This is not too overtly political but I wanted to share this. I think this is a good start to change the face of home and mobile entertainment. Eventually this has the power to loosen control of the cable companies. This is not meant as Spam, but something to stick it to the cable companies and improve entertainment options.
Sling TV will murder Cable TV?
Dish told me the service is directly targeted at millennials, a crowd that has little interest in paying upwards of $100 — what pay TV typically costs — for a crop of channels that never get watched. Sling, by comparison, starts at $20 a month and offers 13 channels, including ABC Family, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, CNN, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN 2, Food Network, HGTV, Maker Studio, TBS, TNT, and Travel Channel.
Sling TV will allow someone to stream these 13 channels on their internet device like a Roku or Xbox. No equipment needed. No contract involved.
We have heard the stories about how poor the cable companies are in customer service. We have heard how the cable companies spent millions of dollars to line the pockets of politicians to keep their legal monopolies intact and to pass legislation favorable to their positions.
Over 11 years ago I made a decision to do away with Cable TV and save some money. I have never looked back and regretted that decision. However, what I miss the most is the sports on channels like ESPN. Whether it be college basketball, US Soccer qualifying, or Monday Night Football, I do miss live sports on ESPN. At first you could watch ESPN3 online, but they got tricky and limited viewing to current cable subscribers only. I also miss some of the news networks like CNN and MSNBC.
The dawn of digital signals for my rabbit ear antennas has also been nice over the past 10 years. I get a crystal clear HD picture with all the broadcast channels plus some extras, including weather and kids channels.
Hating the cable companies for their monopoly on premium television, I have disliked their collusion with cable channels to limit channels to only those broadcast by cable companies (or Satellite Companies). I have a recent story where it took 7 1/2 weeks and 20 cummulative hours on the phone to get new internet service.
Similar to the folly of the music recording industry fighting digital music in the late 90's, I have found it foolish that internet TV packages were never offered directly to "cord cutters". Cord Cutters are people who no longer use cable TV. Has not Netflix and Hulu shown there are billions of dollars of potential subscription fees available from cord cutters?
Full Disclosure: I do pay a well known cable company for high speed broadband internet connection. I also pay for Netflix and have used a $10 a month internet subscription service called Dishworld, where I can stream live international soccer via Bien Sports.
Sling TV at CES
Two days ago, Dish CEO Joe Clayton made a grand entrance to his company's CES press event. Backed by a marching band, Clayton himself walked out with a giant drum strapped to his chest. There was a good reason for his over-the-top arrival: Dish went on to publicly unveil Sling Television, an internet TV streaming service that packages ESPN, TBS, TNT, CNN, Disney Channel, and other networks for $20 per month. No contracts, and no strings attached. If ESPN should one one day disappear from Sling TV's channel lineup — or if you find yourself missing AMC and FX — you're free to bail at any time. But after trying it out here on the CES show floor, I think I've convinced myself to make a break with cable.
I am excited for this and will be willing to shell out the $20/ month. Even with Nextflix, this is still less expensive than cable. This will not be for everyone. But I will jump on this. The system is expected to be available in a couple of weeks. This will appear on platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, and XBox. I have both a Roku and Fire Stick.
I have been waiting 11 years for something like this.