CBS

Access live CBS broadcasts in select viewing areas, as well as on-demand CBS shows with the CBS app. A monthly subscription to CBS All Access is required, though a 1-week free trial is available.

Channels

This app is a bit different than the others in this section, because it requires extra hardware: an HDHomeRun tuner. If you have one, and the paid Channels app, you can access live TV via an antenna or cable subscription. For details, see Glenn Fleishman’s TidBITS article Channels App Adds Live TV to the Apple TV’s Capabilities.

Crunchyroll

If you’re an anime fan, check out Crunchyroll, which offers streaming anime for $6.95 per month. For $11.95 per month, you can purchase an Premium+ package, which includes live-action Asian dramas. A 2-week trial is available, and you can sign up through the Apple TV. Or, check the Premium Membership Plan Comparison page to sign up and compare the two paid options.

History Vault

The History Channel has an enormous archive of historical documentaries, and now with History Vault, you can watch them commercial free, without a cable or satellite subscription for a monthly fee after a 7-day free trial.

NHL

The NHL app offers free statistics and video highlights. For an annual fee, you can subscribe to NHL.TV, which provides access to live video and archives, subject to blackout restrictions. Playoff games are not available, nor is any other game that is nationally televised.

Hulu

Hulu is akin to Netflix in that it offers movies and TV shows for a monthly fee, though Hulu specializes in offering TV shows shortly after they air. Hulu unfortunately also shows ads, although there is a semi–ad-free option for an additional monthly fee. Hulu has recently boosted its selection of exclusives, like the sitcom classic Seinfeld and films from The Criterion Collection.

HBO NOW

Want HBO originals like Game of Thrones, but don’t want to go through a cable or satellite provider? HBO NOW lets you cut the cord, getting full access to HBO content as it airs for a monthly fee. If you already subscribe to HBO through a TV provider, you’ll want to instead check out HBO GO.

Lynda

Lynda offers paid online courses in business, technology, and creative skills. The average monthly cost is $20 or $30 after a 10-day free trial.

MLB.tv

The MLB.tv app provides free scores, standings, and video recaps for Major League Baseball games. If you subscribe to an MLB.tv package you can watch live regular season MLB games, subject to blackout restrictions. Unfortunately, this subscription doesn’t cover playoff games, which require a separate subscription to watch them later in the United States and Canada.

MLS

The MLS app offers free stats and highlights for Major League Soccer. Access to live games is available for a monthly fee via MLS Live, subject to blackout restrictions. There are also free shows, such as MLS Insider.

NBA

As with the other sports apps on the Apple TV, the NBA app offers free stats and highlights. The NBA offers a number of packages for watching live basketball games.

Netflix

The overlord of streaming services, Netflix is available in almost every country (except China) and seemingly on every device capable of playing video. Your monthly subscription entitles you to a plethora of movies and TV shows, including several fantastic Netflix originals, such as Daredevil, Grace and Frankie, House of Cards, Jessica Jones, Making of a Murderer, Orange Is the New Black, and more. Content varies by country.

Noggin

Those of you with TV-watching preschoolers will want to look at Noggin, which serves up ad-free content for toddlers for a monthly fee. Shows include Blue’s Clues, Franklin, and Little Bear.

Qello Concerts

With Qello, you can watch recorded concerts and music documentaries, and even view custom Setlists, your own playlists of concert tracks. Read the Qello FAQ on the web to find out more about how Qello works. A free trial is available, with subscriptions available monthly or annually.

Showtime

Like HBO NOW, the Showtime app lets you subscribe to Showtime without cable or satellite service. A 30-day free trial is available. If you already subscribe to Showtime through a TV provider, you’ll want the Showtime Anytime app instead.

Starz

Starz is a premium cable channel featuring movies and acclaimed original shows like Ash vs Evil Dead, Black Sails, and Outlander. TV subscribers can activate at https://activate.starz.com to view Starz content in the app, and it offers an in-app subscription for cord cutters.

Smithsonian Earth

Smithsonian Earth features documentaries and shows about nature, commercial-free, for a low monthly charge.

UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship app offers pay-per-view mixed martial arts fights without a TV subscription (usually around $60), as well as UFC Fight Pass, which grants access to past fights.

WWE

The WWE Network is an unbeatable deal for wrestling fans. The monthly fee includes every WWE pay-per-view event, past present, and future, and 24/7 programming, including several original series.

AMC

Offering some of the best TV of the past decade, the AMC network’s app offers full episodes of current shows for a limited time. Activate it at http://www.amc.com/activate/.

BBC America

Featuring quintessential British fare like Doctor Who, you can activate BBC America at http://www.bbcamerica.com/activate/.

CNBC

CNBC is all about financial news. Activate it at http://appletv.cnbc.com/activate/.

CNN

Watch live, 24-7 news from CNN by activating at http://www.cnn.com/activate/.

Discovery GO

Discovery has all the shows about Alaska (and sometimes sharks) that you could ask for, both live and on-demand. Activate at https://www.discoverygo.com/activate/.

Disney, Disney Junior, and Disney XD

The Disney Channel trio of apps offer a variety of children’s programming for different age levels. The activation links are:

• WATCHDisneyChannel.com/activate

• WatchDisneyJunior.com/activate

• WATCHDisneyXD.com/activate

E! Now

If you want to keep up with the Kardashians, activate E! Now from inside the app under Settings > Sign In.

ESPN

The ESPN app offers sports clips and live games, such as Monday Night Football. To activate the app, visit es.pn/appletv.

FOX NOW

The Fox Now app grants access to recent episodes and seasons of Fox shows. Even without activation, it allows viewing of recent episodes of select shows. The activation link is foxnow.com/activate.

Fox Sports Go

Watch a number of sports shows and events by activating at https://www.foxsportsgo.com/activate.

FXNOW

FXNOW lets you watch not only recent episodes of shows from the FX Network but also live TV from various FX channels and every episode of The Simpsons. Enter your code at fxnetworks.com/activate.

HBO GO

If you subscribe to HBO through a participating provider, then you have access to the HBO GO app, which features all HBO content as it airs, with archives dating back to the late 1990s. To activate, visit hbogo.com/activate.

To access HBO without a cable or satellite provider, check out HBO NOW.

HGTV Watch

HGTV, short for Home & Garden Television, offers past episodes, as well as live TV. Go to hgtv.com/appletvHBO NOWto enter the onscreen activation code.

NBC Sports Live Extra

NBC Sports Live Extra offers live sports and replays, but to see them, you’ll need to activate at nbcsports.com/activate.

Nick and Nick Jr.

The Nick app lets you watch Nickelodeon shows, some for free, but most require activation at www.nick.com/activate. The preschool-level Nick Jr. app can be activated at www.nickjr.com/activate.

NFL Sunday Ticket

If you subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket via DirecTV, you can sign in and view football games with this app.

Showtime Anytime

If you subscribe to the Showtime family of channels, you can access their content archives and live TV with the Showtime Anytime app. To activate, go to showtimeanytime.com/activate.

To watch Showtime without a TV subscription, use the Showtime app.

The Nat Geo TV

The Nat Geo TV app features shows and documentaries focused on nature, science, and current events from National Geographic. To activate the app, go to natgeotv.com/activate.

USA NOW

To watch shows from the USA Network in the app, enter your onscreen code at usanetwork.com/appletv.

VH1

View VH1’s collection of reality shows by activating at www.vh1.com/activate.

Watch Food Network

To get your fill of cooking shows and live Food Network TV in the Watch Food Network app, visit foodnetwork.com/appletv.

Watch Travel Channel

Watch shows and live TV about worldwide travel by downloading the Watch Travel Channel app and going to travelchannel.com/appletv.

A&E

The A&E app offers free, ad-supported, recent episodes of shows from the A&E Network, though if offers more if you authenticate via a TV provider, which you can do at aetv.com/activate.

BBC iPlayer

If you live in the UK and have a TV license, you can watch your favorite BBC programming through the free BBC iPlayer app.

BitTorrent Live

BitTorrent Live offers an eclectic mix of free content, including music, news, and sports channels. To learn more, see the TidBITS article BitTorrent Live Brings a Weird Selection of Free Content to Apple TV.

Bloomberg TV

Bloomberg TV offers free access to high-quality financial news 24/7.

CBS News

The CBS News app is free, and offers live 24/7 news coverage.

CBS Sports

The CBS Sports app offers free clips and more free of charge.

Comedy Central

The Comedy Central app offers free recent episodes of Comedy Central shows, but to access comedy specials and older episodes, you’ll have to sign in to your TV provider at www.cc.com/activate.

Crackle

Often overlooked, Crackle serves up free, ad-supported movies and TV shows. Crackle also offers some original programming, like Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Free Classic Movies

Free movies! Sure, they’re old, but there are a lot of gems in this app, all commercial free.

Funny or Die

A collaboration between comedic actor Will Ferrell and director/writer Adam McKay, Funny or Die serves up free comedy videos. What makes this app unique is that you can vote for or against each video, thus “funny” or “die.”

