Better late than never — at last it’s possible to get premium entertainment without having to become a cable subscriber.
Sling TV, Dish’s new web-based subscription service, promises a revolution: in exchange for a flat fee of twenty bucks per month, it taps the Internet to deliver a package of ESPN and a bunch of other premium live feeds to a plethora of different devices, no contract and no commitment required, Re/code reported Monday.
The staggered roll-out begins today: just register on the Sling.com website and wait patiently for that invite to hit your inbox (they’ll start sending them at midnight). The service will be “widely available in the next couple weeks.”
Sling TV broadcasts in both 720p and 1080p and includes Dolby surround sound. And it’s nothing like the old cable guide: you get to see everything that’s live using the On Now tab in the mini guide.
Re/code reports that some of the channels that deliver streams to Sling TV, like Scripps’ Food Network, let you pause and rewind shows, or watch them again after they’ve aired.
You can’t skip ads, though, which is a bummer.
So, what exactly does $20 per month buy you?
For starters, how about live feeds from ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, ABC Family and CNN?
And if that’s not enough entertainment for you, additional packs will be available for $5 per month each.
In case you’ve been wondering, having ESPN through SlingTV gives you access to WatchESPN programming and functionality. If you’ve ever tried using WatchESPN through DirecTV, you’ll appreciate this.
Supported devices include Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Google’s Nexus Player, Roku players and TV models, select smart TVs from LG and Samsung, Microsoft’s Xbox One console, iOS and Android phones and tablets and Mac and Windows PCs.
Notably absent: Sony’s PlayStation, Google’s Chromecast and the Apple TV.
Though you can have Sling TV on as many devices as you want, at launch the service will be a single-stream affair meaning you’ll be able to have Sling TV on multiple devices, but only watch it on one devices at a time.
Sling’s CEO fielded many questions by cord-cutters in a Reddit AMA so check it out to learn about the fine print and other details.
Cord-cutters will have plenty of reasons to celebrate because it’s not just Sling TV: later this year, HBO will finally bring its premium content to the Internet generation so you’ll be permitted to buy an online-only subscription to HBO.
On top of HBO and Sling TV, Sony recently announced bringing a similar service called Vue to market.
So, what do you guys think?
Is the age of web-based subscription TV finally upon us?
Source: Re/code