So you have been thinking about your cable bill and cutting the cord but you’re not sure you want to go without some of your favorite networks on cable tv.
Dish has a new offering called Sling TV that might help.
The service is expected to launch relatively soon and be available for subscribers that have broadband connections. This means you will likely still have a bill from your cable company but you won’t be paying for a tv station subscription.
If you currently have a fast broadband connection such as FIOS or a 50mbit account with your cable tv company then you should be ready to get live television over your home network.
If you are on dialup or another service like DSL forget it.. you need a good amount of throughput to get even standard definition television but you probably already know this when you attempt to stream 720p or 1080p videos on Youtube or on other online video sites.
The devices that you can play live tv on include
Amazon Fire TV
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Google Nexus Player
LG Smart TVs
Mac / OS X
Roku set-top boxes
Roku Streaming Stick
Roku TV
Windows PC
Xbox One
You can also play on your computer and devices like a tablet or cellphone but you may need to upgrade your wifi for best results.
What do you get for $20 a month from Sling TV?
Well you get some very basic channels as of now. You can watch lineup of cable networks that includes TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2.
You can also add higher level packages geared towards kids with Disney Junior, Disney XD, Boomerang, Baby TV and Duck TV.
Their News and Info Package adds HLN, Cooking Channel, DIY and Bloomberg TV.
And a sports package will be announced.
But remember once you start adding all these packages you are going to be right back to where you were.. paying a lot of money for tv.
The idea is that you are supplementing your OTA Antenna stations that you can get locally with a lower cost streaming package.
Is Sling TV Worth $20 a month for only a few channels?
This is really up to you but if you are in deep need for live sports from ESPN then it is much less than buying a MLB or NFL online package.
It is unfortunate that even local stations don’t broadcast Hockey and Baseball anymore and if you want to watch the game you need cable.
On the other hand you can get a basic cable package and depending on your location it should cost you about $35 for the bare basic package that includes all your locals and a couple cable networks.
Since Dish is in a fight with FOX Studios the package does not include Fox News, FX or the Fox Sports channels but whether its Sling TV or another service its very interesting to see that cable tv networks are starting to get the idea.
People only want to buy what they watch and whether its over a stream or antenna or another solution people will find the way to reduce their bills if they feel they are paying for 90% garbage and a few networks they kinda like.
So Checkout the service.. we don’t endorse or use it at this time but we see it is an option that should be considered as it is one of the first to offer live cable stations and not just live streams of local networks as CBS is doing.