History

The History app offers reality shows and shows about aliens from the History Channel and H2, and sometimes even programs about actual history! Recent episodes are free, but for more you’ll need to authenticate at history.com/activate.

Lifetime

This app offers a number of free shows from the woman-focused Lifetime network, but to get everything, you’ll need to activate the app at mylifetime.com/activate.

NBC

The NBC app offers plenty of free episodes, but to view everything it has to offer, authenticate at nbc.com/appletv.

Newsy

Want your news fast? Newsy offers a continuous stream of short videos with the day’s top headlines, with no punditry. You can also manually select which clips to view.

NFL

The NFL app offers free clips and highlights, as well as NFL Now, which lets you create a custom channel featuring your favorite teams and players (for information on how to set it up, read my TidBITS article The NFL Arrives on Apple TV). If you subscribe to NFL Network and/or NFL RedZone through a participating TV provider, you can also watch those channels in the app by authenticating at nfl.com/auth. Also available through the app is NFL Game Pass, which offers replays of all regular-season games for an annual fee.

PBS KIDS Video

The PBS KIDS Video app serves up free content for kids, but you’ll have to activate at pbskids.org/activate first. No TV subscription is required for activation.

PBS Video

The PBS Video app offers recent episodes of PBS shows for free. You have to activate it at pbs.org/activate, but no paid TV subscription is required.

Pluto TV

Pluto TV offers free live TV, with no strings attached! The channel assortment is a grab bag of online news, tech, gaming, and miscellaneous, browsable with an onscreen guide.

Sky News

This app brings you free live news from the British Sky News network. You can also access Sky News from the aforementioned Pluto TV.

TED

With the free TED app, you can access the free library of TED’s famous presentations by fascinating people.

The Weather Channel

Yes, The Weather Channel app offers weather forecasts, but it also features free nature shows.

TWiT.tv

Leo Laporte’s TWiT network offers a wide range of shows for tech enthusiasts, and ShiftKeySoftware’s free TWiT.tv app lets you watch live shows and archives on your Apple TV.

Watch ABC

The Watch ABC app allows you to watch a ton of free, ad-supported episodes of ABC shows. Access even more by authenticating with a TV provider at abc.go.com/activate.

VEVO

Vevo is all about music videos, and it has a plethora of them for free. You can create custom playlists and unlock explicit content by activating at vevo.com/activate and logging in with a Vevo, Google, or Facebook account. No fee or TV subscription is required.

YouTube

The free YouTube app is essential. It lets you watch the small universe of video that YouTube has to offer, and if you activate the app at youtube.com/activate with a free Google account, you can get custom recommendations, access your YouTube playlists and favorites, and view Google Play video purchases.

Art and Screensavers

You can view masterpieces and even the planet Earth:

• Art Channel: View a gallery of masterpieces individually, or as a slideshow in the Art Channel app.

• Artsy Shows: Another art app, with a different twist. Artsy Shows offers a look at current art exhibits around the world.

• Earthlapse TV: Of the many screensaver apps for the Apple TV, Earthlapse TV is unbeatable. It displays simulated, high-definition views of Earth from the International Space Station (Figure 98).

Food

The Apple TV is a natural platform for cooking videos, but developers have taken it further, letting families plan meals—whether home cooked or delivered—in the living room:

• Grubhub: A food delivery service, Grubhub lets you order dinner from your TV if you live in a supported area.

• Kitchen Stories: If you want to be a better cook, Kitchen Stories is a good place to start. It serves up video recipes, and specializes in kitchen basics (Figure 99).

  

• Tastemade: All about food and travel, Tastemade offers recipes, how-tos, kitchen tips, trip ideas, and cuisine from around the world.

• Yummly: Featuring oodles of recipes, Yummly lets your entire family plan meals from the couch. If you link the app to your account at https://www.yummly.com/tv, you can sync recipes and save them from the TV app.

Fitness

Workout videos are nothing new, but the Apple TV offers new frontiers, such as subscription services and interaction with fitness trackers like the Apple Watch:

• Beachbody on Demand: This app offers subscription access to all of Beachbody on Demand’s workouts, like P90 and P90X.

• Yoga Studio: With ready made yoga and meditation classes developed by a qualified instructor, Yoga Studios is an ideal app for yoga beginners and experts.

• Zova: In many ways, Zova is a standard aerobics app, but what makes it unique is that it can pair with your Apple Watch to monitor your heart rate (Figure 100).

