Sling TV looks to liven up streaming video party

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Dish network to release 'SlingTV,' attracting Cord cutters On Tuesday, Dish Network's Sling TV will open its online TV streaming service to those who had requested invites. A full launch is expected in about two weeks. The package is cheap - at $20 a month.

Sling TV is ready to hit the "on" button.

The Internet-delivered subscription video service from satellite TV provider Dish Network will begin official operations Tuesday. The first invites start going out at 12 a.m. ET Tuesday to customers who preregistered on Sling.com.

Everyone else has to wait, but they will get a free one-week trial when the service opens to all customers within the next two weeks. Consumers who don't have one of the supported Net TV devices such as an Amazon Fire or Roku device can sign up on Sling.com to order a device as part of a subscription package (prices to be announced).

Sling TV is an important advance in the streaming Net TV marketplace because it wraps up some popular live, linear feeds of basic-cable channels such as ESPN and CNN that previously were not available outside of traditional pay-TV packages. Most live-streaming sports and news apps require viewers to enter passwords from their pay-TV accounts to authenticate that they pay for at-home service.

Another differentiator for Sling TV is that you pay on a month-to-month basis ($20 monthly for the basic lineup). Pay-TV subscriptions often require long-term contracts of up to two years.

Those long commitments and the growing cost of pay TV has led some younger consumers to shy away from pay TV — and some longtime pay-TV subscribers to "cut the cord" and rely on growing Net TV video offerings as their viewing source.

For those unfamiliar with Net TV, the most popular streaming subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video offer mostly on-demand TV episodes and movies that don't become available until after a network TV series season runs its course. Hulu Plus, while it makes episodes available after airing from ABC, NBC, Fox and other channels, is far from all-inclusive.

I've been exploring Sling TV over the last few days as one of many journalists and reviewers that Sling TV let have early access to the service.

Sling TV is easy to use. For starters, you need a robust broadband Internet connection — Netflix recommends 5 megabits per second for HD quality.

You download the Sling TV app onto your device whether it's an Android or iOS tablet or a Net TV device such as an Amazon Fire or Roku device connected to your TV or Xbox One video game system. Some smart TVs from LG and Samsung also will have the app.

For early testers such as myself, Sling TV supplied a Roku 3 device to download the app. I connected the Roku 3 to my home Internet service – it works wirelessly but I connected via ethernet to my home powerline Internet network – and, with an HDMI cable to my TV.

After updating my Roku software, the Sling TV channel app appeared and I selected it and was perusing its offerings in minutes.

Sling TV's interface is very intuitive and easy to surf. Scroll left and right to check the channel lineup. In this case, the 12 basic channels and several additional ones such as Disney XD and Cooking Channel that are part of the kids and news & info extra programming packages ($5 each monthly). An as-yet-unannounced sports extra package will include additional ESPN channels beyond ESPN 2, which is part of the standard Sling TV lineup.

As you highlight a channel, upcoming programs are shown and past episodes, if available, appear, too. For instance, the Food Network had more than a dozen on-demand episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives among programs that had aired in the last three days. Similarly, Travel Channel had recent episodes of shows including Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Booze Traveler.

Sling TV plans to expand its on-demand catalog, and there's movie rentals for titles such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Jimi: All Is By My Side and Humbling (prices run about $5-$8 for HD quality).

The video quality on CNN and ESPN doesn't match the quality I get on Verizon FiOS TV, but it is certainly watchable.

A nit: You cannot pause video on some channels including CNN and ESPN (I assume that could be added to all channels eventually.)

But for consumers looking to downsize their pay-TV bill — and want to keep tabs on live sports and news — Sling TV could serve as the foundation for a solid and sensible streaming alternative to today's cable and satellite mega-bundles.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider