YouTube is getting its own channel on Apple TV.
Starting mid-June, Apple TV will stream videos wirelessly from the Internet on YouTube, Apple announced last week. Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available initially, with the full catalog becoming available by the fall.
Apple TV works with iTunes to play users’ content — including video, movies, TV shows, music, photos and other digital media — wirelessly on a widescreen TV display.
Last week, Apple also announced a new Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive. The drive has four times the storage capacity of its previous devices for up to 200 hours of video, 36,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of the three.
Apple TV can automatically sync content from one Macintosh or Windows PC or stream content from as many as five additional computers to a TV display without wires via wireless, high-speed Internet connection.
But, the YouTube deal could also bring Apple into the middle of an on-going copyright battle over TV programming shown on the web. MTV Networks owner Viacom is suing YouTube for copyright violations.
Viacom said last week that it would welcome the chance to license material to Apple. Viacom sued YouTube in March for $1 billion charging it with “massive intentional copyright infringement” after finding hundreds of thousands of Viacom-owned videos uploaded to the service without permission.
