Dish’s Sling TV streaming service is currently a pretty bare-bones operation, with only about a dozen channels and very little in the way of on-demand content. Today the service announced its first partnership with a premium pay-TV movie network. And no, it’s not HBO, Showtime, or even Starz.
Nope, the first premium movie network offering on Sling will come from Epix, which is a joint venture of Viacom, MGM, and Lions Gate, that has only been broadcasting since 2009. That said, the trio of owners means Epix should have a substantial library of movies for viewers.
Much like its older and more popular competition, Epix operates multiple channels — EPIX, EPIX2, EPIX3 and EPIX Drive-In — all of which will eventually be available through Sling, which also promises on-demand movie content for subscribers.
“Our customers crave the newest movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Transformers: Age of Extinction, but they also have a growing appetite for the classics and EPIX delivers both,” said Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV in a statement.
Though Lynch says Epix will be “affordable,” Dish isn’t putting a price on the package yet, but other carriers charge anywhere from $5-8/month for the Epix bundle, so it would make sense that Sling will charge something in that range when it launches. As for a date, Dish isn’t giving details on that either.
Sling, which only launched publicly a week ago, has already announced that AMC — home of Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and Better Call Saul — will soon be added to the regular block of channels available for $20/month.
While the Epix package might be the first premium movie package for Sling, the service does offer add-on packages — currently all $5 each — targeted at specific niches. For example, the Sports Extra bundle includes ESPNU, ESPNEWS, the SEC Network, and the Universal Sports Network; while Kids Extra adds four channels aimed at youngsters, and the News & Info Extra tier adds HLN, the Cooking Channel, DIY Network, and Bloomberg.
It’s not a la carte cable, but it’s a model that could eventually grow and morph into something that lets users craft a TV experience that’s more to their tastes.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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