect.

Whip Media’s 2023 report found that Apple TV+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and Prime Video all showed gains in terms of the percentage of subscribers satisfied with the quality and variety of original content available on the platforms from 2022 to 2023.

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Amazon, Apple make a deal to offer Apple TV+ in a Prime bundle

Amazon, amazon prime video, Apple, Apple TV, streaming, subscriptions, Tech / Paul Patrick / October 10, 2024

The Apple TV platform, tvOS, and the original Apple TV app were initially intended to solve this problem by offering an a la carte, consumer-friendly way to manage the options in a burgeoning streaming-TV industry.

However, Apple’s attempt to make the TV app a universal hub of content has been continually stymied by the fact that industry giant Netflix has declined to participate.

Users of the TV app and Apple TV set-top-box still must launch a separate Netflix app to see their watch history on that service, or to see if movies or shows they want to watch are available. Content from most other services—including Amazon Prime Video—is exposable through search within the app and rolls into a unified watch history.

Fighting to succeed in a messy business

Further, streaming services have become increasingly expensive, and streamers have begun trying to find new revenue from sources like bundles and advertising. The reasons for these trends are complex, but one of the key problems is that scripted television content is immensely expensive to produce—especially as the prestige TV era has driven up viewer expectations in terms of quality and production values.

As an early leader in the industry, Netflix established unrealistic expectations for everyone involved—consumers, production houses, investors, and so on—by simply throwing immense amounts of money into content without immediately seeing a return.

When larger economic factors put an end to that practice, streamers had to adjust—including Apple, which among other things is tweaking its film strategy for the new landscape.

Apple still offers several of those central hub features—for example, you can subscribe to services like Paramount+ and launch their shows from the Apple TV app, just like Amazon is doing with its app and Apple TV+ here. But the realities of the mess the industry finds itself in have clearly led Apple to keep an open mind about how it can attract and retain viewers.

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Smart TVs are like “a digital Trojan Horse” in people’s homes

ads, FCC, ftc, generative ai, Policy, streaming, Tech, TVs / Tim Belzer / October 7, 2024

Similarly, the report’s authors describe concerns that the CTV industry’s extensive data collection and tracking could potentially have a political impact. It asserts that political candidates could use such data to run “covert personalized campaigns” leveraging information on things like political orientations and “emotional states”:

With no transparency or oversight, these practices could unleash millions of personalized, manipulative and highly targeted political ads, spread disinformation, and further exacerbate the political polarization that threatens a healthy democratic culture in the US.

“Potential discriminatory impacts”

The CDD’s report claims that Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Americans in the US are being “singled out by marketers as highly lucrative targets,” due to fast adoption of new digital media services and brand loyalty. Black and Hispanic communities are key advertising targets for FAST channels, per the report. Chester told Ars:

There are major potential discriminatory impacts from CTV’s harvesting of data from communities of color.

He pointed to “growing widespread racial and ethnic data” collection for ad targeting and marketing.

“We believe this is sensitive information that should not be applied to the data profiles used for targeting on CTV and across other platforms. … Its use in political advertising on CTV will enable widespread disinformation and voter suppression campaigns targeting these communities,” Chester said.

Regulation

In a letter sent to the FTC, FCC, California attorney general, and CPPA , the CDD asked for an investigation into the US’ CTV industry, “including on antitrust, consumer protection, and privacy grounds.” The CDD emphasized the challenges that streamers—including those who pay for ad-free streaming—face in protecting their data from advertisers.

“Connected television has taken root and grown as an unregulated medium in the United States, along with the other platforms, devices, and applications that are part of the massive internet industry,” the report says.

The group asks for the FTC and FCC to investigate CTV practices and consider building on current legislation, like the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act. They also request that antitrust regulators delve deeply into the business practices of CTV players like Amazon, Comcast, and Disney to help build “competition and diversity in the digital and connected TV marketplace.”

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“A total lump of… ”: Customer frustration as ISP’s smart TVs won’t turn on

Software, streaming, Tech, TVs, United Kindgom / Paul Patrick / September 20, 2024

Glass TVs —

Problems with UK Sky hardware started Thursday, seem partially fixed.

Scharon Harding – Sep 20, 2024 5: 29 pm UTC

Hundreds of owners of smart TVs and streaming devices from United Kingdom telecom Sky reported that their hardware stopped powering on Thursday. Sky hasn’t confirmed the cause of the problem, but a botched update is largely suspected.

