Sling TV, or How to Get ESPN Without A Cable Subscription

[fidel]

This is interesting, if SlingTV gives you access to WatchESPN.

What are the implications come tournament time? I know some games go on TRU or other off-channels, which I think are CBS-related.

[kmspeaks]

This is interesting, if SlingTV gives you access to WatchESPN.

What are the implications come tournament time? I know some games go on TRU or other off-channels, which I think are CBS-related.

I paid for 1 month of Sling in March last year (which is another pro of the service for me, no contract, it takes 15 seconds of clicking around to cancel) and I think I used the NCAA MOD and an HDMI cable from my laptop to watch anything I wanted to see on TRU. Sling gave me access to TBS and TNT and I got CBS through my antenna so I was able to watch the whole tournament without a cable subscription. I'll probably do it again this March.

[chazz101s]

As follow-up, the Mrs. and I watched the UVa game yesterday via watch ESPN on the Fire TV streamer. Only a couple of stutters; no blackouts; no psych meltdowns. (And a GREAT final 6 seconds, of course.)

Thanks again for reminding me of the watch ESPN alternative to the ESPN "channel" on Sling TV. (As the Kinks sang it, 45 years ago!: It's such a complicated life, son.)

I also realize that the UVa game via the "regular" viewing route (the Sling TV ESPN "channel") may also have been OK yesterday. With Sling TV's one-device-per-account, there's no way to do an A/B. (Intentional on Sling TV's part?)

As a friend of mine who really knows his tech emailed recently, wireless often is akin to black magic.

Best y'all,
Chaz

[fidel]

I paid for 1 month of Sling in March last year (which is another pro of the service for me, no contract, it takes 15 seconds of clicking around to cancel) and I think I used the NCAA MOD and an HDMI cable from my laptop to watch anything I wanted to see on TRU. Sling gave me access to TBS and TNT and I got CBS through my antenna so I was able to watch the whole tournament without a cable subscription. I'll probably do it again this March.

Looking at the NCAA website, its CBS, TBS, TRU, and TNT. TBS and TNT are part of the base package, TRU is extra. CBS can go old-school antenna. So TRU is the only holdout.

What is this NCAA MOD you speak of? Is this straight from NCAA website?

[kmspeaks]

Looking at the NCAA website, its CBS, TBS, TRU, and TNT. TBS and TNT are part of the base package, TRU is extra. CBS can go old-school antenna. So TRU is the only holdout.

What is this NCAA MOD you speak of? Is this straight from NCAA website?

I'm sorry that's the old name. Used to be March Madness on Demand, now it's March Madness Live. It is straight from the NCAA website but without a TV provider log-in you only get 3 hours of streaming free.

The main page is blank now, but here's a link the FAQ's

[fidel]

Thanks, wasn't sure if that was referring to some kind of special deal Sling offered at tourney time.

This looks worth trying out.

[chazz101s]

I realize that Sling TV offers no way to record games on ESPN.

Anybody have a way to record Thursday night's LATELATE game on TBS? (Yeah, hoping for a miracle.)

Thanks for any advice, y'all.

[fidel]

I've been meaning to follow up here.

I handed in the neolithic-era cable boxes yesterday. Cut the cord. Installed an HD antenna in the attic, and have streaming devices for normal viewing (with an OPPO blu-ray for the times I want a great picture on the projector). Red Box is your friend for that one.

Tourney time, SlingTV added TRU, so I had access to all the games. The March Madness app on Apple TV 4 (picture in picture) was nice, but it didn't show CBS. Not sure if I had to log in with SlingTV ID or not (which doesn't give you license for CBS), but that was annoying. Watched CBS games via antenna.

Non-tourney sports, the ESPN app works great and gets past the one-device thing if thats an issue. It still seems crazy to pay $20 for SlngTV for ESPN, but its better than $100 for TWC for ESPN. The cable boxes have been uninstalled for over a month and nobody has even noticed in the house. Not one issue.

I am experimenting with some other streaming services (MUBI, AcornTV) to go along with stalwarts HBO, Netflix and Hulu. Monthly, if I was to get all that, is (approximately) $5+$5+$10+$8+$8=$36 (and add SlingTV for a total of $56). Thats about 50% of the cable TV bill, and I paid for HBO, Netflix, and Hulu anyway with that, so less than 50%. So far so good. At least I watch these services.

I'll probably drop Hulu (Criterion leaving - I'll try FilmStruck when its available), MUBI is on the block (but the recent Cannes award-winners has been great), AcornTV has a lot of stuff I like but I'm not sure it has enough to stay a long time. HBO and Netflix have been good. SlingTV is mostly for ESPN, so as ESPN becomes more and more TMZPN its getting less play.

