Welcome To A New Adventurous Form Of Receiving Media: Sling TV.

Cinema Without Borders’ audience has always been keen on the new wave of online entertainment related content and has been asking us about where to turn for the best online broadcasts of live TV. It wasn’t until Sling TV announced its live TV services that we recognized a serious move in that direction. Sling TV is a game changer and therefore during the next six months will check it out from different angles. With our office in Burbank serving as a crossroad for working filmmakers visiting and living LA, we will let them try out Sling TV to get their unique media insider’s views and comments on this new service.

At once, right at the beginning of signing up for the Sling TV seven day trial, the first thing that stands out is the amount of choices given to the customer. With three different live TV packages to start with, you can go with “Sling Orange” for $20 which allows you access to 25+ channels, “Sling Blue” for $25 which allows for 40+ channels, and lastly the combination buy of “Sling Orange + Blue” which has the best value and gives subscribers access to all channels.

For Cities that can’t get antenna signals, like Burbank being too close to the mountains that mess with the reception, Sling TV provides an opportunity that isn’t tied to the absurdly normal cable and dish shtick of paying for hundreds of channels or not at all. Sling is compatible with following devices too: Roku, Windows, Android, Android TV, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, Windows 10, iOS and Apple TV and Google Chromecast.

Here’s another aspect that Sling TV approaches in a novel way, which is that Sling TV is free of any form of required accompanying equipment. Unlike most cable or dish providers, Sling TV takes advantage of the modern technology found in most every day households. No tangled wires drilled through your home or obnoxious appliances jutting from the roof of your home. What this means is this service is not hard to set up or acquire. Sling TV only requires you to have a computer with an Internet connection and boom – select the TV channels of your choice and start watching Sling TV.

The question of when Sling TV will have DVR? One competitor, Hulu, is said to be getting this same service of DVR added to their streaming channel. However, this won’t be for some time. So who is to say that Sling TV won’t jump on the notion and add this idea to their pantheon of other great services? And on top of that, Hulu is much more expensive. What you watch or choose to pay for is less up to your own choice, which is not the case with the deals that Sling offers its subscribers.

Sling TV provides FOX, NBC and ABC to select markets.
o   FOX: Chicago, New York, San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas / Fort Worth, Washington D.C., Orlando / Daytona Beach / Melbourne, Tampa / Saint Petersburg, Phoenix, Atlanta, Austin-TX, Gainesville, Minneapolis / Saint Paul, Detroit, Charlotte
o   NBC: Chicago, New York, San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas / Fort Worth, Washington D.C., Miami / Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Hartford / New Haven
o   ABC: Chicago, New York, San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Fresno / Visalia, Raleigh / Durham
Sling TV also offers local feeds of Univision and UniMas in many markets across the U.S.

For navigation around your selected channels on Sling TV, you will usually rely upon “My TV” bar. But to check all available channels you use a navigation bar called “channel guide,” Viewers can also add most-watched shows, series and movies to the “Favorites” ribbon by choosing the “♥” icon after selecting any program.

In addition to other scruples with the service, one that stands out the most is found in their packaging of channels. What would really be novel and really break away from the traditional form of television is if Sling TV could provide to the option to pay for single channels at a time. Currently, when you sign up for the “All Channels” deal, it really doesn’t include all channels, and there are still “Extras” packages in which you have to purchase three to five more channels to get access to the one you wanted. Sling TV is so close to providing the perfect television application, but it seems to be too caught up with pricing and selling in a scaled down model of selling channels in bundles. Though, it’s not as rapacious as cable and dish, and who’s to say Sling TV won’t get the message and break up the old school pricing style once they grow larger? It’s not the TV viewing application we’ve been waiting for, but it sure as heck the best thing that’s come along yet and it is getting there. Give Sling TV a shot and sign up for a free seven-day trail to decide for yourself if this new revolutionary way of receiving media is the right thing for you.

*