Sling TV Suppliers Say The Company Has Less Than 500,000 Subscribers, Decelerating Signups

[king3pj]

The whole problem with sling Tv is that it's a toy.

Oh that's neat, I can get a handful of channels on my Roku. Let's do a 7 day trial, and maybe forget to cancel after the first month.

The problem is that it's not replacing the way people watch tv, people are not going to dump their cable subscription to get sling.

The people who are truely cutting the cord bairly want to pay $30/mo for a decent internet connection.

I disagree with this part. I'm 28 and more of my friends are cord cutters than cable/satellite customers. I'm actually one of the exceptions but only because I got a really good deal that bundled Charter's equivalent of AT 250 plus HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax for $30 more than I was paying for 60Mbps internet on its own. I already had a Tivo Roamio so I don't have equipment fees. Before that offer came along I was a cord cutter for almost 2 years though.

One thing that all of my cord cutter friends have in common is a good internet connection. We didn't cut the cord because we are cheap or can't afford cable. We are all actually doing pretty well as college graduates in professional fields. We cut the cord because cable/satellite isn't important to us and we don't see the value of paying $100+ per month for it.

We do stream video and get our music, games, books, etc from the internet though. Because we get all our media through the internet, that internet connection is way more valuable to us than a cable subscription.

Here is a reason I think people my age have this kind of attitude towards TV. Tivo came out in 1999 and every cable/satellite provider started implementing their own DVR options. For people like myself who are 28, DVRs have been around for over half our lives. Since we were 12-13 years old we could watch the content we wanted to watch, when we wanted to watch it. We have spent more of our lives being able to watch TV on demand like this than we did before when we had to tune into channels and watch whatever they were putting on. The generation younger than me will have even less connection to traditional TV channels than mine does.

Netflix and other streaming services are just a natural evolution of that in my opinion. At some point you just care about the content. If its convenient, high quality, and cheap it doesn't really matter what the delivery method is and it certainly doesn't matter what traditional TV channel it came from.

That being said, my friends don't care about Sling TV for the same reasons they don't care about cable. They didn't cancel cable because they cant afford it. They did it because they don't want to buy the product being sold. Selling that same product through an internet subscription doesn't change the product. Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus are much more popular than Sling TV for a reason.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I disagree with this part. I'm 28 and more of my friends are cord cutters than cable/satellite customers. I'm actually one of the exceptions but only because I got a really good deal that bundled Charter's equivalent of AT 250 plus HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax for $30 more than I was paying for 60Mbps internet on its own. I already had a Tivo Roamio so I don't have equipment fees. Before that offer came along I was a cord cutter for almost 2 years though.

One thing that all of my cord cutter friends have in common is a good internet connection. We didn't cut the cord because we are cheap or can't afford cable. We are all actually doing pretty well as college graduates in professional fields. We cut the cord because cable/satellite isn't important to us and we don't see the value of paying $100+ per month for it.

We do stream video and get our music, games, books, etc from the internet though. Because we get all our media through the internet, that internet connection is way more valuable to us than a cable subscription.

Here is a reason I think people my age have this kind of attitude towards TV. Tivo came out in 1999 and every cable/satellite provider started implementing their own DVR options. For people like myself who are 28, DVRs have been around for over half our lives. Since we were 12-13 years old we could watch the content we wanted to watch, when we wanted to watch it. We have spent more of our lives being able to watch TV on demand like this than we did before when we had to tune into channels and watch whatever they were putting on. The generation younger than me will have even less connection to traditional TV channels than mine does.

Netflix and other streaming services are just a natural evolution of that in my opinion. At some point you just care about the content. If its convenient, high quality, and cheap it doesn't really matter what the delivery method is and it certainly doesn't matter what traditional TV channel it came from.

That being said, my friends don't care about Sling TV for the same reasons they don't care about cable. They didn't cancel cable because they cant afford it. They did it because they don't want to buy the product being sold. Selling that same product through an internet subscription doesn't change the product. Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus are much more popular than Sling TV for a reason.

If you like & follow sports though,you'll pretty much want that live. The only real sport that cannot be followed exclusively on the internet(in the U.S.) is NFL football. Sling TV helps for watching sports live,including NFL Monday Night Football. Everything else, as far as TV watching goes, can be handled by Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, & the CBS All Access app. You can also get the HBO Now app to watch Game of Thrones, Amazon Prime & Hulu allows you to get Showtime extra, & Amazon Prime lets you get Starz extra too. Of course all of this, plus sports packages like MLB.TV, NHL Gamecenter Ice, & NBA League Pass, can all add up to be equal cost wise to just having cable or satellite TV, especially adding Sling TV to the mix.

 

[king3pj]

If you like & follow sports though,you'll pretty much want that live. The only real sport that cannot be followed exclusively on the internet(in the U.S.) is NFL football. Sling TV helps for watching sports live,including NFL Monday Night Football. Everything else, as far as TV watching goes, can be handled by Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, & the CBS All Access app. You can also get the HBO Now app to watch Game of Thrones, Amazon Prime & Hulu allows you to get Showtime extra, & Amazon Prime lets you get Starz extra too. Of course all of this, plus sports packages like MLB.TV, NHL Gamecenter Ice, & NBA League Pass, can all add up to be equal cost wise to just having cable or satellite TV, especially adding Sling TV to the mix.

