The Sling TV website went into overload briefly Friday after the service switched users to Sling International, we found. Sling TV’s multilanguage streaming DishWorld was officially renamed Sling International as part of a merging of the service’s international offering with the Sling TV service Dish announced at CES (see 1501050037). Incorporating DishWorld into the Sling TV portfolio makes it easier for viewers to receive both domestic programming and sports events from overseas, said Roger Lynch, CEO, Sling TV. As of Friday, DishWorld customers were prompted at login to upgrade to the new Sling International app, which carries a Sling TV user interface controllable with swipe and scroll control gestures on touch-screen devices, the company said. Sling TV customers will be able to watch Sling International and domestic Sling TV content within the same app, it said. New customers who sign up for Sling International can receive a one-month free trial, it said. Sling International offers 220 channels in 18 languages to U.S. households starting at $15 per month, compared with an entry monthly fee of $20 for Sling TV's domestic menu.
Consumers spent twice as much time viewing online video on a tablet as on a smartphone in 2014, said Adobe Digital Index’s U.S. Digital Video 2014 Inaugural Report. Mobile device video viewing is also expected to overtake desktop viewing by Q4 of 2016, the report said. By year-end 2014, TV Everywhere consumers logged 21 billion authenticated videos, an increase of 266 percent above 2013 totals. Of those TV Everywhere authentications, 64 percent of them were on mobile devices, Adobe said.
Cable companies offering broadband will remain strongly positioned over the next few years, despite the growing number of over-the-top options, said a new report, "High Yield Cable's Broadband Still Effective Defense Against Over-the-Top Siege," from Moody's Investor Service. Along with the strength of the broadband business, limited competition and customer inertia would give cable operations time to adapt to the rise of OTT devices, Moody's said. The report also found a shift in the type of content available from current OTT options, with the addition of live content and sports from Dish Network's Sling TV and Sony's Vue, plus Apple's reported pay-TV service.
Sling TV will add HBO to its programming next week, Sling said in a news release Wednesday. Sling TV customers can access HBO's linear channel and on-demand content for $15, when they sign up for the $20 Best of Live TV core package, it said. With this addition, Sling TV will be the only streaming service that offers ESPN and HBO, it said.
TCL unveiled its first-half 2015 roster of Roku-equipped TVs Thursday. The 11 models of Roku TVs, part of the flagship Decorator Series, offer more streaming channels, easier navigation and improved search functionality, said TCL. The 3700 series, replacing the 4610R line, will launch this month, and includes 32-inch ($219), 48-inch ($429) and 55-inch ($598) models -- all HD, the company said. The 3800 series has four screen sizes: 32, 40, 48 and 50 inches, while the 3850 series offers 32, 40, 50 and 55 inches, it said. Prices will be announced later for the Q2 models, the company said. TCL said at CES that it’s working with Roku on 4K TVs but further details weren’t available Thursday.
Epix is launching its application with Xbox One to expand availability of its four channels to authenticated subscribers, said the programmer in a news release Tuesday. The app also includes availability of 3,000 other on-demand titles.
Consumers soon will be able to watch Amazon Fire TV on the go and get the Fire TV Stick in the U.K. and Germany, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The free software updates to both Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick will be delivered over the air in the coming weeks. The devices will start shipping in the U.K. and Germany April 15, Amazon said. Other updates include letting consumers connect USB mass storage devices to the Amazon Fire TV, captive portal support that lets owners connect to their devices over Wi-Fi when not home and support for Bluetooth headphones, Amazon said.
DirecTV added 22 new out-of-home (OOH) live streaming channels to DirecTV Everywhere, it said in a news release Tuesday. The channels from OWN, Smithsonian, Turner Broadcasting, Univision, Viacom and others, bring its OOH offering to almost 90 live streaming channels. Customers can watch programming from multiple devices, it said.
Conditions from Comcast's buy of control in NBCUniversal require Comcast to sell NBC content to Apple's over-the-top service, emailed Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant investors Tuesday. The conditions require NBCU to sell its programming to online video distributors at comparable rates to other programmers, and Apple already has deals with Disney and Fox, Gallant said. “Apple could use the condition to obtain NBCU programming that is comparable to whatever Apple acquired from Fox, Disney, etc.” If Apple made the transaction condition argument, the FCC likely would need to decide what is “comparable programming” and “economically comparable terms,” Gallant said. “The potential for regulatory delays might be a deterrent for Apple to pursue the regulatory enforcement angle.” The FCC OTT multichannel video programming distributor rulemaking “shows the agency is highly focused on promoting OTT competition and probably would move quickly on any Apple complaint,” he said. Comcast didn't comment.
Cablevision and HBO reached an agreement that will give the cable operator's Optimum Online customers access to the channel's stand-alone streaming service, HBO Now, via the Internet, said a news release from Cablevision. It said the deal makes Optimum the first cable provider to partner with HBO on the service, which is expected to launch in April (see 1503090035).