ESPN to be available for online streaming for $20 per month

A new web-TV service offered by Dish Network will allow subscribers to watch ESPN via the Internet as part of a package that will cost $20 per month, according to a report.

Viewers wanting to ditch cable or satellite in favor of getting their TV over the Internet appear to have scored a victory, according to a report.

Re/Code is reporting that Dish Network’s web-TV service, announced Monday, will include ESPN as part of a $20 per month package.

Dish’s new venture, called Sling TV, comes with 10 other channels, including Food Network, CNN and Travel Channel, and will include the ability to add more networks for additional fees.

More from Miscellaneous

But the coup for Sling TV is getting the worldwide leader in sports. I mean, who is paying $20 a month to be able to stream Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield, Cutthroat Kitchen or Booze Traveler?

So it’s looking like 2015 is going to be a bellwether year for TV over the Internet. Viewers online are supposed to be able to get HBO as a standalone service sometime this year and now they can get ESPN with just a few other channels attached to the package.

The Sling TV deal is what is known as a personal subscription service, meaning that if you are watching SportsCenter on your phone, your roommate can’t use your login information to watch something else.

If you want to watch Sling TV on your big flatscreen, it’s doable via something like an Amazon Fire TV, a Roku box or an Xbox One.

Apple TV won’t be partnered with Sling TV. Dish reportedly can’t because of Apple’s draconian rules regarding user interface.

And Sling TV won’t include broadcast stations or networks, so now late local news or any of the various iterations of NCIS.

There are big questions that will have to be answered, likely by those folks who like to dive headlong into new technology only to be bitten badly by the bugs.

Streaming video is a fairly reliable medium, but real-time Web TV events have had their share of technical problems—most notably problems with HBO Go not going and during ESPN’s World Cup coverage from Brazil—and streams can find lots of places to become diverted even if Dish’s output is sound.

The $20 number sounds unsustainable for a profit, as well. ESPN charges pay-TV companies $6 per month, according to the report, for its service, which would leave little profit margin with 10 other networks added in.

While Dish says it is firm in its commitment to its pricing structure, it’s not as if the pay-TV industry has been a beacon for truth in holding the line on pricing.

It could be a great thing for people wanting to get away from paying for lots of channels they don’t want.

I mean, paying for just a few channels you don’t want has to be considered progress, right?

More from FanSided

Add us as a preferred source on Google