Sling TV

[nnnnnate]

Any of you guys see this? It was announced at CES last week by Dish. Basically its an internet streamed TV service that starts at $20 for the following channels: ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Travel Channel, Food Network, ABC Family, HGTV, Disney Channel and Maker. They are going to offer additional channel bundles for specific interests, i.e. news or kids content for an additional $5 per bundle.

We don't have paid TV now and I don't watch a ton of TV as it is. I do like to watch a game or two on the weekends but the ones I always want to watch aren't on broadcast TV. I've been able to find streams online but the quality always sucks pretty bad. The biggest example of this is the two big college football games last weekend and the upcoming championship game in another week or so. With this being only $20 it would be worth it to me for the ESPN, the no contract is a bonus.

I guess there are a few caveats. Its another thing streaming off your internet so if you have a weak connection or a lot of people consuming at the same time you may get buffering. This will only provide one connection at a time so the kids can't be watching Disney in the basement with you watching the game upstairs.

I'm happy with the direction this takes the industry. Hopefully more companies will offer their content a-la-cart like HBO and Showtime announced late last year.

Sling.com
Tech Article about Sling TV

 

[Kevin B.]

We ditched Comcast earlier this year and are just using Hulu/Netflix/Amazon Prime. The only thing I've missed are the Saturday afternoon football games, but I don't miss them to the tune of $20/month.

This is a start, but it's not enough. It still bundles a bunch of shitty channels with one or two that are relevant to me, it's just a smaller bundle at a smaller price. By the time I picked all the bundles with channels I want, I'll be right back to $100/mo and 50kabillion channels I don't want. It's still just Big Media doing their pathetic best to stay relevant and profitable in the face of the internet and growing independant media, and I wish they'd just go away.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We just use our HD antenna and it works well but have thought about doing the Netflix thing for $8 a month or whatever it is.