If you’re one of those people who is a self-proclaimed “cord-cutter” and shuns cable TV, you might reconsider now that Dish Network has unveiled Sling TV. Announced earlier this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sling TV is an Internet-only cable TV offering that gives users a dozen standard channels for only $20 a month.
With the ability to stream across a slew of devices, Sling TV is aiming to bring the millennials back to TV. “We designed a service based on how millennials consume content, with no contracts,” revealed Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch to CNET. The channels include the Disney Channel, Food Network, HGTV, and others. But the most exciting channel in the Sling TV “Best of Live TV” package is ESPN and ESPN2.
Most cable TV consumers stick with their current bundles because they are afraid of losing their sports networks if they switch to anything else. But with Sling TV, they can stream ESPN and ESPN2 across all their devices, all at a much lower cost. In fact, sports channels are a big player in the cable game: ESPN costs a whopping $6.04 per cable provider, per person, according to a table from the Wall Street Journal.
While Sling TV is catered towards drawing in the 18-35 year old crowd, Dish Network might even see some of their existing customers giving Sling TV a try. They will certainly have to do a bit of refining in order to make this basic (yet appealing) package stick with the millennial crowd.
