I had Dish for 25-years, but tree issues caused me to switch to a cable provider. And soon went to YoutubeTV, which has a clunky interface. If Dish had a competitive online service with locals, I'd switch back because I think Dish has a superior guide, interface, and DVR. It seems they are missing a market.
I agree. Sling is definitely *not* a streaming version of Dish, as it has different (smaller) channel packages and is a cheaper, lower-feature service.
Interestingly, a few of the channels that Dish offers, such as some of the HBO and Cinemax channels they added back a year or so ago, are streaming-only; you watch them live and record them to your Hopper DVR via an internet connection, not through your rooftop dish. Why not do that with *all* of Dish's channels and give customers the option of receiving service via the internet and not even need a satellite dish and its related wiring? The service could still use the same TV receiver boxes and remotes.
I think we very well may see Dish do this in the next few years as they get closer to the time when all of their current satellites run out of fuel and become inoperable. Those sats have an expected lifespan of 15 years and the two youngest sats in the fleet (i.e. the last two to go) will both hit 15 years of age in 2025. By that point in time, I expect Dish and DirecTV will have merged and they'll be doing all new dish installs aimed at the newer DirecTV satellite fleet. As for the pre-merger Dish customers with dishes still aimed at the old Dish satellite fleet, well, they'll either have to have do an expensive re-install for them or possibly get them to switch over to broadband delivery of the service. That latter option would save the company a lot of money, so I predict that an internet-delivered version of the main Dish service is something we'll see in the coming years.