Sky, a Comcast company that sells Internet, mobile, and satellite TV service in the UK, got into the streaming hardware business in 2021. Its proprietary Glass TVs and Stream pucks let people access TV channels offered through Sky via the Internet instead of a dish. As of this writing, Glass TVs range from 600 pounds (about $800) for a 43-inch set to 1,199 pounds (about $1,600) for 65 inches and include quantum dots and Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG HDR support. To order a Glass TV, people have to sign up for a Sky Entertainment subscription that includes the same type of channels offered through Sky’s satellite TV services but via streaming, plus Netflix (with or without ads). If you don’t buy/renew your Sky Entertainment subscription, “access to TV apps like Netflix won’t be available,” Sky says. The Stream puck, meanwhile, supports various streaming apps but doesn’t work without a Sky subscription.

As of yesterday, paying subscribers and owners of Glass and Stream devices reported that their devices were unable to power on. Users reported only being able to see a blank screen, with some saying the problems lasted for hours.

As noted by the BBC, problems started on Thursday night. Per Downdetector, the situation seemed to peak at around 3: 10 pm UTC with 377 incidents reported, but the overall number of affected devices could vary. A thread on Sky’s community forum about the problem is currently 141 pages long.

This morning, some people were still complaining about broken devices online; although, some reported that their devices were functioning again. As of this writing, DownDetector is showing 142 reported incidents.

With no TV to watch, Glass and Stream users had plenty of time to go online to try to troubleshoot with each other and share their disappointment in Sky. Some have called for Sky to pay for the cost of a new TV, while others are wondering if they will get financial compensation for their troubles. Sky hasn’t made any public mention of refunds or credits, though.

A user going by larky+marky on Sky’s community forum wrote:

What a total lump of st.

I have been thinking of cancelling my subscription altogether, so now this has made my mind up.

Yesterday, a Twitter user claimed that their TV was bricked “for the best part of 11 hours.” The user, going by MattHudson81, wrote, “We pay a lot of money each month for the use of your services and understand at times faults happen, but 11 hours so far with no end in sight, it’s not good.”

On Sky’s support forum, an employee said that Sky was working on the problem throughout Thursday night. “We continue to work on the problem in the background,” the employee going by KevNewMedia wrote today.

Sky also acknowledged the problems on Thursday via its Twitter account, saying:

Some Sky Glass/Stream customers are currently experiencing technical issues when trying to switch on their devices. Our technical teams are working hard to fix this. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Today, the Twitter account posted another apology along with a link to a support page with steps for getting the hardware to work (basically by resetting it). However, at least some people on Sky’s support forum have said that the fix hasn’t worked for them.

“Yet this isn’t working for everyone though. You’re essentially just tell[ing] people to turn it on and off again,” PaulRC1963 wrote. “Sky is acting very incompetent.”

Sky hasn’t confirmed the cause

Sky declined to answer questions from the BBC about the cause of the problems or when they’d be totally resolved. Without further explanation, a poorly executed software update issued via the Internet seems to be the most obvious reason for hundreds of people concurrently reporting broken devices.

The situation, which led to missed sporting events and hours of boredom, is a reminder of the risks of buying hardware from companies, like ISPs, that aren’t traditionally in the technology game. Sky first unveiled its Glass TVs in 2021, ostensibly as an attempt to save its business amid a massive shift to streaming over satellite dishes and cable and to drive subscription revenue. It’s possible that in its haste to jump on the streaming bandwagon, it has overlooked some of the intricacies and complexities in mass, web-issued updates. Notably, Sky’s set-top boxes have reportedly been unaffected.

If a botched update didn’t break the smart TVs and streaming sticks, it would be prudent of Sky to inform customers of the root of the problem. Otherwise, it can be hard for customers to have confidence that the problems won’t repeat and that their subscriptions and Sky hardware are worthwhile.

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Leaked Disney+ financials may shed light on recent price hike

Disney, Disney Plus, streaming, Tech / Mike M. / September 6, 2024

woman shot in black and white against color background fluffing 1960s bouffant — Enlarge / A shot from *Agatha All Along*, an upcoming Disney+ exclusive.

Marvel Studios/Disney+

A leak of data from Disney points to the Disney+ streaming service making about $2.4 billion in revenue in its fiscal quarter ending on March 30. Disney doesn’t normally share how much revenue its individual streaming services generate, making this figure particularly interesting.

Leaked data

In August, Disney confirmed that it was investigating the leak of “over a terabyte of data from one of the communication systems” it uses. In a report this week, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said it looked over files leaked by a hacking group called Nullbulge that include “a range of financial and strategy information,” apparent login credentials for parts of Disney’s cloud infrastructure, and more. The leak includes over “44 million messages from Disney’s Slack workplace communications tool, upward of 18,800 spreadsheets, and at least 13,000 PDFs,” WSJ said.

