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Crackle offers uncut and unedited TV shows and movies with commercial breaks. The selection is limited, but changes all the time. Browsing through the content, I could find a few movies and TV shows worth watching. As a Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriber, I don’t think I will get much use out of Crackle. There’s less than 100 movies offered at any one time. Titles such as The Cable Guy, Hollow Man, and Desperado are some of the better options. TV shows are also limited to a few episodes, maybe a season, of a few shows. Sanford & Son, Dilbert, and Married With Children are the few that piqued my interest.
Crackle programming is constantly changing. Videos are offered for about 5 months. It’s worth checking out Crackle often. You probably won’t find a specific title you’re looking for, but there’s usually something worth watching. Perhaps with more viewers, their selection will improve.
Next to PBS, Crackle is probably the best free content provider on Apple TV. The amount of free content on Apple TV is growing. Apple is not locking users into iTunes, as many people feared. In fact, as Apple TV matures, I find myself spending less money on iTunes content. Crackle is a great option for those who don’t want to pay for Hulu Plus. That said, Hulu Plus has much more content — the shows that most people want to watch.
Users can create a free Crackle account, which enables saving videos to the Watchlist. Crackle for Apple TV is available in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. The Crackle website, which plays streaming video, is available in 22 nations and three languages — English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
KORTV
KORTV offers 17 free and premium Korean TV channels with live streams and video on demand. The media provider is exclusive to Apple products, such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV. One can only speculate that Apple’s tight partnership with KORTV is aimed at gaining traction in Korea, a market dominated by Samsung. Partnering with content providers is Apple’s strong suit. Samsung will not be able to offer KORTV on their smart TVs, mobile devices and set-top boxes. KORTV is available in 100 nations using Apple’s devices.
English speakers won’t find much use for KORTV. Although their support page mentions that they have non-Korean language programming, I wasn’t able to find any. Turning on closed captioning, subtitles, or alternate audio didn’t help. Apple TV is an international product. KORTV is a great addition, even though I won’t get much use out of it. The service is offered in the U.S. and many other nations, as there is a significant Korean population outside of Korea. (continue…)