This morning, you couldn’t stream television to the Xbox One without plugging in an external cable box or having a subscription to Verizon’s FiOS service. What a difference an afternoon makes. Earlier today Microsoft finally began letting users download Sling TV on Xbox One, the companion app to the service of the same name.
With Sling TV on the Xbox One absolutely anyone can sign up for what amounts to an internet based cable subscription. Sling TV lets users pay $20 a month to livestream participating channels and get access to on-demand content. In addition to that, users can bolt on more channels for $5 a month. These add-on channels are grouped together by relevancy. So for example, there’s a Kids Pack and a Sports Pack for those who need more of those channels. Sundance, Disney, IFC, HGTV, TBS, Food Network and Cartoon Network are all channels offered through the service. There are Sling TV apps available on the iPhone, iPad, Roku, PC and Amazon Fire TV. The Xbox One will being the only gaming console to get Sling TV in the near future.
In its post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft talks at length about the features Sling TV on Xbox One offers. Users can Sling TV on Xbox One to the side of their screen to play games while they watch their favorite shows. In addition to that, there’s a bit of OneGuide integration so that users can switch to the latest episodes of their favorite shows. Voice and gesture navigation with the Kinect for Xbox sensor are here too. Unfortunately, Sling doesn’t integrate with the Internet TV capabilities that Microsoft added to the console recently.
About those gifts. Normally, new Sling TV buyers get a week free trial to check out the service. Microsoft is giving all Xbox One owners with an Xbox Live Gold account a month-long subscription to the service. In addition to that, anyone who purchases an Xbox One console from Microsoft’s own retail stores and website get a three-month free trial. The Sling TV app is available on the Xbox One inside the Xbox Store. The app itself is free, but you’ll need to set up an account to get the free trial going.
