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Dish Introduces $20-a-Month Streaming-TV Service
wyattstorch516 writes "Dish Networks has unveiled Sling TV, its streaming service for customers who don't want to subscribe to Cable or Satellite. From the article: "For $20 a month — yes, twenty dollars — you get access to a lineup of cable networks that includes TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2. ESPN is obviously a huge get for Dish and could earn Sling TV plenty of customers all on its own. ESPN just ended another year as TV's leading cable network, and now you won't need a traditional cable package to watch it. For sports fanatics, that could prove enticing. But Dish has hinted that there may be limits on watching ESPN on mobile thanks to red tape from existing deals between the network and Verizon."
Dish is already a provider. And pays the partner networks when online streaming like they do for satellite broadcast. They are only streaming networks that have agreed to the arrangement, which explains the limited selection.
Now what is likely to happen, is that cable companies (Comcast & Time Warner) will fight it. Because Dish customers are likely to be streaming over internet-only cable services in some regions where DSL is not practical. (hell, when is DSL ever practical?)
I understand your desire for a la carte programming, but live sports is what stops a *lot* of people from cutting the cord and just going to Hulu, Netflix, Prime, or SomeOtherService.
Getting ESPN is a Big Hairy Deal for cord cutters, and it's the title of the article. Your only other option was to hope that your cable provider let you tune into ESPNU or similar from your IP range...or to pirate your college sports.
You can think of this as ESPN is $20 a la carte, and includes some free channels with it :)
I'll warn you that TWC is like most providers. They will charge you though the nose for a "dry" internet connection (i.e. when you only have internet service with them). The delta between internet and TV with internet is just about $20 and add phone for another $10 (with per/min charges). Add a few dollars for the cable box and this deal will only be a small gain over an internet connection and TV.
Verizon FIOS is worse than that. They charge me over $100/month for 25/25 net only. If I added their premier TV service, I'd be at $140 or so with taxes and equipment for 2 TV's and they'd bump my internet speed to 50/50.
Where I get where this idea is headed and I would really like to just pay for what I need, I'm still money ahead to go with the full service from Verizon..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Not paying to watch commercials, sorry.
This is us vs the in-laws. We cut cable years ago and are fine with netflix and hulu (and Plex streaming our massive DVD collection)
When the inlaws come over, they are floored at the concept that we cannot watch sports. We really don't care to, but that does not figure in to their calculations.
The amount that goes to service and the amount that goes to the actual content provider are not divided so neatly into that fee structure. Advertising most definitely does not cover $100/month of the cost for the majority of people. The cost to the content provider comes out of part of that $20, and possibly some comes from the commercials. The biggest reason for commercials is as it always has been with pay TV: it's an easy way to get some extra revenue.
When cable TV was new part of the rationale given by marketing and word of mouth is that you don't have to put up with commercials. And indeed in the early days that was true, you only got commercials for those programs that were rebroadcast (not counting interstitial promotions for their own upcoming shows and the like). Ie, MTV was music videos all day and all night with the occasional commentary and news from "VJs". Even up until recently there were channels still like this, such as IFC or AMC not interrupting movies with ads. However it was not long until cable companies realized they could double dip and get subscription fees plus advertisement dollars, with only "premium" channels having fewer ads.