Sling TV now available on Amazon Fire tablets

By Chris Leo Palermino August 31, 2015

sling tv comes to amazon fire hd hdx tablets guide dt

The Dish Network-owned Internet TV service Sling TV added compatibility on Amazon Fire HD and HDX tablets today, making it even easier to take live TV on the go with the burgeoning service. New customers will be able to try the over-the-top live streaming TV service free for two weeks before having to pay its $20 monthly fee.

“Amazon customers now have more ways to access the best live and on-demand content TV has to offer today,” said Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch in a statement. “With the introduction of Sling TV on Amazon Fire HD and HDX tablets, millions of Amazon customers can now access their entertainment in and outside of their home.”

Recommended Videos

Sling TV’s $20 basic subscription offers users 23 live streaming channels including ESPN, AMC, CNN, Cartoon Network, TBS, and A&E, among others. It also offers $5 add-on packs — Kids Extra, World News Extra, Hollywood Extra, Lifestyle Extra, and Sports Extra — for access to additional channels. HBO, which is a $15 per month add-on, and other on-demand and pay-per-view content is also available.

Since the cord-cutter launched in January, it has beefed up its device support to include the Amazon Fire TV and Fire Stick as well as iOS, Android, Mac, PC, Nexus Player, Roku, and Xbox One systems. Sling’s new app for Amazon HD and HDX is now available as a free download on the Amazon app store.

Support for the Amazon tablets comes as competition for online streamers continues to intensify: Comcast has a streaming service coming within “weeks,” and Verizon plans to launch one this year.

Considering Dish’s pay-TV subscriptions — which include Sling TV subscribers — fell 81,000 last quarter, subscriptions from the over-the-top streamer haven’t yet offset declines in Dish subscriptions. (Dish has not disclosed subscription figures for Sling TV.) Adding support for Amazon Fire tablets comes as Dish tries every strategy it can to turn its subscription numbers around, and beef up subscriptions for its pioneering new cord-cutter service.

Topics

Chris Leo Palermino

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…

Audio / Video

The Digital Trends guide to FAST streaming services

Amazon Freevee.

When you talk about the best streaming services, you typically talk about video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix. Or Disney+. Or Amazon Prime Video. Or Hulu. And for good reason — they have a ton of paying subscribers. Netflix alone is closing in on a quarter-billion. Disney+ is about halfway there.

And while the numbers drop off a good bit from there, another flavor of streaming should constitute a good bit of the discussion. FAST services — that's the industry acronym for free advertising-based streaming television — continue to grow both in numbers and in popularity. Think of FAST like the streaming version of broadcast TV, or your cable box. Shows are on at the same time for everyone, and everyone is watching the same thing, with ads. Only unlike YouTube TV or Hulu With Live TV, you don't have to pay anything upfront. It's all supported by advertising — you just don't get the "good" channels like you will on the paid services.

Audio / Video

Apple TV’s multiview feature now out of beta and live for all

Apple TV's multiview feature as seen with Friday Night Baseball.

After spending a few weeks in beta form, Apple TV's multiview feature is now live for everyone for Major League Soccer matches and Friday Night Baseball games.

The Apple TV app now has a multiview feature on Apple TV hardware running the tvOS 16.5 beta. Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

Audio / Video

Sling TV is at its lowest number of subscribers in 5 years

Sling TV app icon on Apple TV.

We've written about how streaming video isn't a zero-sum game, despite all the headlines declaring that the Streaming Wars are in full swing. But that's not to say that churn — the act of a subscriber bailing — isn't very real. It is, and it's one of the main metrics streaming companies worry about.

This brings us to Sling TV. Parent company Dish just announced its first-quarter 2023 earnings and with it, new subscriber numbers for Sling TV. That gives us five full years of data — 21 total quarters. And that data is interesting for a couple of reasons.