Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH)-owned Sling TV is now available to Chromecast users who are casting from Android and iOS devices, moving the linear OTT service one step closer to being available on all major streaming devices.
Support for casts from PC and Mac laptops will be available soon, Sling TV said in a press release. The service is currently available on Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Fire TV, Stick and tablets; Android TV platforms and Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Nexus Player; Roku streaming devices, sticks and TVs; and Xbox One.
Sling TV isn't yet available on Apple TV (NASDAQ: AAPL), although a spokeswoman told CNET that the provider was evaluating adding its app to Apple's latest version of its streaming device. It's also not yet available on Sony's PlayStation console.
To promote the latest device it's available on, Sling TV is giving away a new Chromecast device to users who prepay for three months of the OTT streaming service's, "Best of Live TV" tier, its $20 per month basic channel package.
Sling TV has so far made an interesting case for linear over-the-top television and has revealed some surprising data about viewer behavior, according to its CEO Roger Lynch. For example, about 5 to 10 percent of Sling TV subscribers are what the company calls "supplementers," people who have an active pay-TV subscription but also sign up for Sling TV service, the CNET article said.
Furthermore, it has found that on-demand content is popular, even though Sling TV is first and foremost a live-streaming service. That has led the service to negotiate for more on-demand programming in its licensing deals.
While it's continuing to sign networks and boost its on-demand capability, Sling TV still has a few kinks to work out on the technical side. High-demand programming, such as marquee sports events, tends to coincide with streaming outages on the service.
The service is also facing competition from other pay-TV operators that have closely watched Dish Network's play. Charter is reportedly offering a slimmed-down streaming bundle to select Midwest subscribers, while Comcast said it is testing a planned OTT skinny bundle called Stream in the Boston area.
For more:
- see the release
- see this CNET article
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