Last week Dish’s burgeoning Web TV service, Sling TV, jumped on the Xbox One, added two new options to the growing list of $5 add-on bundles, and announced plans for the addition of four new channels slated for the core channel pack, including A&E, History, H2, and Lifetime. Today, those channels are live, bringing the growing core pack to an even 20.
Dish has been sly with its metered unveiling of Sling TV’s core channel offering, aka the “Best of Live TV” pack, which comes part and parcel with your $20 monthly subscription. At just under 2 months since the service went live to the public, Sling TV has continued to tease new offerings to entice users to join up.
Today’s additions supplement the already robust list of basic channels, which also includes ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, CNN, HGTV, and AMC to name a few. Sling TV also added some lesser known channels to the basic package under the radar, including El Rey, Makers, and Galavision, which add up to the even 20. It’s a nice round number, and it also makes for a solid price ratio of $1 per channel for the main package.
In addition, Sling TV continues to bring on new choices to add to its $5 add-on bundle packs, giving those looking for a little something extra plenty of choices. The service’s new “Lifestyle Extra” pack offers truTV, Cooking Channel, DIY, and We tv. Global news also got easier to access with the “World News Extra” pack, offering Bloomberg TV, HLN, Euro News, France 24, NDTV 24/7, News 18, and Russia Today.
Interestingly, the additional news packs will replace the formerly available “News & Info Extra” pack. However, the “Sports Extra,” “Kids Extra,” And “Hollywood Extra” packs are still available, bringing the total number add-ons to five, each available for $5 a pop. Add in VOD (video on demand) titles, and the growing core channel pack and Sling TV is starting to take serious shape.
While other Web TV offerings like Playstation Vue, and Apple’s rumored offering will likely be similar, none of them are likely to give as many price options, allowing users to go lean, or stack up.
Apple’s pricing is expected to be $30-40. Playstation Vue recently came online, available on Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 consoles for a few cities (including New York, Philedelphia, and Chicago), but that service starts at $50, and adds a fat channel stack that is priced and packaged strikingly close to what you can get from traditional Pay TV. And while Vue has several sports channels, it doesn’t include ESPN.
As for Sling TV, the addition of more channels to the core package at a lean $20 price, and plenty of bundles to choose from have so far made it the stand-out service for those looking to cut cable affordably, without sacrificing programming options.
We’ll no doubt be back with more news about the service in the next week or two, so stay tuned, fearless cord-cutters. The future is getting brighter.
Updated 3/26/15: A&E, History, H2, and Lifetime all go live today, bringing Sling TV’s core channel pack to an even 20 channels, as well as to add expected pricing for Apple’s new TV service.
