Dish Slings “Over the Top” Service - What It Means
Dish is boldly going where no pay-TV provider has gone before.
As it seeks to fend off the competitive threats posed by the planned mergers of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)and DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) on one side and Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) on the other, Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) is introducing radical new TV features and services that are guaranteed to shake up the industry. In December, the company launched Netflix on its Hopper DVRs — the first major pay-TV provider in the US to do so. (See Dish Makes Room for Netflix.)
Now, at CES, Dish is unveiled its long-awaited online video service, Sling TV.
Sling TV, which is set to roll out later in January, will sell for $20 per month without a monthly contract (users get one video stream only). It will include a slimmed-down bundle of just a dozen or so TV networks available over the Internet. At the center of the Sling TV bundle is ESPN, but additional channels include HGTV, Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel and more.