Dish Launches Sling TV Pay TV Offering At CES
Satellite provider Dish Network announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday a new service called Sling TV. The service provides live and on-demand television delivered via an Internet connection to television sets, computers and mobile devices. Available in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2015, Sling TV will deliver live sports, lifestyle, family, news and information channels, Video-On-Demand entertainment and online video to broadband-connected devices at home and on-the-go. Priced at $20 per month, the service will require no commitment, contract, credit check or hardware installation.
Supported Internet-connected devices for Sling TV are expected to include Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google’s Nexus Player, select LG Smart TVs, Roku players, Roku TV models, select Samsung Smart TVs, Xbox One, iOS, Android, Mac and PC.
At launch, Sling TV is offering a core programming package with live and Video-On-Demand shows, sports, movies and online video, as well as two optional add-on packs.
The service is delivered over an IP-based content delivery system that leverages adaptive bitrate streaming technology. Customers will be able to pause, rewind and fast-forward most live channels and Video-On-Demand content. For certain channels, the service includes a 3-Day Replay feature that gives customers the ability to watch some shows that have aired in the past three days; no DVR is needed.
4K Ultra HD Set-Top Box
DISH will also launch a 4K 'Ultra HD' set-top box. Named the 4K Joey, the unit is designed to integrate with DISH’s Hopper Whole Home HD DVR system.
The DISH 4K Joey is dedicated hardware that will be compatible with all HDMI 2.0/ HDCP 2.2-compliant televisions. The 4K Joey will not only play back 4K ultra HD content, it will also support side-by-side display of two programs, each in HD.
The DISH 4K Joey, which supports any HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2-compliant television, is compatible with all Hopper systems, provides full Joey functionality for standard and high-definition televisions and supports playback at 60fps in 10-bit color. The new set-top box is equipped with a Broadcom dual-core chipset and Broadcom 7448 dual-core ARM processor. It features PiP, Bluetooth and supports Hopper apps such as Vevo, Netflix and Game Finder.