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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."
If Aereo couldn't stream broadcast TV because of copyright and got shut down because it isn't a cable provider, Dish won't be able to do this either.
Isn't "Sling" somebody else's trademark for a like product?
To say goodbye to Comcast. I have been caught with the problem of family members who wanted those certain networks.
Now...bwahahaha.
So $20 for this. THen $$ for HBO GO, then $$ for Hulu Plus, then $$ for Netflix,...
I can see customers signing up and cancelling after X show ends for the season. Then jumping ship to another streaming service until their preferred Y show ends. Then jumping again.
I did that with Dish TV's online streaming sports package (which didn't require a contract or cable subscription) for a few months in the summer.
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 for one resent paying for very expensive programming that I never watch.
What is so interesting about this netflix, hulu, and the like is that the customer is no longer paying for the delivery of the goods :: just the goods themselves. This is hugely beneficial to the the content provider and gives customers who are voting with their dollars more power: if comcast throttles netflix (like verizon did, or whoever did against twitch (i forget who that was) we are going to hear about those nefarious business practices pretty quickly.
I, for one, welcome our new assembly line TV overloards.
I wholeheartedly approve of it.
ESPN is the reason I cancelled Dish in the first place. It's the most costly channel in their lineup and I got sick of subsizing it. Had they chosen better, cheaper channels, I would have considered it.
It is only so good as I can cancel at anytime. Else, it is the same Dish that I would get at the same price I would pay for actually having it via satellite (with a 2 year contract).
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Total FAIL. It is streaming only, no DVR. That means you will happily be forced to watch commercials. I wouldn't even take the service if it were free.
The problem I have with all these streaming services is they don't respect the privacy and security interests customers. I shouldn't have to hand over the control of my devices in order to be able to subscribe. Unfortunately most people don't realize that they are literally being spyed on, manipulated, and taken advantage of. These companies are on using these proprietary programs to monitor the content your watching, web sites your visiting, and sometimes even blocking them.
Many companies are literally installing backdoors and conducting censorship en mass blocking sites they don't like, restricting downloads of third party content, inserting or replacing content with malicious advertisements, and more. Some are even seizing data, holding it hostage, and extorting money out of users. It's not always as obvious its going on either- but ultimately peoples bank accounts are being drained and arrests are even being made of users who didn't know that storing there data on third party servers renders it open to government scrutiny.
without ESPN? Please? It's really for people who like to here other people spout shit they tried really hard to fill time with. It's actual information can be smmed up in a website. I don't know why I need to subsidize a profit making network.
Of course, I have no idea why people tune in to here athletes talk.
Hey, football fans! This is what the QB is going to say:
If it was a hard game or loss, he will take the blame.
If it is a win, he will praise the line.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
From the FCC:
Are cable systems required to offer "a la carte" and pay-per-view channels?
No, but they may choose to offer channels on a stand-alone basis ("a la carte") or as a pay-per-view channel. Commission rules also prohibit cable systems from requiring customers to subscribe to any tiers beyond the basic tier in order to have access to a la carte channels or pay-per-view channels offered by the system.
'Out your ass' is not a legitimate source.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I can't wait to call Comcast.
Careful... You will still need internet to stream this and unless you live in googleland where fiber abounds and fast internet connections are cheep (where is that exactly?) you will still need to pay Comcast for an internet connection. Get ready to be taken advantage of. Buying just internet service can get expensive beyond what you now see on your Comcast bill for that "package" deal you get on internet. Expect them to bump that up if you don't buy TV from them.
For me, the differential between my single 25/25 internet connection and a 50/50 connection with all the non-premium HD TV channels is about $40/month for 2 TVs. Take a look at Verizon's "pick your own package" prices online to see what I mean. What they do with their pricing isn't very intuitive. For example, I've been a Verizon customer for nearly 10 years, yet the "New customer" advertised price is almost 1/3rd cheaper than they will give me because I'm an existing customer. I've never missed paying the bill and have rarely called them to support my internet connection, but they'd rather get a new customer than keep me, even when I asked them to just match the new customer deal for me.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Not paying to watch commercials, sorry.
So let's pay $20/mo to 3-5 different places
Works for me when the difference is having to watch a show when broadcast vs. at any time I like without having to remember (or know) to record it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
is Hulu is missing most if not all of the drama shows my kid watches. I couldn't care less about sports. But her not having TV made her stand out around her friends as weird. TV is a very social thing for girls.
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Then no deal. There, I said it. Now you all can mod me down to hell if you want. I don't care. Fox News is number one on cable for a reason, and most of you will never understand that reason.
It's the same reason that Discovery and the History Channel are popular -- it's great entertainment. In the case of Fox News, it's all about watching political commentators take extreme positions and make a series of outlandish claims and statements about "socialists" and "liberals" without realizing that the mainstream political landscape in your country is completely right-wing.
Then this service obviously isn't for you. But, it's good enough for some people and a step in the right direction for others.
I'd be interested if it were via Satellite, but this would put my internet bandwidth over the limit. I see by the article you can add genre packages, which is neat.
They were going to offer the history channel, got the package bundle all ready to go and everything, except ALIENS.
