More and more content providers are separating themselves from the cable monster, which means you’ll soon be able to pay for only the channels you want without an overpriced cable bill.
Dish to offer standalone streaming service with ESPN
Dish has a new streaming product called Sling.com that won’t require a cable or satellite subscription.
For $20 a month, you’ll get a limited number of channels, but here’s the thing”¦this deal includes ESPN! That channel has prevented a lot of people from cutting the cord in the past, so this is big news.
With Sling, which is targeted at 18-34 year olds, you can stream to any device and watch TV when, where, and how you want without paying for overpriced channels you don’t want.
Sling is currently in private beta by invitation only. But you can sign up to get alerts emailed to you as the product nears completion.
HBO preparing standalone streaming service
Late last year, I told you that HBO is unbundling from the cable monster. Now you can get it as a streaming service. You won’t need to any traditional pay TV subscription at all.
Way back in time, the HBO formula was that they would get movies up to 2 years after their theatrical release. Then they started doing original programming, especially a lot of racy comedy. Over the years, they’ve steadily increased the original programming to great success. But in order to watch HBO, you had to pay the cable monster. Now you’ll have more options going forward.
Meanwhile, now comes word that CBS will offer a streaming product for $5.99 a month in 14 cities at first, and then eventually across the country.
You can see the trend. You will be in a position to disconnect the cable monster and buy only what you want to watch. Virtually every TV sold now makes it easy for you to watch Internet content. So you don’t have to watch on your phone, tablet, or laptop unless you really want to.
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A tip of the hat to Netflix
Of course, we owe all of this positive momentum to Netflix.
Netflix now has 50 million subscribers in the U.S. They’ve had a virtual monopoly on streaming content for so many Americans. In fact, investors are starting to worry that other programmers offering competitive services will unloosen their de facto monopoly.
The winner in all this, of course, is you and me. The cable monopolies will go away in the next few years, city by city. As for all those years of hardhearted and rotten customer service from Comcast? Their reckoning is coming.