Music and Audio

The Apple TV offers some entirely new ways to experience sound:

• iHeartRadio: Listen to radio stations and podcasts from around the world, and vote on your favorites (Figure 101). Log in with your iHeartRadio account to sync your preferences between devices.

  

• Pandora: With Pandora, you can create custom radio stations and tailor them to your exact taste.

• Touchpress: If you’re a fan of classical music, you’ll want to try the free Touchpress app. It offers recordings of classical concerts, along with interactive beat maps and scores (Figure 102).

Photographs

The tvOS App Store offers not only new ways to view your photos on your Apple TV, but also apps to view gorgeous professional pictures. For a deeper analysis of photo-viewing apps, see my TidBITS article Four Alternatives to iCloud Photos on the Apple TV.

All these apps should be of interest to photographers:

• 500px: See beautiful, hand-picked photos and galleries from professional photographers.

• Flickr: View photos from Flickr users around the world, or link the app to your account at www.flickr.com/appletv to view your photos and albums.

• Getty Images: Check out Getty Image’s gorgeous collection of news-related stock photos.

• Slidez: Built around the Apple TV, the free Slidez app lets you upload photos via a web app or the iOS app, and view them as slideshows. Slidez also lets you view Live Photo movies, such as those captured by the iPhone 6s (Figure 103).

  

• VSCO: The VSCO app showcases photos taken by the VSCO community, and lets you search the library of VSCO images.

Shopping

Buying products you see on TV is as old as TV itself, but the Apple TV takes it to a whole new level:

• Edmunds: If you’re shopping for a new car, the Edmunds app is a great resources, with video car reviews, car buying tips, comparison tests, and how-to videos.

• HSN and QVC: For fans of buying As Seen on TV products, both the HSN and QVC apps are mind blowing. Both apps show a live stream of the respective channel, let you browse the offerings, and buy products from your TV (Figure 104).

  

• Gilt: For upscale shopping right on your TV, Gilt is the place to be.

• StubHub: The place to buy event tickets on your TV.

• Zappos: Now you can buy shoes from your TV!

Real Estate and Travel

Whether you’re looking for a place to stay on vacation, a new home, or ideas on how to fix up your home, the Apple TV has apps for you:

• AirBNB: Need a place to stay? AirBNB lets you find lodging in homes, condos, and more around the world (Figure 105). To save interesting listings to your account, activate at www.airbnb.com/appletv.

  

• FlightBoard: Make your living room feel like an airport with FlightBoard, which displays flight departure and arrival times for any airport in the world. Security checkpoints and overpriced beverages not included.

• Houzz: Looking to redecorate? Houzz displays renovation and decorating ideas.

• Zillow: If you’re in the market for a new house, try Zillow and you can view local listings from the couch. You can sign in to your Zillow account to save interesting listings for later viewing.

• Zumper: Just need a place to rent? Zumper lets you view apartment listings by city, price, and more.

Decide Where to Install Plex Media Server

Plex Media Server can run on either a computer or a supported NAS (network-attached storage) device. It’ll work okay on a laptop, but even better on a desktop computer. If you can dedicate a computer exclusively to Plex or a set up Plex on a NAS, even better!

Here are the pros of dedicating a computer to Plex:

• Availability: You can more easily set up a dedicated machine to be ready to go when needed, not sleeping or turned off.

• Less bothersome noise: Plex can be CPU-intensive while it streams content and thus cause a Mac’s fans to kick in, increasing the noise level. You can hide a server in a closet or another place that muffles the noise.

• Better performance: If you run Plex on a non-dedicated computer, other tasks running on that computer could slow Plex or vice versa.

• Comfort: Finally, heat would be an issue if you were to stream Plex content from a laptop on a lap. (If this happened, you could simply set the laptop aside.)

It’s not all good, though. Here are the cons:

• Startup cost: You’ll need to buy (or build) a server machine, if you don’t have one sitting around already. However, it doesn’t need to be an expensive Mac, since Plex can run under Windows Vista or newer, in FreeBSD, and in several Linux distributions.

• Power: A dedicated Plex machine may consume more power overall than if you ran Plex on a non-dedicated computer.

• Complexity: You’ll have to maintain another computer.

Try Plex on a non-dedicated computer first. Then decide whether you would prefer a dedicated computer or NAS. Plex Media Server for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better, and at least 1 GB of RAM (2 GB is recommended).

Set Up Plex Media Server on a Mac

Start by downloading the latest version of Plex Media Server for Mac. Expand the ZIP archive (if it doesn’t unzip automatically), move the resulting Plex Media Server app to your Applications folder, and launch it.

