Now You Can Watch Four ESPN Games at Once on Apple TV

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ESPN on Wednesday released a major update to its tvOS live-streaming app for Apple TV, which chiefly allows sports enthusiasts to stream up to four live games simultaneously in a variety of formats. The new feature, dubbed MultiCast, has reportedly been designed to eliminate the viewer’s need to flip through channels just to see a game’s current progress, ensuring that sports lovers will never have to miss out on the next big play ever again, according to a report from Variety.

While MultiCast was designed to provide viewers with up to four simultaneous streams at one time, the feature actually supports five different viewing modes to fit your specific needs.

  • 2-Up view offers side-by-side game viewing in a picture-in-picture (PIP) format.
  • 3-Up view allows viewers to stream three simultaneous views comprised of one large and two smaller screens.
  • 4-Up view enables the viewer to watch four games via one large and three smaller screens.
  • Grid view will display games in an equal sized grid-like format.

According to the report, ESPN, who produces more than 60,000 hours of programming every year, is also looking into ways in which it could use some of the guide space for viewing more than just live-streamed games. “Down the road, ESPN is thinking of using the other tiles in the MultiCast for content aside from video. For example, those could be playing in-game highlights, fantasy sports updates, alerts, scoreboards or social-media posts,” Variety said.

ESPN & Apple’s 4K TV

Multiple rumors about a 4K-capable Apple TV potentially launching as early as this fall have been circulating the web recently, and the possibilities of ESPN’s MultiCast feature on a 4K television are quite promising.

Viewers with a 4K-capable television and Apple TV will be able to watch four games (each in full 1080p HD resolution) at the same time. And, of course, ESPN is also slated to launch its own subscription-based streaming service as early as next year, which should bode favorably with sports enthusiasts.

In the interim, ESPN says, its MultiCast feature is only available on the Apple TV because “other smart TV platforms” don’t offer the same advanced features and capabilities that Apple’s tvOS has baked in.

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