Broadcasters Working Hard To Cripple Dish's Consumer Friendly Sling TV

from the get-the-hell-out-of-the-way dept

You might recall that two years ago just around this time Dish technically won the CNET best of CES award for its Hopper auto-ad-skipping DVR technology, but CNET owner CBS trampled its own editorial policies by not only telling CNET to pull the award from Dish, but also banning CNET from writing reviews about the product. The excuse CBS gave was that CBS and Dish were involved in ongoing litigation over whether ad-skipping violated copyright, though of course the real reason was that CBS simply didn't want Dish's consumer-friendly product getting any more media attention than was absolutely necessary.

After the rather ridiculous fiasco, CNET reporters resigned and CEA took the "best of CES" honors away from CNET and gave them to Engadget. Fast forward a few years and Engadget has brought things full circle, this year awarding Dish's new $20 Sling TV service with the best home theater product award, best software/app award, and best of CES overall award. With perhaps an extra dash of hyperbole, Engadget declares Sling TV to be the beginning of the end for traditional television:

"Many of us have been waiting, hoping and even lusting after Sling TV before we'd ever heard of it: an internet TV service that gives you the channels you love, on any screen, anywhere, without a subscription to traditional cable or satellite TV service. Our long wait finally, blessedly ended at CES 2015. Sling (don't call it Dish) TV is a big deal, folks. It could very well be the beginning of the end for traditional pay TV here in the US, and that's not something I ever thought possible before this week. That, friends, is why Sling TV is taking home three Best of CES awards, including Best in Show."

That's probably overdoing it. While we noted that the service is a big deal because it finally breaks ESPN out of the traditional cable bundle, the lack of live broadcaster channels (for now), the inability to record programs, and the scattershot content catalog don't quite make this a cable TV killer yet -- though it's at least a step in the right direction (2015 looks to be the year streaming video finally leaves the cradle). Of course, like Dish's Hopper DVR, Sling TV very nearly didn't exist, and it came only after Dish was willing to give more than its pound of flesh to change-averse broadcasters.

Dish had to promise ABC that it would disable ad-skipping for some ABC content on Hopper to secure licensing rights. CBS (busy cooking up a $7 a month streaming service of its own) then proceeded to make it clear Dish would have to jump through even more hoops if it wanted similar deals (which haven't been struck yet). Apparently Dish's contract language with broadcasters also includes a clause whereby the satellite provider has to stop advertising the service if it reaches five million viewers, since you certainly wouldn't want a streaming television offering to get too popular and disrupt the cozy cable and broadcast status quo.

And those are only the contract restrictions we know of. Again, ad skipping and streaming TV aren't really all that innovative anymore -- but they are in an industry that fights tooth and nail against a litany of common-sense things consumers want (greater freedom in channel selection, fewer ads, prices that don't skyrocket at four times the rate of inflation). And Dish's uphill fight likely isn't over yet; should the service see any kind of traction you can be sure the cable companies and ISP will come crawling out of the woodwork, demanding the same kind of interconnection deals they struck with Netflix should Dish want its traffic to continue flowing unhindered.

So forget about the best of CES award, we really should be doling out an annual "I ran the gauntlet of protectionist legacy jackasses and still managed to somehow release a consumer-friendly product" award.

Filed Under: broadcasters, cord cutting, limits, sling tv
Companies: abc, cbs, dish

Dish/ESPN To Team Up To Finally Unleash Streaming Sports Without Cable

from the touchdown dept

For years, I've begged and pleaded with the powers that be for major American sports to be untethered from cable television and released into the world of real internet streaming options. Then the dominoes finally, albeit extremely slowly, began to drop. Even as some leagues wasted opportunities to expand streaming, like the NHL, other leagues are slowly beginning to let the door creak open. The most recent example was the NBA negotiating their broadcast contracts such that internet streaming was expanded considerably. While the expansion was real, the overall penetration in terms of the gross number of games that would be streamed is still limited. The other notable aspect of the NBA deal was that the streaming expansion was clearly being forced upon broadcasters by the NBA as part of the negotiations, rather than broadcasters themselves embracing streaming.

It looks like the times are a-changing a bit faster than even I would have thought. For what I believe is the first time, major cable sports is coming to internet-only subscribers in a partnership between ESPN and Dish.

Lots of people say they want to ditch cable TV for the Web, but can’t because they want to watch sports — specifically the stuff on ESPN, which has a hammerlock on much of the sports world. Now they will finally get a chance: Dish’s new Web-TV service, which the company is formally announcing today, lets you stream ESPN, over the Web, for $20 a month.

Dish’s “Sling TV”* offering, which the company says will launch “soon,” also comes with 10 other non-ESPN channels, including the Food Network, CNN and the Travel Channel, and the ability to add more networks for additional fees.

A couple of things that you'll hear from the detractors are obvious. First, twenty bucks a month for 11 cable channels added to your ISP bill doesn't sound like the greatest deal money-wise. Add to that that this deal has been done with Dish and not a company like Comcast, AT&T, or the like and it's easy to see this move as ESPN dipping its toe in the streaming waters to see if there be sharks down there. Let me respond to both of those points: neither matters even a little bit.

This is all about trending and the trends are clearly in favor of expanded streaming by all parties that desire to stay in business. If the price point is too high for the number of channels received, it will come down to meet demand, because the demand is the driving force. If this is a Dish-only deal today, it won't be the moment ESPN recognizes the value in offering it in the future. The company will either insist other carriers offer something similar or they'll simply open up their web product directly, which I think would be the better choice for them anyway, because this is ESPN we're talking about and having them stream matters.

Getting ESPN in the streaming game means the modern concept of cable television subscriptions has had its coffin built and is awaiting the final nails. When it comes to reasons for not cutting the cord, professional sports ranks number one, and ESPN is number one in cable pro sports. Re/code is exactly on point as to how far ahead of the game this puts things.

That wasn’t supposed to happen for years, but here we are. It’s not the end of pay TV — the networks that are doing this believe they can sell this stuff on the Web without compromising their existing businesses — but it certainly could be the beginning of the end. At the very least, it’s going to be hard to roll this back.

It's the opening of a floodgate and the waters are saturated with soon-to-be cord cutters. One wonders if Netflix's Reed Hastings had some idea that this was coming when he predicted the death of broadcast TV in 2030, because this sets that outcome in motion as well.

Filed Under: cord cutting, sling tv, sports, streaming
Companies: dish, espn