This morning, Dish Network and Viacom announced a contract multi-year renewal that keeps Viacom channels like Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and Nickelodeon on the satellite service, and will also add a number of Viacom-owned channels to Dish’s Sling TV streaming service.
While Sling has offered pay-TV mainstays like CNN, ESPN, and TBS since its launch in 2014 — and recently added a plan that adds several FOX-owned channels — it has thus far lacked access to Viacom’s most popular cable offerings.
Details are slim, but Dish said today that at least Comedy Central, BET, Spike, MTV, and Nick Jr. (note the apparent omission of Nickelodeon) will be included. The company mentions the vague “others” to come, but doesn’t say whether the Viacom channels will be part of the base Sling lineup or if they’ll be put into add-on packages for purchase above the base price.
While Sling’s slender channel lineup has allowed Dish to sell the service for as little as $20/month, the lack of certain networks has kept the service from offering a full cable replacement. The PlayStation Vue service from Sony already includes these Viacom channels, along with offerings from NBC Universal, FOX, Turner, and others. However, Vue’s lowest monthly rate is double that of Sling’s base subscription rate.
Sling also recently bolstered its offering by including live access to local FOX stations and regional FOX Sports channels in several markets. The company is currently running a beta test on a service that allows a single account to have multiple users accessing up to three streams simultaneously.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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