Sling TV was a new service that took the internet by storm at CES 2015, a service that would let you Take Back TV. An answer to the crisis of people wanting to stream TV with no contract on any device and using any network. Sling TV is backed by Dish and has a unique offering. For $20 a month, no commitment, you get access to a set number of channels across news, entertainment, sports, and a few others. You can access them from an application your smartphone, tablet, computer, Roku, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and other devices. Not only do you have access to these live television channels, but a library of video on demand content is available as well. For the past few days I’ve had the opportunity to check out and put Sling TV to the test, will it be the next big thing? Keep reading to see my full thoughts on the service.
Customers have wanted a way to bring live TV content to all of their devices over any network connection for sometime, services like Slingbox has brought us closer to this. But Dish owned Sling TV is set to bring us closer to this end goal. Let’s start out with the offering, it is a no commitment service, you can cancel online anytime. It starts at $20 a month and you can access this stream from a plethora of devices, at launch it should be on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, a Roku 3, a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, a Xbox One, a Nexus Player, and many other ways to stream coming soon after. Sling TV can work both on WiFi, 3G, and 4G LTE; Yes you can finally stream from a cellular connection and it works pretty well. With the $20 a month plan you get access too ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, ABC Family and CNN. Plus with this plan you can access their video on demand library and get access to the WatchESPN application. Sling TV will be offering add-on packages which will come in at an extra $5 a month. The News & Info pack gives you access to HLN, Cooking Channel, DIY and Bloomberg TV. With the Kids pack you will get Disney Junior, Disney XD, Boomerang, Baby TV and Duck TV. A Sports Extra pack is in the work and will give you even more sports channels to enjoy.
While this is certainly not a full television lineup, for cord-cutters or cord-never, it provides a pretty darn good amount of viewing offerings. Sling TV is planning to expand its channel list for the $20 a month basic plan as well, sometime in the very near future, they will also be expanding the video on demand and add-on-packs content as well. These expansions will happen throughout the rest of 2015 and it aims to make Sling TV a more competitive offering.
The technology behind Sling TV is IP-based content delivery system that is built using an adaptive bit rate streaming technology. You can stream over WiFi, 3G, and 4G LTE and the quality of the stream is dependent on the connection. However, even if the network quality is not the best or if it fluctuates, it will deliver the highest quality streaming experience possible. Even on certain channels, like HGTV, you can pause, rewind, and fast-forward the content. For instance ESPN and Disney Channel do not offer these features along with the 3 Day Replay feature. On certain channels you will be allowed to watch some shows that have aired in the past three days, thus eliminating the need for a DVR by creating a unique solution. On the channels when this works, the quality was neat and it allows you too have more content to choose from.
Sling TV’s quality has been really nice, it truly is HD streaming and it works very well. I’ve tested it out on a college campuses WiFi, which sometime has trouble watching a YouTube video. With that being said the unique streaming technology that have been put into play are working very well and it creates a solid experience. On this campus wide WiFi network I tested it out using the Mac OS X application, on an iPhone 6 and an iPad Air. On the smartphone it did do a proper switch over of the stream when it went from WiFi to 3G/4G LTE, although one time it did pause for a few seconds while it reconnected. On a personal high-speed WiFi network that performs very well, the streaming was phenomenal and I experience no service interruptions there. In fact the buffering at the beginning was done very quickly. The Sling TV application on the Roku 3 provides a great streaming experience for live content as well. Keep in mind that depending on your network connection, your experience with Sling TV might be different, but they have put a lot of research into this streaming technology and they are working to make it perform well on most networks.
A key part of Sling TV would have to be the user interface, and they basically eliminated confusion by making it the same across most of the devices it is available on. When you are watching a channel, you can have a clear screen with just the content or if you tap in the middle, several options and bars will show up. On the bottom you get the time line, this shows the time left and the time completed, plus you get access to the play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward buttons. The top bar provides you with the channel, show name, an information button, and an option to turn on closed captioning. Both the top and bottom bars are a dark translucent color, this helps to not take away from the viewing experience. You can also search for content using the magnifying glass button, under the menu button you can you can see your watch list, video on demand content, and settings. The right hand side gives you the chance to see the different categories of channels. You can also pull a full translucent guide by showcasing the different categories, for select channels you can see content from previous days and future content that will appear on the channel as well.
In terms of video on demand content, you get access to a bunch of titles, including several series from Maker Studios. Titles like The Skeleton Twins, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Lucy, We” Never Have Paris, The Expendables 3, and many others are available. You can watch trailers for the titles, as well as seeing full description of the movies. You can rent the movies for $3.99 for standard definition or for $4.99 for high-definition. After you rent them, you can get 30 days to start watching them and once you begin watching them you have 24 hours to finishing watching it. You can also stop the stream on your phone then pick it up on your tablet or your Roku 3. Overall, Sling TV did a great job with a defining an application that doesn’t take away too much from the viewing experience, but still provides a very easy way to access features that are important to you.
Since Dish announced Sling TV at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, I have been very eager to learn more and of course get to experience and test out the full service. After several days of being able to use the service across several devices and on several different networks, I can confirm that it is awesome and has a very bright future. As of right now it is a solid streaming service that performs well and works on both WiFi and cellular networks. It is a new option for cord cutters everywhere that finally brings an actual fully connected option, meaning that you can access it from anywhere. With that being said I am hoping that they begin to add more channels sooner and expands the 3 Day Replay feature to other channels. Sling TV will be starting at $20 a month, but you will be able to get a one week free trial to test out the service. You can sign up to be one of the first to access Sling TV By Clicking Here. They should begin rolling out invites very soon, in fact they will start rolling out invites to those who have pre-registered at midnight tonight. With a full launch coming in the next two weeks, as they are putting the finishing touches and expanding the number of users on the service. I have a feeling Sling TV will be a service that can be used in combination with Netflix or Hulu Plus, or by itself as your source for entertainment, although the later may take a few months as they expand their channel offerings. It would also be ideal for a college student so they can keep up to date with there live television, as well as have access too a large on demand library. You can see a fully gallery of Sling TV below and would like to thank Sling TV for providing us with access to the Sling TV service.
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