Best part is I get to quit the ones that don't make the grade, and try something new. I can't imagine cable tv has anything planned to draw me back in (anything new is going to be a streaming service I imagine). The only threat is metered internet.

Lets see how this plays long term.

[duke2x]

I had Sling this past year during basketball season. It would take a lot for me to go back to cable. You can get mostly good coverage on 3MB internet ($15 from TWC) and every Duke game on the ESPN networks (1/2/3 = $20, all ESPN = $25.) The same cable service would cost $90 instead of $25.

There was one hangup. My Sling froze up at the end of the Syracuse game, but I saw the whole thing on a slight delay. I would like to forget that game anyway.

[devil84]

I was attempting to figure out if I could get the Tour de France in some way, shape, or form other than the $20 app or the $30 subscription (which does get you 14 other cycling events, too). Something told me to check Sling, and I was quite pleasantly surprised at some new features that apply to college basketball fans as well as cycling geeks.

Sling now offers two packages: Orange and Blue. Both Orange and Blue have:

• AMC, TBS, TNT, History, BBC America, IFC, A&E, Lifetime, truTV, Viceland, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, CNN, Bloomberg, and Newsy, El Rey, Bloomberg, Local Now, Polaris+, Maker, Flama, Galavision.

Orange is $20/mo, and has:

• Disney, Travel Channel, FreeForm, ESPN and ESPN 2.
• ESPNNews, ESPN2, and BeIN sports, ESPN Buzzer Beater, Univision Deportes, Outside TV, ESPN Bases Loaded, are Orange Sports Extra for $5/mo.

Blue is $25/mo, and has:

• Fox Sports (1, 2, RSNs), NBC Sports (RSNs coming soon), HLN, FX, NatGeo, NatGeo wild, USA, Syfy, Bravo, FXX, Nick Jr., BET, UniMás, Univision.
• Fox and NBC local channels are available in about 7 markets each.

Other channels, like MTV, CMT, VH1, BET, TVLand, and Spike are on extra channels for both. ABC local is available in about 7 other markets for an additional $5, one of those is Raleigh-Durham. (No, you can't be outside of a market and get that...it depends on where your ISP resolves to as to whether you can get these channels. And local Fox and NBC is not available in RDU.)


You can combine them both for $40/month (add the sports extra for ESPNU, and it's $45/mo).

Here's the really good news: Blue is multi-streaming. Three different devices can access the service simultaneously, and can watch the same or different channels. YAY!!! BUT...note that Disney and the ESPN family is on Orange -- it's still single streaming.

You can shift between Orange and Blue at any time during the month (though Extras are for an entire billing period).

They've restructured their access menus in their app, too, so you can save favorite channels to a quick menu at the top, and it works a little differently. While not perfect, I'm really liking this service more and more.

I've been watching the Tour de France for several days now on Sling, hours at a time, on Time Warner Cable's "Extreme Internet" package (50mbps down) while working on a laptop and having at least two other devices idling along on the network and it has worked flawlessly. I access Sling through a Roku Streaming Stick.

Hope this helps someone, either for the Tour de France or the basketball season.

[YmoBeThere]

Interesting, I hadn't realized that they had updated their packages and pricing. I did notice the change to a new interface a couple weeks ago. Interesting to see that ESPN is the bigger driving factor between the two packages. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting. I really only watch TBS, TNT, AMC and History along with Bloomberg(prefer CNBC but no option for that).

I am curious if this begins the creep back to having a nearly full package of channels? Which is exactly why I cut the cord...

[Furniture]

I cut the cord this week. HD antenna and sling (plus Amazon and Netflix which I had anyway). Just watched the Wimbledon final. I watched the Euro semi final the other day too. It was a little strange to tell you the truth. A little choppy perhaps? Anyway, I am just going to accept it as my new reality and enjoy saving 120 bucks a month. I might get the sports package in a couple of weeks so I can watch the premier league (extra 5bucks).

[fidel]

Note SlingTV is on AppleTV4 now as well...one less device (Roku) needed for me.

[devil84]

Interesting, I hadn't realized that they had updated their packages and pricing. I did notice the change to a new interface a couple weeks ago. Interesting to see that ESPN is the bigger driving factor between the two packages. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting. I really only watch TBS, TNT, AMC and History along with Bloomberg(prefer CNBC but no option for that).

I am curious if this begins the creep back to having a nearly full package of channels? Which is exactly why I cut the cord...

