A new report out this afternoon from CNBC describes how Apple gets third-parties to sell more of its products, sometimes at subsidized prices. In the case of Comcast and Charter, Apple has reportedly used leverage from deals with the companies’ mobile divisions to require specific sales of its iPad and Apple TV.
In addition to Bloomberg joining the Apple TV channel lineup today, a handful of other channels were added as well.
Sony’s Crackle service offers a number of television shows and movies without any subscription cost.
The new Watch ABC channel features a number of hit TV shows from the broadcaster including the new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D series, but requires a subscription from a service provider including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Google Fiber, Verizon FiOS, and others.
KORTV offers Korean-based content including paid video on-demand.
With all of these channels being added (and many requiring cable subscriptions), it should come as a relief to many that the next update to Apple TV offers a simplified interface for hiding channels in the main menu of the settings. Currently, hiding unused channels requires disabling channels in the parental settings.