Dish ‘Slings’ TV Everywhere to iPhone, Android Devices
Dish Network is pushing new features of its TV Everywhere service, enabling its customers to watch live and pre-recorded programming on the iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry mobile devices. While other pay TV providers are building …
Context & Ripple Effects
Dish Network's mobile push has been building all year: in August it laid out plans to stream live TV to the iPad and other devices, and this week it is delivering that promise across iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry handsets. The 'Sling' branding is no accident — the company has owned place-shifting technology since its Slingbox days, when the device first proved out watching pay-TV remotely back in 2007.
The move lands alongside another Dish hardware play from the same month: a discounted $179 Logitech Revue Google TV box for customers paying the $4-per-month DVR integration fee, signaling that Dish is positioning subscription add-ons, not just satellite dishes, as its growth engine.
First-order effects
- Dish subscribers with an iPhone, iPad, Android or BlackBerry device can now watch live and pre-recorded programming on the go, making the pay-TV bill portable outside the living room for the first time for most of them.
Second-order effects
- Rival cable and satellite providers still building their own TV Everywhere apps face pressure to ship equivalents quickly, while the move strengthens Dish's upsell of its $4/month DVR integration service that also unlocks the discounted Logitech Revue.
Third-order effects
- If authentication-based apps become table stakes, the pay-TV bundle competes less on channel lineups and more on how many screens a subscription unlocks — pushing operators toward becoming multi-device software platforms rather than set-top-box companies.
The trend: Pay-TV providers are converting single-screen satellite and cable subscriptions into authenticated, multi-device streaming services, with Dish's Sling heritage giving it a head start over rivals still building theirs.