“We decline to comment on unverified information The Wall Street Journal has purportedly obtained as a result of a bad actor’s illegal activity,” a Disney spokesperson told WSJ.

$2.4 billion

According to WSJ, financial information came via “documents shared by staffers that detail company operations,” adding, “It isn’t official data of the sort Disney discloses to Wall Street and might not reflect final financial performance for a given period.” That means we should take these figures with a grain of salt.

“Internal spreadsheets suggest that Disney+ generated more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the March quarter,” WSJ reported, referencing Disney’s fiscal Q2 2024. “It underscores how significant a revenue contributor Hulu is, particularly as Disney seeks to buy out Comcast’s stake in that streaming service, and as the two sides spar over its value.”

The publication noted that the $2.4 billion figure represents “about 43 percent”—42.5 percent to be more precise—of the direct-to-consumer (DTC) revenue that Disney reported that quarter, which totaled $5,642,000,000 [PDF]. In its Q2 report, Disney put Disney+, Hulu, and Disney+ Hotstar under its DTC umbrella. DTC revenue in Q2 represented a 13 percent increase compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year.

Further, subscriber counts for Disney+ and Hulu increased year over year in Q2. The leaks didn’t specify how much revenue Disney’s streaming businesses made in Q3, but Disney reported that DTC revenue increased to $5.8 billion [PDF].

Right before announcing its Q3 numbers, though, Disney announced price hikes across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ by as much as 25 percent. As we wrote at the time, the price hike seemed like an attempt to push people toward bundle packages offering a combination of Disney+, Hulu, and/or ESPN+ (bundles are supposed to make subscriber churn less likely). Disney CFO Hugh Johnston tried convincing us that Disney’s streaming catalog meant that it had “earned” the streaming price hikes.

But the recently leaked numbers shed a little more light on the situation.

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ESPN’s Where to Watch tries to solve sports’ most frustrating problem

Apple TV, ESPN, ESPN Where to Watch, sports, streaming, Tech, TV / Kris Guyer / August 28, 2024

A Licensing Cluster—

Find your game in a convoluted landscape of streaming services and TV channels.

Samuel Axon – Aug 28, 2024 7: 55 pm UTC

Too often, new tech product or service launches seem like solutions in search of a problem, but not this one: ESPN is launching software that lets you figure out just where you can watch the specific game you want to see amid an overcomplicated web of streaming services, cable channels, and arcane licensing agreements. Every sports fan is all too familiar with today’s convoluted streaming schedules.

Launching today on ESPN.com and the various ESPN mobile and streaming device apps, the new guide offers various views, including one that lists all the sporting events in a single day and a search function, among other things. You can also flag favorite sports or teams to customize those views.

“At the core of Where to Watch is an event database created and managed by the ESPN Stats and Information Group (SIG), which aggregates ESPN and partner data feeds along with originally sourced information and programming details from more than 250 media sources, including television networks and streaming platforms,” ESPN’s press release says.

ESPN previously offered browsable lists of games like this, but it didn’t identify where you could actually watch all the games.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll have access to the services needed to watch the games in the list, though. Those of us who cut the cable cord long ago know that some games—especially those local to your city—are unavailable without cable.

For example, I live within walking distance from Wrigley Field, but because I don’t have cable, I can’t watch most Cubs games on any screens in my home. As a former Angeleno, I follow the Dodgers instead because there are no market blackouts for me watching them all the way from Chicago. The reverse would be true if I were in LA.

Even if you do have cable, many sports are incredibly convoluted when it comes to figuring out where to watch stuff. ESPN Where to Watch could be useful for the new college football season, for example.

Expansion effort

ESPN isn’t the first company to envision this, though. The company to make the most progress up until now was Apple. Apple’s TV device and app was initially meant as a one-stop shop for virtually all streaming video, like a comprehensive 21st-century TV Guide. But with cable companies being difficult to work with and Netflix not participating, Apple never quite made that dream a reality.

It kept trying for sports, though, tying into third-party offerings like the MLB app alongside its own programming to try to make the TV app a place to launch all your games. Apple got pretty close, depending on which sport you’re trying to follow.

ESPN’s app seems a little more promising, as it covers a more comprehensive range of games and goes beyond the TV app’s “what’s happening right now” focus with better search and listings.

ESPN execs have said they hope to start offering more games streaming directly in the app, and if that app becomes the go-to spot thanks to this new guide, it might give the company more leverage with leagues to make that happen.

That could certainly be more convenient for viewers, though there are, of course, downsides to one company having too much influence and leverage in a sport.

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