Unlike CNN or ESPN, which make their live feeds available only to select subscribers, Bloomberg is boldly making its broadcast available to anyone with an iPad.
Viewers will be able to watch the live stream in portrait or landscape upon opening the app. Bios, stock quotes and other information relevant to the segment are displayed beneath the video feed. Viewers can pull up a schedule of upcoming content in the upper left-hand corner and set reminders that will pop up 30 seconds before each segment.
The app also contains a library of on-demand and, soon, iPad-exclusive content. These videos, which can be downloaded to a playlist for later viewing and shared via email, Facebook and Twitter, are organized to help users access the most important news at any given moment. Users can also customize a running ticker at the bottom to, say, highlight news related to the healthcare and technology sectors, or European markets.
The app has two main aims: 1) to enrich the Bloomberg TV experience on the iPad, which means making contextually relevant information easily accessible; and 2) to get people to spend more time with the Bloomberg brand, which requires reaching viewers when they're not sitting in front of their TV screens, says Oke Okaro, global head of Bloomberg mobile.