Sure it can but most cord cutters don't need all of those services. People keep asking for ala carte but it already exists through streaming. You pay for what you want and ignore the rest.

In my 2 years as a cord cutter I paid for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and MLB.tv. Here's the thing though, I already had all 3 of those services before I canceled Dish. I've had Prime shipping since before they added streaming, I've been a Netflix subscriber since it was primarily a DVD service, and I've been an MLB.tv subscriber for 5 or 6 years because I'm a fantasy baseball nerd.

I was paying for Dish on top of that and then I just kind of realized that I didn't need it. OTA and streaming is all I need and I will be going back to that as soon as the Charter tries to take me off my heavily discounted double play package.

If I didn't already have a Tivo Roamio setup for OTA and this package didn't include HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime for $30 more than internet on it's own I wouldn't have even taken this deal.

 

[joelwnelson]

I think the big advantage Sling has is live sports. The ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNNEWS, SEC, etc.) may be available through other media like WatchESPN but only when authenticating with a pay TV provider, and Sling is an eligible provider. So even though I more often watch ESPN through WatchESPN than through Sling, that $20 (+$5 as needed for SEC Network) provides the necessary username and password to get in. Plus my wife gets HGTV during the months we have Sling. But it's still not a year-round thing but as needed since Sling doesn't have contracts.

The biggest negative I have with the service is the bugs. There are a lot of glitches that have to be endured. But when working well, the picture quality beats WIZIWIG or some of the other unsanctioned sites. NFL Network and Thursday Night Football is the only real miss.

Why Sling and not something else?
I've used a wide range of services over the years - usually high end - HD cable with DVR and a Slingbox in the '00s when even HD required a surcharge; Dish Network with Hopper, multiple TVs, HBO, Multi-Sport and superstations; DirecTV (CenturyLink bundle) with whole-home DVR and Sunday Ticket... you get the picture. I have also subscribed to both MLB.TV and MLB Extra Innings multiple years. While the cost is at least a factor, time is the main reason for being a "cord-cutter" now. Beyond live sports, I neither have the time nor desire for other programming enough to go beyond what is on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I run NextPVR and Plex Media Server and record OTA (though in a very small market so there are few choices, but at least can get reception of all channels due to living on a hilltop) and round things out with a couple of streaming services plus Netflix DVD/BluRay. So Sling fits the bill to get major sporting events on most channels -- ESPN networks including the SEC Network, plus TBS and TNT for March Madness. But other than, for example, HGTV it is not really our go-to service. I've never rented or watched a movie on Sling, for example.

If I didn't have 60-65 Mbps Internet service without caps (Charter) then a traditional cable or satellite service like DirecTV would still be attractive, or if we didn't live on a hilltop so that we were like everyone else we know in the area with antennas, unable to get one or more channels (usually CBS as it's VHF from 30 miles away) then I think we'd have to have something beyond Sling. But it's "good enough" for what it's used for.

That's why I have Sling but am otherwise a video "cord-cutter" but my reasons or history is probably quite a bit different than others in my age range (30s). But unlike many younger people I'd never consider giving up the wired connection (including ethernet, not wifi, to my computer) and going LTE or public hotspot only.

 

[whitewolf8214]

Sling TV may hit 2 million subscribers by year’s end, Goldman Sachs estimates http://news.yahoo.com/sling-tv-may-hit-2-153335410.html

Sling TV, the Internet TV streaming service from Dish Network, might have gotten off to a relatively slow start, but with more and more people opting out of cable and satellite subscriptions, the service’s numbers could be on the upswing.Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman wrote in a research report released on Thursday that the group estimates that Sling TV will have 2 million subscribers by the end of 2016, Investors.com reports. As a comparison, the service had only 240,000 subscribers as of June 30, with estimates for its subscribers estimated between 300,000 and 500,000 at the end of September. Feldman estimated the service had 346,000 “exiting Q3.”If this is the case, it could make up for the subscribers Dish is losing. Feldmen estimates the company will lose 724,000 subscribers from its satellite TV service in 2016, up from the estimated 543,000 subscribers lost last year.Sling TV starts at $20 per month, offering a relatively small lineup of channels including ESPN, AMC, TBS, Disney, and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. This is expanded on with additional groups of channels that usually add $5 per month to the customer’s bill. Movie, sports, and “lifestyle” packages are among those available, and a standalone HBO option is offered for an additional $15 per month.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Sling TV may hit 2 million subscribers by year’s end, Goldman Sachs estimates http://news.yahoo.com/sling-tv-may-hit-2-153335410.html

Look at the losses that DISH is supposed to experience this year that leads to Sling Tv growing that big. I mean 724,000 subscribers in one year? IF that rate was duplicated for the next 5 to 8 years and there would be less than 5 million subs left.

 

[andy_horton]

Comcast to me was a hassle. Too many extra charges and fees. They even sent the wrong equipment and wanted to make me pay for another shipping charge!! Also you talk to 10 reps on price and you get 10 different answers. Sling TV provides me with a bunch of my favorites, not all, but I have Netflix and DVDs galore to keep me busy. Not to mention mlv.TV I for one hope to see Sling TV succeed. They are providing competition to people like me who use OTA, Sling, and Netflix. And I'm 37.