Apple TV Adds More ‘TV’

The new Apple TV is now home to more than 3,600 apps. While many of them focus on games and on-demand video streaming, a small but growing number of them support live TV streaming even as Apple itself tries to iron out carriage deals for its long-rumored pay TV service.

One of the latest to jump into the live-streaming mix on the new Apple TV is KlowdTV, a virtual multichannel video programming distributor that booted up its app for the platform last month, expanding on support for devices such as Roku players, the Amazon Fire TV, select smart TVs and TiVo digital video recorders.

KlowdTV, which recently introduced a cloud DVR that starts at an extra $1 per month, has also begun to distribute Estrella TV, the Liberman Broadcasting-owned Spanish-language network. Estrella TV is part of Canales Latinos, KlowdTV’s $3-permonth package that also features Canalamerica, Canal Antiestres, TLR and Hola TV, among others.

That’s not all. Tech blogger Dave Zatz has uncovered and posted a video demo of Channels, a new app, seemingly targeted to cord-cutters, that lets users stream live TV from any HDHomeRun network tuner made by SiliconDust.

As part of a launch sale, Channels costs $14.99 through\Feb. 8, then jumps to $24.99.

With Channels, which supports a 30-minute video buffer, “you can pipe both linear television and streaming services all through the same input and interface (although, as of yet, without universal Siri search),” Zatz said.