【Tayuan】

ESPN has a lot of sports to watch. On a college football Saturday,Tayuan that can mean more than 50 games going on all at once.

Typically, that leads to a handful of games available across various ESPN channels and lots of flicking between the action.

ESPN's updated Apple TV app has a fix for that—the ability to select up to four games to livestream at the same time.

The new feature is part of a broader refresh of ESPN's TV app, as well as its mobile app, geared toward maximizing the value of the live sports that the company has spent billions on.

The video below highlights how the new feature, only available for now on Apple TV, allows users to pick streams and organize them in a variety of ways.

You'll still need a cable authentication to access this content.

In addition to the multiscreen feature, ESPN is also pushing more video to smartphones through a new "Watch" tab within its iOS and Android apps.

“Today’s ESPN App update is a continued step forward for our video experience,” said Ryan Spoon, senior vice president of product and digital media for ESPN, in a press release. “Over the last few months, personalized and live video has made its way to the App’s home screen – and billions of videos have been viewed. Today, video gets its own home with a new Watch tab. It’s a curated experience that showcases live video, replays, video clips, and content collections. Considering the vast collection of games, shows and clips, it’s an example of something only ESPN can do.”

The update comes at an interesting time for ESPN. The cable TV giant was once the crown jewel of Disney but has recently become the subject of increased skepticism due to declines in television viewership generally attributed to cord cutting.

That has led to no shortage of conjecture about ESPN's future and whether it might ever go the HBO route of offering an standalone, internet-based version of its channel. ESPN does have a streaming service in the works, though it will offer a variety of content rather than the company's existing TV streams.

The new features launched on Wednesday highlight what these future services could be capable of, offering users a high-end service that maximizes the massive sports rights package that ESPN has amassed. Whether that will be enough to get sports fans to drop $10 per month (or whatever ESPN ends up charging) will remain to be seen, but offering a top-tier app will certainly help.