Plex Media Server puts an icon in the menu bar and opens a configuration page in your web browser (if it doesn’t open the page, choose Open Plex from the Plex icon in the menu bar).

The exact Get Started procedure for Plex may change, but generally, you follow the prompts to sign in, agree to the terms of service, and name your server. Once these administrative details are completed, you see the Library page.

Add Libraries

Plex displays your content organized in libraries, which map to folders in the Mac’s Finder. You can create as many Plex libraries as you like, but each one should contain only one type of content: movies, TV shows, music, photos, or home movies. You can add libraries now or later, so don’t worry if you aren’t ready to add all your media right now.

To add a library now, click the Add Library button (Figure 107), select a library type, and click Next. Change the name of the library if you like, and click Next.

Then, click Browse for Media Folder, select the folder where you store that type of media, click Add, and then click Add Library to finish. It may take a few minutes—or hours—for Plex to scan the folder for media.

When Plex finishes, you see the added library listed below the Add Library button, as shown in Figure 107, above.

When you’re done adding libraries, click Next.

Explore the Home Page

If your Plex server’s Home page (Figure 108) isn’t already open, while Plex Media Server is running, click its icon in the menu bar and choose Open Plex to open it in your web browser.

Let’s take a quick tour of the Home page interface:

• Toolbar: You can always click the toolbar’s Home button at the upper-left corner to return to the Home page. Other toolbar options include a Search field and buttons for checking the server’s status, configuring the server, and managing your Plex account.

• Sidebar: The sidebar contains quite a few controls. For now, notice that you can click a library name to see its contents.

• Dashboard: The Dashboard is the main pane that appears if nothing is selected in the sidebar. It contains various areas that you may or may not see, depending on your Plex setup. At the top, you may see an On Deck area. An on-deck item is one that you’ve started playing but not finished. Other areas are Recently Added, Channels, Watch Later, and Recommended.

  To play any Dashboard media item, hover over it and click the Play button (if you play an item in On Deck, Plex gives you the option of resuming or starting from the beginning).

  To access content in a listed channel, just click the channel’s icon.

Manage Plex Media

You can add media to your Plex server at any time:

• Add a library: In the sidebar, hover over the Libraries header and click the Add button.

• Add media to a library:

  1. In the Finder, put the media file in that library’s folder.

  2. Update the Plex library. The easiest way to do this is by clicking the Plex icon in the menu bar and choosing Update Library. (Plex updates all your libraries, even though the command says just “Library.”)

• Remove media from a library: In the Finder, remove the media file from the folder, and update your library as described in the list item just above.

• Rename a library: Hover over its name in the sidebar, and click the Edit Library button. Type a new name in the Name field and click Save Changes.

• Delete a library: Hover over the library’s name in the sidebar, and click the Edit Library button. Click the Delete Library button, and follow the prompts. To more fully remove any traces of the library from Plex’s storage area on your Mac, hover over the Libraries header in the sidebar to reveal and click the More … button, and then choose Clean Bundles.

• Add a channel: A channel is an app that runs on Plex and grants access to streaming content. For the most part, you don’t need to mess with channels, because any streaming service that offers a channel also offers a native Apple TV app that works better. That said, if you do want to install a channel, in the sidebar, click Channels. Click the Install Channels button. Click the channel that you want to install, and follow the prompts.

• Remove a channel: In the sidebar, click Channels. Hover over the icon of the channel that you want to delete, and click the x.

Access Plex from Apple TV

Once you’ve set up Plex Media Server, you’re ready to start enjoying Plex on the Apple TV! Download the Plex app from the tvOS App Store, open it, and then go to https://plex.tv/link and enter the code displayed on your TV screen.

The Plex interface is split into five screens:

• Home: Visit the Home screen to play or view your media, continue watching videos you haven’t finished, and access your Watch Later and Recommended lists (Figure 110).

  

  Scroll down in the Home screen to reveal the Reload button, which checks your server for new content (Figure 111).

  

• Playlists: Your playlists, if you have any, appear here (see the sidebar Making Playlists, slightly earlier).

• Channels: Enjoy channel-based content from this screen. The channels here are those that you installed on your Plex server.

• Settings: In Settings, you can change the Plex server that the Plex app is connected to, sign up for a Plex Pass subscription, adjust video quality, tweak subtitles, and more. (Unless there’s a problem, you probably don’t need to visit this screen.)

• Search: If you can’t easily find something on the Home screen by browsing, come here to locate it by title or keyword.