“Apple TV gets four-way sports streaming picture-in-picture mode with iOS 16.5”

Once iOS 16.5 is officially out, the Apple TV app may get an option to activate a picture-in-picture mode that displays four windows at once. This seems to be intended to watch up to four sports streams on a screen at the same time.

According to Steve Moser from the MacRumors website, iOS 16.5 Beta 1 code includes certain changes, including a “multiview grid” for the Apple TV app that allows users to view up to four simultaneous streams at once. Users must delete a ‘game’ in order to add another.

It would be an extension of the existing picture-in-picture mode supported by Apple TV. According to 9to5Mac there has been code in iOS for a multiview option for some time, but there are more references in the latest beta version. Incidentally, there are already apps for tvOS that support such a four-way picture-in-picture mode, such as those from ESPN and Fubo.

This expansion will be interesting for Apple in the United States, among other things, because the company owns the broadcasting rights for Major League Soccer and Friday Night Baseball. Matches of these can be viewed via the Apple TV app. If the new feature actually comes out and is part of iOS 16.5, it seems to be limited to sports streams and the Apple TV app.