SlingTV—Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

As a “cord-cutter” and a football fan, finding a way to stream college games has been getting better, but after watching the buffering symbol instead of watching the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide in the National Championship game, I cancelled my subscription to SlingTV. Oh, if you want to watch “Vintage Flip” on demand (which is one of my favorite HGTV shows, by the way) then all is well. But let lots of fellow fans try to see the national college championship, and there are many, many technical issues.

We tried everything— change computers, different web browsers, modem reset. In the end, we switched between listening to WSB radio, which worked great except for the visuals, of course, and trying to at least see some of the instant replays. Even if the interface had worked, the evening would have been disappointing, as hubby’s beloved Bulldogs lost, but we didn’t see much until the end of the game. Perhaps a few fans dropped off, because the stream got better during the forth quarter and overtime.

I think SlingTV is a good alternative for folks who might want to see some mainstream news or some obscure shows, but for sports, which was the only real reason I signed up, it is lacking. In September, I’ll be looking for a new way to stream college football, and YouTube TV may be my next attempt to feed my need for live sports.

Cord Cutting is getting better— but more expensive

Hubby and I haven’t had cable in more than a decade, and we’ve been with without DirecTV for a while now. Instead, we have watched Netflix streaming (including the DVD feature) and Hulu. Then, there’s YouTube, which gets better and better, but those ads are oh, so annoying. A service that we seldom used at first, Amazon Prime, is getting better, and they are offering something quite interesting: channels ala carte. You can take a look at that here:

Join Amazon Channels Free Trial

My favorite service, still, is Netflix, but as original programming supplants purchased programing, I’m liking it less. Since we are fans of college football, I have been buying a subscription to SlingTV each fall. While it too is getting better, Sling has ads and a plethora of “infomercials” that can be watched on demand. Yep, I paid $40 for the full package, and I get the opportunity to watch ads, short and long. And, this year I keep seeing “your event is blacked out.” The on demand offerings seem quite arbitrary, as sometimes there are multiple episodes available, but on other days there are fewer. Needless to say, if this continues, I won’t even give Sling its seasonal run in the future.

Netflix is about $29 per month (for a family plan + DVDs), Hulu is $9 per month, and Sling is $40. Amazon offers benefits beyond streaming, so let’s add another $5 to the total. That makes $83 per month for online entertainment; each service overlaps a bit, yet each offers something unique. YouTube, HBOgo, CBS all-access, and others would love to have some monthly moola, so clearly there needs to be one service that provides everything (cable + DVR?) Disney has been teasing two different services in the future, one for entertainment and one for sports. If they do, the fracturing of the entertainment empire will probably get worse.

Right now, cord cutting is more and more in vogue, but one of the big players needs to add live sports. Whichever one can manage that will win enough customers to have more buying clout with networks. I’m not a gambler by nature, but I’d pick Amazon to win, Netflix to place, and Hulu to show.