Dish Network Planning Rollout of Internet Cable TV Service in U.S.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

U.S. satellite TV provider Dish Network is planning later this year to launch a 100% over-the-Internet cable TV service estimated to be priced at $20 to $30 per month, aiming at a group of 20 to 30 channels, according to recent news media reports.

 

The service will supposedly be targeted at customers who are not currently traditional pay cable TV or satellite TV subscribers. Dish has already reached agreements with the Disney conglomerate and A&E networks (A&E, Lifetime, History Channel) to carry their content, but Dish hasn't yet disclosed exactly what their channel lineup will be, or what their official pricing will be.

 

Presumably, for this discussion here, subscribing to the service will probably require a U.S. billing address and probably a U.S. IP address as well, although that's not much different from other providers like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and easily can be handled by readers here, if they choose to do so.

 

It will be interesting to see exactly what their channel lineup will include. The linked CNN Money article below mentions that Dish's agreement with Disney could allow the Dish internet cable service to carry Disney channels such as ESPN. But no mention in this article if the Dish service would or would not include local over-the-air channels like CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, etc.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/06/media/dish-network/

 

http://time.com/3082715/dish-ae-internet-tv/

 

Also haven't seen any mention of the planned Dish service having any online PVR functionality, similar to what Aereo offered prior to it being shut down recently in the wake of an adverse U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[craigt3365]

Not sure how well it will work for me.  I'm out of town a bit and streaming video is hit and miss.  Would love an alternative to True.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Obviously, it's going to require some kind of VPN connection for folks here.

 

And, interestingly, what I've found over time is that with the right VPN services, I actually get much faster international speeds for everything, including streaming, than I do going direct thru my True cable connection. That's for connections to content in the U.S.

 

Another thing I've found lately is that several VPN services are now offering so-called virtual servers to the U.S. and UK. So, in those setups, the actual server you're connecting to is in Singapore or Taiwan -- which is a relatively fast connection to Thailand -- but the virtual IP you're getting is for the U.S. or UK. I found those to improve throughput even more.

 

As for the Dish service, I haven't seen any detail yet as to what kind of streaming technology they're planning to use, and what kind of minimum bit rate it will recommend. But, the nice thing is, since there's no hardware to buy or install, someone can try the service once it launches and if it doesn't work well for their setup, they can simply cancel it within the first month.

 

Dunno if they're going to offer any kind of free trial upon launch.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I should have added, for expats, there is an already operating virtual cable provider... that provides both OTA channels (unfortunately from Pennsylvania last time I checked) and a variety of traditional cable channels. But since it's marketed only to those outside the U.S., it seems to get pretty much zero attention in U.S. news media.

 

It's USTVNow.com

 

https://support.ustvnow.com/entries/21994156-what-plans-channels-are-available

 

They offer a 21 channel service, entirely over the internet, for $29 per month or $39 per month with cloud DVR.

 

What I found using Aereo in the past months is that I relied heavily on the cloud DVR functionality to watch the shows I wanted, since because of the Thailand-U.S. time difference, I was rarely ready to watch TV here at the time the shows I wanted were airing in the U.S.

 

So effectively for the USTVNow service to have value/use for me, I'd have to be using their $39 per month cloud DVR plan. And that's a bit high in cost for me, compared to my current approach of using Netflix and Hulu, and lately, PlayLater to record shows to local files on my PC for watching at my leisure (total cost, $8 a month plus a one-time purchase of a PlayLater license).

 

PlayLater, BTW, is PC software that allows your computer to search out and record videos posted on the various video websites, including those of the various TV and cable networks, including the ability to use it with various password/pay account services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and others. So, unfortunately, it only can grab posted/stored videos. It doesn't, for the most part, deal with live broadcasts/streams. So for example, it doesn't enable you to watch "The Simpsons" as it's airing on Fox, but it will copy the show once Fox posts the episode to the Fox website.

 

One of the best features of Aereo's now defunct cloud DVR -- which is sadly lacking from PlayLater, and I'm not sure whether it's available or not in USTVNow's DVR -- is the ability to select/subscribe to a show ONCE, and then have all episodes of that show automatically downloaded/recorded thereafter. That's SO convenient. But with PlayLater, you have to manually select each show every time, which is a bit of a PITA.

 

 

As I said above, I haven't seen any mention of whether the Dish plan will have any available cloud DVR functionality offered.

 

Edited August 10, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK