The CW Network released its Apple TV app yesterday, as it promised to do last week. The CW’s app allows all fourth-generation Apple TV owners to watch new episodes of shows on the network for free with no login or cable authentication required. Apple TV owners just need to download the new CW app and click play on a show to watch, notes MacRumors.
CW Apple TV App – needs no subscription or login
All the shows on The CW Network, including The Flash, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Arrow, Supergirl, Jane The Virgin, The 100 Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Reign, iZombie, Supernatural, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are available to watch with ads.
The CW’s Apple TV and iOS apps focus on the newest episodes only. No archived content is available from past seasons. Only the five most recent episodes from the latest season are available for the user to watch, and it is all free. This should be welcome news to cord cutters, who hope that other TV networks might adopt the same policies.
The CW is setting a trend toward authenticated and paid streaming apps by making these episodes available for free and without any subscription or registration. In order to stream the latest episodes on Roku and other connected TV platforms, networks like FX and ABC require users to authenticate with their pay TV operator account information.
CW’s tvOS app
On iOS devices, the update to the CW app introduces support for both Chromecast and AirPlay. It enables content from the iOS app to be streamed to a TV set as a way to watch The CW Network content on television sets without buying a fourth-gen Apple TV, or it can be streamed as an alternative to using the Apple TV app, notes MacRumors. The CW apps for both tvOS and iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free.
However, fourth-generation owners can bypass AirPlay streaming by downloading the CW Network’s tvOS app, which offers similar access to popular shows directly from the set-top box. The CW’s tvOS app, like the iOS iteration, does not require a subscription, cable login or password, which means there is no setup process required. iOS devices users, in addition to full episodes, can opt in to receive notifications about recent shows and access extra content like cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and more, notes Apple Insider.
Photo by Cristiano Betta
