Dish Sling TV service is well-worth the buzz surrounding it. With Sling TV, Dish achieves what no other media company has done so far, successfully wrangling contracts from cable networks to make their broadcast content available via a streaming online service that requires no cable connection and no pricey cable service.
Look out, cable operators: You should be very, very afraid.
"It's not an issue of can you develop an app to show live TV, that can be solved," Dish Vice President of Engineering Dan Lloyd told me at CES 2015. "It's an issue of whether you can get the license to show that content."
This is a big deal. That Dish pulled this off is noteworthy unto itself; that Dish chooses to offer these services at a reasonable $20 a month price, no contract required, changes the game for television content. No authentication required to log in and watch something online. And if the big game is on ESPN, you can watch it for a fraction of what it costs to subscribe to your cable television. Live sports served up by no less than ESPN, and live news by the likes of CNN and Bloomberg add a legitimacy and immediacy to the Sling TV service that archive services like Hulu lack.
Dish says it is actively pursuing the cord-cutting audience with the Sling TV service, and no doubt the service will speak to those users. The service is completely independent from Dish's satellite offerings. That's a good thing if you want no part of a larger television service. However, if you already subscribe to Dish Network, the service may disappoint: You still have to ante up the $20 a month to have online streaming.
Sling TV is due out at the end of this month. The $20 monthly fee features 13 channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. Two add-on packages will be available at launch as well, for $5 apiece: kids extra, with Disney Jr, Disney XD, Boomerang, Duck TV, and Baby TV; and news and info extra, which includes HLN, Cooking Channel, and Bloomberg TV. A sports add-on pack will be added shortly after launch.
Here at CES 2015, Dish demonstrated the Sling TV service on a slew of device, including a range of Apple and Android tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Google's Nexus Player, Xbox One and Roku TV. The service will also work on select LG and Samsung smart TVs, and on Macs and PCs via a Web site portal (Google Chromecast is due later this year).
Lloyd told me the app is compatible with Android 4.1.1 or later, and iOS 6 and later; those software requirements include whatever hardware needs the app has as well.
I spent some quality time playing with the Sling TV app on an Apple iPad, and found it a very compelling experience in spite of some of the glitches I experienced with this pre-production version. On the show floor, I experienced the full gamut of streaming quality, from pixelated mess to occasional macroblocking to surprisingly pristine content.
Lloyd noted the challenging network environment of the CES 2015 Central Hall show floor as one reason for the varying streaming quality, and he indicated I should expect better quality in the typical home environment.
The bitrate and quality will also vary depending upon the quality the network chooses to serve up, and the device you're viewing it on. For example, on the iPad, ESPN streamed at high quality at 1.5 Mbps, Medium quality at 0.8Mbps, and low quality at 0.5 Mbps.
"The limits will change depending upon the device used," explained Lloyd. "On a tablet or a phone, it will be these. On something that has a higher throughput with more memory and a faster processor, the profiles will adjust up a lot higher."
The network vagaries are actually one of the odd points I found while using the app. Lloyd mentioned that's because the different networks have different rights arrangements, which in turn means the user experience can vary depending upon what you're watching. For example, The Cartoon Network has a 10 second replay and a skip ahead, but ESPN lacks this capability. And how the app resumes after you put it into sleep mode will also depend upon the channel. Some networks, like HGTV, will resume where you left off; others, like ESPN, will resume playing from that new point.
In general, though, the Sling TV app was well designed. The main screen opens with the last channel you played, and a miniguide runs along the bottom third of the screen. A horizontal bidirectional scroll runs through the available channels. Select a channel and you'll see info on what's playing, and what's coming up. Some channels have a three-day lookback, and let you view content from three days ago; others, like ESPN, do not. You can access movies and video on demand content that leverages Dish's other VOD offerings; this adds an extra dimension for current content.
Early verdict
I found the interface easy to navigate, clearly designed, and consistent among iOS, Android and other services. However, those variances in how different channels behaved was a source of frustration. I would have liked to see the ability to not just set programs we wanted to watch on a watch list, but to also have a notification when that program was about to air.
Regardless, we're excited about Dish's efforts with Sling TV. This is the first real attempt at a la carte television subscriptions, and it's a good start - with room to grow.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1s68FCc
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