The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 65 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's granted patent 9,338,493 which we first discovered in Europe in January. The invention relates to controlling television interactions using Siri, Apple's virtual assistant that was introduced this past fall as part of the updated Apple TV with Siri Remote product. Today's granted patent is a possible peek at the future where Apple TV will offer users Live TV programming and recording.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for controlling television user interaction using a virtual assistant; FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary media content interface over video content.

Further to FIG. 5, Apple notes an example: "selectable video link #512 can include a live feed of a television channel. For example, the selectable video link can include a live feed of a soccer game on a sports channel as a result of a virtual assistant query about sporting events currently on television. The selectable video link can also include any other video, animation, image, or the like (e.g., a triangular play symbol). Moreover, the link can link to any type of media content, such as a movie, television show, sporting event, music, or the like.

Back in January we reported that ESPN President thought tvOS delivered a great experience and hoped to announce new subscriptions for Apple TV later this year. In light of Apple's granted patent, live sporting events falls into the area of ESPN content. 

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