TV Is Everywhere — at Least at CES in Las Vegas
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The Consumer Electronics Show officially kicked off this morning and already pay-TV and content providers have announced some new toys, services and tactics.
New powers for Dish’s Hopper: The satellite giant is once again igniting chatter at CES. Last year, Dish used the trade show to introduce the powerful Hopper DVR, soon afterward announcing its ad-skipping feature –which led broadcast networks to sue. This year, Dish has announced a new version of the Hopper that integrates Slingbox, allowing customers to watch live or recorded TV on internet-connected tablets, smartphones and computers. It is also adding an app to move DVD content to an iPad for offline viewing. The technology spares Dish the pain of securing “TV Everywhere” rights from each individual content provider, a laborious route that has slowed the pay-TV industry’s effort to allow viewing across devices and hopefully fend off streaming-video upstarts. Pricing and availability of the Hopper with Sling will be announced later this month.
AT&T’s streaming-video service: The telco has introduced the U-verse Screen Pack, a $5 monthly subscription service that allows existing U-verse pay-TV subscribers to also watch movies on demand on TV sets and connected devices. With a small selection — the service offers only about 1,500 movies at the start — U-Verse Screen Pack isn’t likely to make much of an impact on Netflix, but AT&T will be happy if it helps retain customers and cash that Netflix and similar services might otherwise capture. Other pay-TV providers, like Comcast, have introduced similar offerings.
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