Chromecast Gets Nick, Comedy Central, and More
Whether you’ve got the Chromecast dongle or a Nexus Player, being able to cast your Android device to your TV screen is always great. Trouble arises, however, when apps don’t support casting natively, so it’s always good news when video apps incorporate the feature. Today, Google announced six new apps that have the ability to engage with your casting device.
Over on the Google Chrome blog, a post explains that casters can now enjoy using the Comedy Central app, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, TuneIn Radio, EPIX, YuppTV, and Encore Play. These are some nice additions to the casting family, and I fully intend to take advantage of…well, some of these.
The problem, of course, is that a bunch of these require subscriptions for access, a major roadblock to us cord cutters (unless we enjoy username and password combos from friends or family who pay for cable). If you were hoping for free video content from EPIX, Encore Play, or even Sesame Street Go, they all require subscriptions (or a paid account in the case of Sesame Street). YuppTV is restricted to showing Indian television, and seems to only be available to devices specific to that region.
On the other hand, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon provide the latest episodes for free, and that’s awesome. I’m a fan of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, and I’ve been having a devil of a time streaming the show to my TV lately, largely due to problems with either the Nick app or the Nickelodeon website. Video playback was choppy at best, and unwatchable at worst. Now that I can cast it from the Nick app – essentially telling my Nexus Player where to fetch the video directly – the problems will diminish considerably. Even better, the Nick app works for Android 5.0 now, where it didn’t before.
This is the latest batch of goodies hitting the Chromecast, with a whole slew having become available a couple weeks ago. Thanks, Google! I look forward to spending even more time on the couch than usual.