This week, ABC will become the first major broadcaster unveil an app that allows users in New York and Philadelphia to live-stream local programming. Content from WABC and WPVI will be available first, with plans to introduce it in other markets later this year, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter reports:
ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, said the live stream would be available in the other six cities where it owns stations sometime this summer. It is also in talks with the companies that own ABC’s more than 200 affiliates to make the “live” button work in their markets.
ABC finished the first of its affiliate deals, with Hearst Television, on Sunday afternoon; it said the live streams would work in Hearst’s 13 markets, including Boston and Pittsburgh, in the coming months.
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The app is also a way for ABC to get ahead of Aereo, the streaming television service that allows subscribers to watch over-the-air programming on Internet-connected devices. Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, told The New York Times that plans for ABC’s app were in place before Aereo was launched.