I'm in Seattle and have 1gbps/1gbps for $80 (or 100/100mbps for $60) a month. I'm not sure why you are encapsulating all of Seattle in your post. Some of us in Seattle actually do have a decent selection for internet, although not a majority. All of my friends have decent connections, of at least 25mbps or more. I do feel for you, though, as it seems you are in one of those neglected areas of the city that has been shackled by the government arguments, and rights to run needed infrastructure being denied for cash under the table reasons. I sure hope the situation gets better for you, but for some of us in the Seattle area, especially the people that don't watch ESPN, this is a practical option.
Considering that Dish is a reputable company that needs to preserve its relationship with networks, I have a feeling they've already done the legal footwork to set this up.
There's really no discovery left on the Discovery channel, the the History channel is all about goofy stuff now like ancient aliens and Nazi conspiracies. Never watched that much Science channel but the few times it didn't seem that special though better than average (I like How Its Made though, it's on netflix). Most of cable has really declined badly, it's all about satisfying the hordes who don't like to think.
Yes it has no Fox News but then again it was never intended to supply all channels. Just a small subset of the most popular ones. Note that it has no news channels at all. Maybe if the experiment catches on they'll supply bundles for other stuff.
I do find it a bit strange that people seem to think that Dish is being some sort of activist liberal company by cancelling Fox News on purpose, when really this sort of thing has happened in the past with other cable and satellite companies when negotiating licensing terms for renewal. Not a conspiracy. I told my mother this when I heard her on the phone with a friend discussing whether to switch to comcast (gasp!). I had to explain to her that comcast was the country's most hated corporation and that Fox would almost certainly be back within a month. It helped only slightly, she instead cancelled it and got DirecTV...
Masochism?
Imagine a world where the cable company bought all the restaurant chains. Meals are no longer for sale! If you want to eat dinner at Chili's, just sign up for an expensive monthly service providing all-you-can-eat food at 37 chains all around town.
What's that, you only want to eat out occasionally at one or two restaurants? That's your choice but the price is the same.
Oh, did I mention that each meal will be interrupted 2-3 times for several minutes of pitches from various unrelated businesses? Don't worry, you'll get used to it! Soon it will seem normal to eat this way.
then get a lower rate ? Ive read espn is the most expensive basic channel to carry, I havent watched it for years (ever ?) along with 80% of the other channels.
Hmm? One of the things I've never actually managed to understand is, why do people want to pay for access to up to hundreds of tv channels, all showing near-identical programmes, none of which are really worth your time, and of which you are only ever going to watch a few any way? Perhaps I see it this way because I live in UK, where I can see some 5 - 10 actual tv channels on FreeView, and still only manage to find between 0 and 1 at any time that I want to watch. I have no need for chat shows, reality tv, sport, docudramas or whatever they are called; I don't want wall-to-wall passive entertainment - genuine information, well presented facts, honestly presented news etc, that's all I require.
If that's the case you're simply doing it wrong.
Here is how you do it right: Call them up. Tell them that you want to cancel. When they ask why, tell them that $competitor is offering you a better deal.
They will balk and scriptedly explain that $competitor's service is inferior.
Ignore this and tell them that price is your primary motivation right now.
[...]
They've got a script, and you aren't the first customer to play through it. So use your own script, and stick to it. If/when you make it all the way to the Customer Retention department, they'll give you whatever you want to keep you around, and if all you want is a steep discount for a year they'll be happy to provide that.
And if they're not happy to provide that, tell them (again) cancel it. Rinse and repeat until you've got what you want.
And don't worry: It's much harder than you think to get a Customer Retention rep to turn off your service.
(In my experience this works for any value of $provider. Way back in the dial-up days I had free nationwide Internet for most of a year: Every time I called $provider to "cancel," they offered me another month or three for free, which I found to be fairly profitable based on my usual hourly wage at that time.)
Kid-proof tablet..
HA! I'm an avid sports non-fan. Years back, when they were starting to roll out cable TV service in Houston, they actually had door to door salespeople going around to sign people up. The packages available were clearly designed to extort as much money from the customers as possible. With that goal in mind, the service tiers that included ESPN and other sports channels were really expensive. I selected one of the less expensive service offerings, as I'd rather go to the dentist than watch a stick and ball game played on TV. The salesman was practically frantic, and threatened me that I absolutely wouldn't be able to watch ANY sports with that selection. I laughed in his face and asked if there was any way he could guarantee that no sports would leak into my channels. He left shaking his head - clearly, he'd never met an avid sports non-fan before.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
I'm a sports fan. I watch the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA, even some premier league. And other than Sunday night football or the occasional live sports event, I rarely watch ESPN. I get my sports news online. ESPN's sports news coverage used to be great, then it was decent, now it sucks. The way the entwork completely ignores hockey (because they haven't had any TV rights with the NHL since 2003) is absurd.
What sucks is that at this point ESPN basically has TV sports coverage in the USA monopolized. They can pay high prices for college football or whatever broadly appealling sportring even is happening and every cable provider carries them so enough people will watch to make it profitable. They are like the Microsoft of sport networks. It blows.
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