About the same time last year, Dish Network revealed its TV service, a low-cost program built on a simple idea: convincing audiences of all ages to leave traditional TV behind and choose Sling TV instead.
In addition to promising better fees than the big names in the television industry, Dish Network also guaranteed more flexibility when it started delivering Sling TV in February 2015.
Dish and Sling TV will hold a press conference at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, where everyone expects to hear about the upgrades and improvements that the Internet TV service gets one year after its launch. Currently, Sling TV offers a lineup of 23 live channels for a monthly fee of $20.
According to some rumors, Sling TV has some aces up its sleeve and should make intriguing announcements at the press conference in order to convince more subscribers to join its service.
If Dish wants to stay afloat in the highly competitive waters of televised services, it needs to increase its user base. In the third quarter of 2015, almost 23,000 subscribers of the satellite pay TV service ended their ties with Dish. In comparison with 2015, Dish TV lost only 12,000 subscribers on the third quarter of 2014, almost half the number it just saw moving away from its services.
Media experts affirm that if Dish lacked the Sling TV service, the number of defectors could have been significantly higher. The satellite service provider kept mum about the numbers of new Internet TV users it convinced, but there are some who calculated the figure.
Craig Moffett, analyst at Moffett Nathanson, relied on Dish's reported earnings to estimate that Sling added 155,000 customers in the third quarter, reaching almost 394,000 subscribers.
"It is the nature of the game that if Sling was better, then Dish Network's satellite business was worse," Moffett said. He went on to add that at this rate, Dish's traditional TV service will diminish by a whopping 3.7 percent rate, annually.
Leaders of Dish hinted that they are focusing their efforts into improving Sling TV as much as possible.
In Nov. 2015, during the company's earnings call, CEO Charlie Ergen underlined that Sling is preparing to bring targeted ads and multiple stream support. He stated that Sling looks into the possibility of having more than one device access its service simultaneously, as this would be a plus to customers.
Another promising bit of information from Ergen was that subscribers of Sling TV can expect to see content from new providers, as well. Currently, the Sling TV package includes content from ESPN, AMC, CNN, Food Network, Lifetime, ABC Family and the Disney Channel.
Those who want more from their Internet TV experience can purchase add-on packs that focus on sports, news or kids, and the price point for each expansion starts at $5.
"Linear TV is a mature, declining business," Ergen noted at the conference call.
Sling TV has the upper hand over traditional pay TV services in a number of ways. First of all, it put a stop on long-term contracts that bound users to a network for years. Secondly, it removed unsteady prices and introduced a fixed tariff per month. Last but not least, it removed the fees for cancelling the subscription. On the downside, for you to enjoy the full Sling TV Internet streaming experience, it helps to have a broadband provider that provides reliable service at fair prices.
As the numbers of Dish satellite TV subscribers dwindle each month and are near 14 million, it seems that Sling TV is the first step towards a streaming-only TV future. In Nov. 2015, Google's Chromecast welcomed Sling TV, allowing its customers a convenient way to stream the best live and on-demand programming to their TVs.
"We are well ahead of expectations," Roger Lynch, Sling CEO, told Denver Post.
