Roku's international plans became real Friday after it began UK and Ireland. The Roku LT and Roku 2 XS are now available for £50 and £100 respectively (60 and 120 euros). British customers are simultaneously getting BBC iPlayer to catch up on the past one to two weeks of TV shows.
In sync with the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update, Microsoft has provided a listing of TV providers that will be ready to go this week. Along with existing access to ESPN, Hulu, and Netflix, the December 6 update will also bring EPIX authenticated video in the US, Lovefilm in the UK, MediaSet's Premium Play in Italy, Sky Go in Austria and Germany, Telefonica España's Movistar Imagenio, and MSNBC's Today in the US.
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on Wednesday estimated that sales of the second-generation Apple TV had been steady since it went on sale in October. Extrapolating from the official tally of one million in December, he determined that another 820,000 of the media hub had shipped in the first three months of 2011. He didn't directly explain the reasons why to AppleInsider.
Roku made one of its biggest pushes into retail on Wednesday and landed a key deal with Best Buy. The big-box stores will carry the mid-range Roku XD both in retail and online. The move represents the first time one of the company's networked media hubs is available at stores across the US without a forced rebranding.
(Update: NBA too) In a quiet companion update to iOS 4.3, Apple on Wednesday also added MLB.tv to the Apple TV. Those using Apple TV 4.2 (build 2060) can watch both live and archived games, including in HD where the option exists. Users can hop to particular plays or at bats and can play the version of the broadcast from either city.
The Apple TV other unsupported platforms may get NFL Sunday Ticket in what could be a major coup. A leaked DirecTV research survey has suggested that those who subscribed to the Internet version of the live sports service could watch on an "Apple TV, Boxee or Roku player," adding dedicated media hubs that haven't had service at all before. Blu-ray players, game consoles and direct TV connections were likewise mentioned in Engadget's tip.
Roku's media boxes could soon get Hulu Plus access, StreamingMedia executive VP Dan Rayburn claimed on Monday. After allegedly getting a photo of the front end, two content partners said that a Hulu channel was coming. They didn't say whether it would be the free service, though Hulu's resistance to TV-friendly free use makes it more likely that a $10 Hulu Plus subscription is necessary.
Roku today became one of the few if not only network media hub creators to offer Major League Baseball streaming. The addition gives anyone who already has an MLB.TV premium subscription the option of watching a game live if it's out of their home market, including in HD. Users can also watch recent games from any market on demand and still have access to MLB content on computers and elsewhere.
Apple has posted a new iPhone ad to its site which puts a focus on the MLB At Bat application. The new promotion follows Apple's, now common formula for building an iPhone ad. A hand is seen operating the phone over a white background with the same tune playing in the background, the same voice describing the capabilities of the iPhone and the phone ringing and being answered to end the advertisement.
MLB.com has updated its At-Bat iPhone/iPod touch app to include post-season schedules. The software should allow fans to track each post-season game live, with a pitch-by-pitch view through Gameday. Users also have access to video clips including previews and highlights, for which the app automatically detects connected networks, and plays video tailored to EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi bitrates. At-Bat also provides up-to-date box scores and game summaries.
The Major League Baseball association is seeking action against a free iPhone application called Baseball (opens in iTunes), regarding its use of MLB team logos throughout the app. PC World reveals the app contains thousands of team and player statistics, reaching back to 1888, all the way until the current baseball season. On Monday, Mark Knopper – owner and proprietor of Bulbous Ventures – was instructed by email to remove all logos related to Major League Baseball, and associated teams.
