Continuing to up the arms race in the suddenly very competitive virtual MVPD market, Sling TV announced details regarding its cloud DVR rollout for Amazon Fire TV devices.
Users of Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV stick or Fire tablet who subscribe to Sling TV will be offered access to the new “First Look” program, which Sling said will provide the latest version of Cloud DVR, complete with bug fixes and various improvements hammered out in the vMVPD operator’s ongoing beta test of its digital video recording system.
First Look customers will also get features that include the ability to set recordings anywhere, as well as the capability to set more than one recording at once.
RELATED: Sling TV expands cloud DVR to Amazon, Android devices
As Sling noted, Roku and Android users currently beta-testing Cloud DVR have access to these features and improvements too. But they will continue to get gratis access to 100 hours of virtual DVR storage.
Fire TV-using “First Look” customers, however, will pay $5 a month for 50 hours of storage.
As Ars Technica’s rather elegant side-by-side comparison of Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Sony PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV shows, the availability of cloud DVR is a major differentiating factor among vMVPD services that offer similar programming at similar price points.
“Many customers have requested Cloud DVR since our launch, and as more consumers cut the cord, we know Cloud DVR is a must-have feature for many consumers,” said Ben Weinberger, chief product officer of Sling TV, in a statement. “We also know some customers prefer to watch our 30,000 on-demand titles, and we don’t want to make them pay for a feature they won’t use. While other OTT providers force everyone to take Cloud DVR at a higher price, Sling TV continues to give our customers choice and control over their entertainment experience.”