Check Your Cable Bill, ESPN is Going Digital

ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS all carry live sports and are included in Dish’s new Sling TV subscriptuion service. AP

By Jack Andrade

January 6, 2015

1 minute to read

Sports fans are finally going to have an alternative to the cable company, as Dish launches its “Sling TV’’ service Tuesday, featuring ESPN as a featured attraction.

Sling TV carries live streams over the web, and a subscription costs $20 per month. There are 10 other channels in Sling TV’s arsenal, including CNN, TNT, TBS and the Food Network.

Live sporting events are the cash cow in the package, however. As ESPN moves closer and closer to world domination, “The Worldwide Leader’’ is taking its programming to the web.

Sling TV’s drawbacks include an absence of local broadcast stations and national broadcast networks (so no Sunday Night Football). It’s also way easier to view Sling TV on a laptop or tablet than it is on an actual TV, and Dish will need to establish reliable streaming to maintain subscriptions.

For sports fans, it’s just another alternative to traditional cable and another way to watch live games pretty much anywhere. The current Sling TV package won’t offer much to a Boston sports fan without NESN, Comcast, or NBC Sports Network.

But for those sports fans looking for the cheapest way to watch SportsCenter, Monday Night Football, college football and basketball, or anything else in ESPN’s immense inventory of sports programming, there’s a new option to consider.