Apple TV rolls out multiview feature in beta to sports fans

The rumors going around about Apple TV launching a multiview feature  — which was spotted by developer Steve Moser — are coming true. Tonight, Apple is launching a beta version of the feature on the Apple TV 4K during its MLB Friday Night Baseball livestream, TechCrunch has learned.

Users participating in the Apple beta software program must have tvOS beta version 16.5, which can be downloaded by going to the Settings app and selecting “System,” “Software Updates” and then “Get Beta Updates.”

Apple hasn’t officially announced when multiview will become widely available. There’s no exact timeline yet for when tvOS 16.5 will officially be out of beta.

As first reported by Tom’s Guide, the beta feature is currently limited to Apple’s sports offerings–MLS Season Pass and MLB Friday Night Baseball. The feature will be available for MLS fans tomorrow when Matchday 8 commences at 7:30 p.m. ET.

With multiview, users will be able to watch up to four games at once, which is displayed in a grid format on the screen. To use the feature, viewers can start watching their game of choice and then select the “Add Game” button.

The multi-viewing experience is customizable in many ways — so we’ve learned — and allows fans to move games around the screen, making one game larger than the others or choosing to watch either two or four evenly split screens. If a user wants one game to take up the majority of the screen, the other games are then stacked on the right.

Fans can also switch between audio via the remote, so they’re able to control which game they want to hear.

Similarly, YouTube TV is also testing a limited multiview feature that’s available for only a select number of U.S. users.

Apple’s Friday Night Baseball games are included in the $6.99/month Apple TV+ subscription. However, consumers have to pay $12.99 or $14.99 per month for MLS Season Pass, depending on whether they’re Apple TV+ subscribers.

Unlike Friday Night Baseball, which killed its free offering this year, MLS Season Pass allows non-subscribers to watch a few MLS matches for free.

For Matchday 8, there will be five games that fans can watch without signing up for the subscription. This includes Charlotte vs Colorado, Columbus vs New England, Minnesota vs Orlando , Toronto vs Atlanta and San Jose vs Kansas City.