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Watch out, HBO and Netflix: Dish’s new Internet video-on-demand service Sling TV plans to give its subscribers more than just sports and basic cable.
Sarah Tew / CNET
Sling TV, an Internet streaming video subscription service that launched last week, announced on Monday it plans to offer four new channels and more than 2,000 on-demand movies and TV shows through a partnership with Epix, the joint venture among a host of prominent movie studios including MGM and Paramount. The Epix package will cost extra, with pricing and availability yet to be announced, Sling TV said in a statement.
The $19.99-per-month base Sling TV package of live TV includes 13 basic cable TV channels such as ESPN, TNT, Food Network, Cartoon Network, CNN and Galavision. It also includes shows from Internet-only Maker Studios. Subscribers can then add more channels through expansion channel packs covering news, sports, or children’s entertainment for $5 per month each.
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Only a week old, Sling TV hopes to appeal to Internet consumers who have canceled their cable TV subscriptions — or never subscribed in the first place. A Frank N. Magid Associates study from 2014 found these so-called cord-cutters are a small but growing group, around 2.9 percent of US pay-TV consumers, up from 2.2 percent in 2012. However, the study showed the cord-cutting trend is far from mainstream and is most popular with consumers between 25 and 34 years old.
Sling TV’s package of live TV channels is the first of its kind offered on the Internet, but it won’t be the last. Sony is also planning a video-on-demand streaming service.
