CES: A Live Look At Sling TV

by
January 6, 2015

With the cable-cutting generation in mind, Dish Network has made the effort to meet the cable subscription-free crowd halfway. The satellite entertainment company announced their Sling TV service, granting the ability to stream live television — in particular news and sports — all without a terrestrial TV package.

Though Sling TV is still only in an invite-only beta release, numerous companies have already agreed to sign on. Among the big name entertainment channels is ESPN, TNT, TBS, CNN and Food Network. The service will cost $20 per month, but it is not tied to a contract or any specific time commitment, and thus can be canceled at anytime.

On top of the lack of any long-term commitment as well as the channel lineup already in place, the streaming audience should take note too. Despite still being in an early phase, Sling TV is already compatible with Roku, Fire TV, Nexus player and XBox.

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Though the booth at CES did not display Chromecast compatibility, the representative I spoke with did say Sling TV can be used with the Google Cast system.

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Sling TV is ready to go with Android and iOS devices as the beta version was already up and running on a number of iPads and Android tablets. While I was able to get a hands-on experience on the mobile devices, I didn’t get a chance to use the Xbox version. Sling TV has been steadily tweeting out updates and news regarding their service.





 

You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.

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Matthew
10 years ago

Add the local RSN for a bit extra and we are talking

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David WiersMember since 2016
10 years ago
Reply to  Matthew

I can try for a follow up on Thursday to see if this is even in the works. I know Dish does have agreements with FSN etc, so it is possible.

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John Thacker
10 years ago
Reply to  David Wiers

A decent number of the RSNs are owned by companies like FOX or NBCUniversal/Comcast, and so far have be announced for the competing Playstation Vue service from Sony (which in turn is missing ABC (ESPN) and the Turner (TBS/TNT/CNN) stations.)

Right now seems like a sports fan would have to get both Playstation Vue and Sling TV.

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Matt
10 years ago
Reply to  David Wiers

That is the thing. With MLB.TV and Sling, I would appear to be covered for most of what I watch. If you add in NESN in my case(or any RSN), it is up to 100%. Especially since HBO is offering a standalone streaming service. Since Dish is still paying a carriage fee for the channels, I don’t see why they wouldn’t appeal to everyone under 30 and undercut the competition and offer some sort of package like that.

I mean if you have sports + basic channels, the appeal to younger men is incredibly appealing.

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mustbunique
10 years ago

Will this be compatible with apple tv? Good stuff DW, enjoying the CES articles a lot.

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Seth Keichline
10 years ago
Reply to  mustbunique

Mustbunique – Not initially. It’s been reported that Dish won’t fall in line with Apple’s design restrictions for Apple TV.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/05/dish-announces-sling-tv-20-per-month-internet-tv-service-with-espn-cnn-more

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