Sling TV Adds Four EPIX Channels And EPIX VOD To Sweeten Cord-Cutting Deal

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Just last week, DISH Network launched Sling TV, an alternative to cable TV that offers a handful of channels and content for one low monthly price. Then, the company introduced a promotion that saw free Amazon Fire TV and Roku Streaming Sticks and $50 knocked off the price of Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3 set-top boxes. Now, Sling TV has made another announcement that should be of interest to potential cord cutters.

The company signed a deal with EPIX to bring movies and on-demand content to the streaming service. The agreement will see EPIX, EPIX 2, EPIX 3 and EPIX Drive-In packaged as an optional offering. The video on-demand aspect will provide more than 2,000 movies and "entertainment titles."

"Our customers crave the newest movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Transformers: Age of Extinction, but they also have a growing appetite for the classics and EPIX delivers both," said Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV. "Sling TV will feature EPIX's linear channels and movies on-demand in an add-on package that is accessible and affordable."

So when does EPIX arrive on Sling TV? Pricing and availability will be revealed soon, the company said. However, in the meantime, customers can get the base Sling TV package for a mere $20 per month. This includes live TV spanning ESPN, TBS, TNT, HGTV, the Disney Channel, ABC Family, CNN, AMC (Walking Dead!) and several more. Sling TV also provides three additional packages for $5 per month each: Sports Extra, News Extra and Kids Extra.

Is Sling TV worth the $35 a month? That depends on what the consumer likes to watch. There's no access to the major networks, so customers will have to rely on over-the-air digital TV access. Sling TV also requires that users have a device that's compatible with the Sling TV app, such as a smartphone, tablet, desktop PC, one of Amazon's Fire TV devices or the Roku set-top-boxes. And of course, a broadband or mobile connection is required.

The Sling TV app is rather slick. For example, the iPhone version provides a main menu that not only directs users to the TV lineup, but to a section of movies that customers can rent. These movies are broken down into categories such as "Action & Adventure," "Comedy," "New Releases," "Most Popular" and so on. To access TV on-demand content, simply hit the down arrow tucked away at the bottom of the screen to pull up the current schedule and the on-demand listings.

Is it time to cut the cord? Not yet, but we're getting there. Adding EPIX to the Sling TV menu certainly helps the cord-cutting process. What will be revealed next week?

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Kevin Parrish
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • elbert
    Have to say Dishnetwork hasn't noted there biggest problem. A large number hate to pay for things they never watch. Sale the channels a la' carte. If the channel is low price then sale them by annual or semi annual subscriptions which the custom is billed monthly. This would fix dish networks second short coming. Channel blackouts and customers upset over losing channels. The media provider sets the price and if its not competitive then customers walk away. The customer gets out of any annual or semi annual contracts if the media provider cuts the service.
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  • Retrowire
    Sling TV also needs to allow users to pause, rewind and play the live TV. Why they omit this feature from a capable technology, I'll never know.
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  • buzzrattie
    Same ol' ball and chain if you ask me. Same subscription plan as their regular service, and do these channels get away from commercials? One of the best things for cord cutters, is they don't have to watch ads, unless they want to of course.
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  • Ahoygo
    Interested only in half of the channels provided in the $25/month package. Why not give us a list of channels for us to pick the ones we like? Choose 12 channels for the $25/month package is more interesting.
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  • Christopher Brehm
    You can pause and rewind over half the channels already. Choosing specific channels won't happen for a long time due the way the networks sell the channels as packages to the distributors. So if you want x channel dish has to buy Y and Z to get X.
    Reply
  • wiyosaya
    Same ol' ball and chain if you ask me. Same subscription plan as their regular service, and do these channels get away from commercials? One of the best things for cord cutters, is they don't have to watch ads, unless they want to of course.
    Because of comments I made on other threads about this service, I am happy to see that the people commenting on this article are employing critical thinking. I completely agree that it is the same old ball and chain.

    What I found is that if you go to the Dish site and look at the packages that they offer for the traditional satellite based subscription model, the satellite packages are less expensive on a per-channel basis. As I see it, Dish is hoping us cord-cutters will subscribe because of the limited access that this package gives to sports fans and not notice that anyone subscribing is going to be paying MORE for this package than they will for a satellite subscription.

    The interesting thing with this is that with the satellite subscription, you still get Sling service, though, I do not know if there is an extra fee for it.

    My bet is that in its final form when Dish gets through negotiating contracts with content providers that the "everything" price will be in the $100/mo range.

    Have to say Dishnetwork hasn't noted there biggest problem. A large number hate to pay for things they never watch.
    Agreed, and Dish is hoping you don't notice that you are paying for channels you never watch - even with this streaming service.

    My wife and I were paying $86/mo to watch maybe five channels out of the "America's Top 250" channels of $hit we were getting. In the year that we have been off of the Dish, we have found that pretty much everything that we were watching is available with the minor inconvenience that we have to wait until it comes to one of Hulu, Amazon, or Netflix. We are now paying $20/mo for the three streaming services plus a subscription to an iTunes show, using a HTPC and OTA tuners for DVR functionality, and we still are able to watch all that we were watching.

    We are both much happier since we cut the cord.

    That they have added Epix would only sweeten the deal IF it were free.
    Reply
  • Hojo15
    You don't need to pay an extra $20/month when you can buy android devices that do the exact same thing or use a computer with websites that provide all the channels for nothing more than the internet you already buy. I have not had cable or satellite for going on 8 years and have used my internet exclusively unless it is on an over the air event where I have an inexpensive HD antenna. It's just another way to keep the cord attached. It is however a step in the right direction especially in the case where most don't watch a tenth of the channels on a satellite or cable plan and just want a few they do. Why doesn't dish just offer a plan that you can choose the few stations you want and charge accordingly?
    Reply