“Lots of people say they want to ditch cable TV for the Web, but can’t because they want to watch sports — specifically the stuff on ESPN, which has a hammerlock on much of the sports world,” Peter Kafka reports for Re/code.
“Now they will finally get a chance: Dish’s new Web-TV service, which the company is formally announcing today, lets you stream ESPN, over the Web, for $20 a month,” Kafka reports. “Dish’s ‘Sling TV’ offering, which the company says will launch ‘soon,’ also comes with 10 other non-ESPN channels, including the Food Network, CNN and the Travel Channel, and the ability to add more networks for additional fees.”
“One big omission from Sling TV’s launch list is Apple TV, which Dish says it would like to work with but can’t because of the rigid user interface rules Apple imposes on programming partners. Apple TV users will be able to get Sling TV on their set top by using an iPhone or iPad and ‘mirroring’ the stream to their sets, but Dish isn’t playing that up,” Kafka reports. “Dish wants you to know that Sling TV has nothing to do with its Sling Media and Slingbox products, but doesn’t explain why it used the same brand.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sling Media lawsuit over that name in 3… 2…
We’ll see how long Dish keeps that rate at $20/mo.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Just remember Comcast sufferers, 300 GB a month and then they charge you more.
The FCC will be voting on issues relating to the internet and how it could be regulated in February. I suggest you educate yourself, decide your position and contact the FCC with your take on things.
To quote Joe Biden:
This is a big f*cking deal.
If you switch to Comcast Business Class there is no data cap.
It has been a while since I looked at the Business Class, but think it is restricted in residential areas- otherwise they will not sell it to a residential address.
My Comcast service is quite fast on downloads but the DNS is awful.
I live in a residential area and have it installed. As for DNS I use openDNS which works great.
When I had cable, $40/month was going to pay for sports channels I never watched but was not allowed to cut from my service. Seems like a bargain to pay half that.
For the moment there, I thought they were talking about C-SPAN…
Thus far I’m very underwhelmed by internet channel offerings. Pay $20 for X channel, $10 for Y channel, $5.99 for Z channel, and pretty soon you’re well above the cost of cable/satellite service with 200 channels.
I think that, if you look at how much they get from cable companies or carrying their signal, they are really sucking in the dough with deal to individual cable cutters. The cable companies could do well by publicizing exactly how much they actually pay ESPN per cable subscription. ESPN on the internet would be completely knocked out.
Except that you never watched all of those 200 channels in the first place.
I’d rather pay a bit more for what I do want and nothing at all for what I don’t want. My overall bill is less that way.
For me, these ala carte channel prices are ridiculous. My viewing habits are too eclectic. If I purchased all the channels I want to occasionally watch via the ala carte method it would far exceed the bundled cable bill. ESPN’s offering may fit the bill for some, and I am happy for them, but $20/mo seems high for anyone that isn’t a Sports Bar running the channel (and nothing else) 20 hours a day.
True. $20/month is high. However, for many such as myself, live sports is the only thing we miss after dropping cable TV. This would fill the void and be worth the price.
With cable, I was paying about $130+/month. With this, I would be paying $28 ($20 for ESPN, $8 for Netflix) per month and missing nothing. That still saves me $100 per month.
Hmmph. I had to switch my FiOS TV service to one where I do NOT get ESPN and am not being charged approximately $4.00 in taxes and fees per month for a network my wife and I never watch.
They need to fix their Apple TV app. Tried to stream the Bengals game yesterday at it was constantly freezing. Usually requiring me to go back to the main app and reselecting the channel. None of the other streaming channels have this problem. And I’m on 200mb cable modem.
Dish owns Sling media so no lawsuit.
i cut the cord recently and I’m glad I did. i get the networks and a few other channels in beautiful HD. If you can handle just those channels, then there is nothing better than watching free tv
I wish Apple would create some original programming like Netflix does. I cut the cord too. There are about 16 OTA channels in my area, but I can only get about 8 because of the way my apt building is situated. Went through five different OTA antennas before settling on the one I have. I put for Amazon Prime on my Ruku and Netflix on my ATV. My ATV is constantly rebooting; it is very annoying.
But hey, I am saving money and I hope ATV improves with more channels and options.
And which OTA antenna was the best?
@mdn, Sling was purchased by Dish/Echostar. You don’t want to sue yourself.