I don't think you're misinterpreting. ESPN/Disney and ONE screen for Orange; Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and some others on THREE screens for Blue. To put it another way, if you're happy without ESPN and Disney, you can get most of the popular channels for $25/month on three screens. Want to watch ESPN sports while your little ones watch Disney? Hmm...that's two Orange subscriptions, so $40/month. Want the full complement of sports channels, assuming one user? Non-ESPN $25 + ESPN $20 + ESPNU $5 = $50/mo. Plus my $50 internet provider, and we're up to $100/mo. Plus, if you want CNBC, it's bundled with MSNBC, BBC News, and maybe a couple of other on a a Blue Extra News channel for another $5. It's still cheaper than the $120-150/month I was paying (though I did lose the DVR, but I really don't miss it that much).

HOWEVER, if you only want to watch college football/basketball, you can get rid of one of the packages from April through August (unless you have little ones who want Disney). Just college basketball? You only need ESPN from late October through mid-March -- potentially only 5 months if you time it right. Then you can scale back to just $20 or $25/month, depending on which sports you want -- or switch between them. No sports? Cancel completely. Change it online without hard sells and crazy bundling packages that give you a special rate for 12 months and include premium movie channels we never wind up watching yet seem to not drop the price much at all.

No, not perfect yet. But better than cable, IMHO.

[nocilla]

Here's my question, and it seems like cheating, but can you get the Blue package and still have access to WatchEspn?

For me, I don't actually use Sling very much. I am basically paying Sling for access to WatchEspn. But if I can get that with the Blue package then I would be adding the Fox Sports channels that I don't currently get.

[luburch]

Looked into getting sling last week, but I didn't see NBC Sports on either package, which means no EPL. That combined with splitting up the ESPN/FOX into different packages is a deal breaker.

[Furniture]

Looked into getting sling last week, but I didn't see NBC Sports on either package, which means no EPL. That combined with splitting up the ESPN/FOX into different packages is a deal breaker.

Pay 5 bucks extra and you get BeinSports from the sports package. From what I read you can watch EPL there.

[devil84]

Looked into getting sling last week, but I didn't see NBC Sports on either package, which means no EPL. That combined with splitting up the ESPN/FOX into different packages is a deal breaker.

NBC Sports is definitely part of Blue -- I've been watching the Tour de France on it. Their channel lineup pages are confusing, and I've noticed that there are channels that aren't advertised on their site. I can say without question that NBCSN is definitely in the Blue lineup but not Orange as of this month. One cool thing is that there are few commercials; it's much like watching ESPN online with a nice little musical interlude -- which will be extremely annoying around the 25th time you hear it, but by the 100th time, you can tune it out.

Here's my question, and it seems like cheating, but can you get the Blue package and still have access to WatchEspn?

For me, I don't actually use Sling very much. I am basically paying Sling for access to WatchEspn. But if I can get that with the Blue package then I would be adding the Fox Sports channels that I don't currently get.

I don't know for sure. However, I had Orange plus the sports package that gets ESPNU. I switched to Blue on 7/6. I just checked and I was still able to login to WatchESPN just now, and it's 7 days later. Do they update credentials to ESPN's site weekly/monthly, so it'll go away soon on the next batch update? Is it a quirk that they hope we won't figure out until they can fix it? If it is a batch update lag, can you play the lag by switching between Blue and Orange frequently (say, Orange for a week out of every month), and wind up with WatchESPN credentials? I dunno. I might be able to answer this better during ho.ops season, but right now, I'm happy with NBCSN.

Switches between Blue and Orange take place immediately, so I imagine that during the hoops season, we can switch packages just for that one game, even as late as tip-off time.

Don't forget that they offer a free week trial, so you can find out how it works.

[Lid]

As someone who's been hovering around cord-cutting for a long time, this has been extremely edifying, thanks to you all for sharing your experiences!

My biggest quandry is the lack of a DVR after cutting the cord. Am I correct in thinking that there's no DVR option? Or is there some way for me to finagle something along those lines? This is a deal-breaker for our family, but I'm increasingly frustrated with paying for satellite...

[fidel]

As someone who's been hovering around cord-cutting for a long time, this has been extremely edifying, thanks to you all for sharing your experiences!

My biggest quandry is the lack of a DVR after cutting the cord. Am I correct in thinking that there's no DVR option? Or is there some way for me to finagle something along those lines? This is a deal-breaker for our family, but I'm increasingly frustrated with paying for satellite...

I had same concern. But when I looked at what I thought needed to be recorded, there were online options to watch (ESPN lets you watch games for a few days, for example). BTW, I went with an antenna for over-the-air, so I have DVR options for those channels.

So the question is...what needs DVR?