Beau HD reviews the new cable TV killer, Sling TV. Sling TV is the future of television as it offers live cable TV channels to almost any internet connected device. Whether it's a smartphone, tablet, computer, or gaming system, Sling TV delivers all of its channels through the internet starting at $20 a month with extra channels included for an additional $5 a month. 

Are you sick of cable companies charging you an insane amount of money for an outdated and old service? Well, I am. I’m not going to name any of those companies but I’m sure you can guess which one I’m talking about. But Internet TV is just the beginning and it may very well give cable TV a run for its money. In this video, we’re going to take a look at a company called Sling TV; which promises to deliver cable television channels through the internet.

Now you might be wondering why I’m talking about TV here on PhoneDog, well Sling TV is a little bit different than cable television as they essentially deliver cable television channels to all your devices through the internet. Currently Sling TV is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Mac, and Windows computers. And it will be coming soon to Xbox, the Nexus Player, Amazon FireTV, and the Fire TV Stick, and I’m sure even more platforms once the service has time to mature and see if there is a demand for this type of service.

Sling TV first caught my attention at CES 2015 in Vegas, where it won the “Best Home Theater Product” award, “Best Software App” award, and the “Best of the Best” award. I’ve never heard of it before prior to CES but it certainly has a lot of hype and expectations centered around it. So I decided to test it out. If you go to their website, you can receive a 7-day free trial, which is what I’ve been using to test it. You will need to enter your payment info but you can cancel at any time and they won’t charge you until the 7 days are up.

With that said, the first thing I did was download and install the Sling TV app for my Android device which happens to be the Nexus 6. Like I mentioned, it does work with iOS as well as Mac or Windows computers and plenty of other platforms -- which is very convenient to have especially since this service just launched recently. Now the service itself is $20 a month, which gets you access to a fair selection of channels.

Currently, you have access to ESPN, ESPN 2, TNT, TBS, The Food Network, HGTV, The Travel Channel, EL REY Network, Maker, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel. There are also a few extra for $5 a month. There’s Sports Extra, News & Info Extra, and Kids Extra, which as you can see here gives you access to additional channels. And since this service is so new, I’m sure these lists will grow.

If we take a look at the app itself, there’s a slide out menu on the left that gives you access to TV, a watchlist, and movies.

TV Section

The TV section as you can see you have a live view of the channel we currently have selected. We can swipe through to view what’s on each network by swiping through each network. Or we can go to the On Now section which shows us all the TV shows that are currently playing LIVE right now. What I thought was cool is that certain networks allow you to re-watch a show or star the show over so that you can get caught up. So they basically record each show so you can jump through various sections.

This feature isn’t available for every network though, just a few of them. Also, some networks don’t have as many or any advertisements when there is a normal commercial break. Advertisements are necessary, but they suck and I hate watching them so I found that to be very cool. Besides that, there is a category to view sports, entertainment, news, and family, as well as an option to search for a show.

Movies Section

If we go to the movies section we’ll see categories for the most popular, new releases, collections, and various other genres. And then we can tap on a movie and rent it in standard definition or high definition. Some movies are priced at around $4 to rent while others are higher; it really depends, but if you do rent a movie they will appear in the watchlist section.

So that is the gist of Sling TV, the experience is very similar across each platform. But from the looks of it and the pricing models, Sling TV could be the future of television. Right now, it doesn’t have a ton of options. I would like to see some more local TV options available but once again I’m sure the list of channels will grow in time.

Considering Cable prices are measured in the hundreds for most people at least here in the U.S. I think Sling TV will be very compelling for a lot of people especially considering it’s available on many more devices. It can be portable, and it has the potential to give you more specific channels that you actually watch. Because I have cable TV but I don’t watch 99% of the channels I have yet I’m paying for them all, it just doesn’t make sense where Sling TV does make a lot of sense.

So that is my review of Sling TV, I’m really curious to know what your thoughts are of this service. Is this something you are going to use right now or will you wait to see how it develops… or maybe you’re still a fan of cable? Let me know what your thoughts are by leaving me a comment down below.