I'll see how SlingTV is this coming Saturday during the Star Trek marathon on EPIX.
That is also when HBO Now becomes avail as an add on for Sling TV.
Hmmm… $20 to start SlingTV, $5 here & there, $15 for HBO, no DVR, no transport controls. Beginning to sound a lot like regular cable to me, with some significant downsides. Just seems like the costs are adding up.
USTVNow had a pretty lousy picture, at least on my Roku.
Network Channels. This is requested every time Sling post anything on their Facebook page. Why do so many people want to pay for what they can get for free?
There are still plenty of people that can’t get good antenna reception, so something like this would help them.
I think Sling and others who are doing this kind of thing really don’t get it. It’s just cable all over again, wrapped in a new package. Want AMC? Oh, you can have it, but you also have to pay for ESPN and History. Oh, and no DVR or on demand for most channels, because apparently it’s still 1982.
No thanks. My antenna and Tablo are all I need!
Yep…I don’t want ESPN. I’d like to pick a half a dozen channels and thats it. I’d pay double what the channels make selling to the cable companies (per channel) if they’d let me. Hell, maybe even more.
You can see what the problem is by reading about ESPN suing Verizon for un-bundling ESPN in the offering they just announced. The cable channels want their channels bundled.
Whaaaa, don’t NOT offer my programs!!! LOL LOL
That is too funny!
Would love to hear how that turns out. How do you sue someone for not offering your product? 
ESPN is the most expensive channel in any base package and cable providers pay $4-$5 for each subscriber they got to ESPN. If they start unbundling espn and make it an “addon”, ESPN will make less money due to people opting out of it.
In the end its a matter of how the contract was written between the two companies.
For instance: You don’t sue them for not offering your channel, you sue them for not following the contract in which both parties agreed upon, ie: where cableprovider said we will pay (x) dollars for this channel/costumer and provide it to all our customers in our base package.
Now that the Spurs are out, I dropped Sling TV. Plenty of other things to watch.
Interesting thing about ESPN is how it is among the most expensive but is not the tops in ratings. Last I heard, and this is from a few gears back, lifetime.had the best average ratings of all cable channels and they charge far less than ESPN. But ESPN has been charging a ton more for years and forcing it as an add-on for years.
Someday cable, sat, and eventually online providers will find a way to go ala carte and ESPN will suffer a pretty big loss
Since Disney owns ABC, all the ESPN, they can REQUIRE all the Disney channels, all the ESPN Channels IF they want to also have the ABC station. THAT is what drives cable bills up, in addition to the local channels DEMANDING “retransmission fees” for them to be on cable. WHAT if the cable companies started giving away those $35 Walmart indoor antennas and tell the station “Good bye, it’s been nice having you, BUT you can be SEEN FOR FREE and we have passed out antennas”. In addition, the picture will be better because it is NOT COMPRESSED.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the lawsuit. I read that Verizon’s new service will be a separate legal entity so I am sure Verizon will argue that the new service is a different company that is not bound by the contract with ESPN. ESPN will likely argue that’s a bunch of BS to break the contract!!!
Also realize local TV channels rather have you watch their channel thru a cable provider vs off-air. They get payed twice that way.
If it were a separate entity, then it would not have the rights to stream ESPN at all.
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If it is a seperate legal entity then they need sepetate contract to air ESPN and likely won’t get it.
I believe what I read was that they made it a separate legal entity believing they could negotiate a separate contract allowing them to NOT bundle ESPN but ESPN is having none of it, not wanting a new service launched by Verizon without ESPN bundled… As a result ESPN has sued claiming Verizon’s actions violate the terms of the original contract.
My three month paid period is up, and I did decide to drop Sling for now. I think it is a good product, especially for sports fans, but I have workarounds for most of its content. There isn’t much new stuff in the summer anyway.
I might consider going back in the spring, especially if I want to watch the NCAA basketball championship on TBS, but I am good for now.