{"id":342388,"date":"2017-06-01T00:43:44","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1497717"},"modified":"2017-06-01T00:43:44","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:43:44","slug":"sling-tv-becomes-more-like-old-tv-with-the-addition-of-a-traditional-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/sling-tv-becomes-more-like-old-tv-with-the-addition-of-a-traditional-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Sling TV becomes more like old TV with the addition of a traditional guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sling TV<\/a>, the Dish-owned streaming service for cord cutters, wouldn\u2019t win any awards for its app\u2019s design, which at best is merely functional and at worst, downright confusing. The company, however, has been trying to improve the experience over the years to make its features easier to access and today, it\u2019s continuing those efforts with a somewhat interesting choice: it\u2019s going back to a traditional TV guide.<\/p>\n

In case there was any question that the new online TV services were just old, pay TV in a new package, this sort of seals the deal.<\/p>\n

Even Sling TV says in its announcement<\/a> that its new grid guide isn\u2019t \u201crevolutionary,\u201d but it has been the most requested feature from Sling TV customers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason this interface makes sense \u2013 and has for years. If you\u2019re going to watch linear TV, you want a simple way to scroll through what\u2019s on right now, on which channel, and be able to visualize how much of the show or movie you\u2019ve already missed, as well as see what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

The traditional TV guide delivers this experience well, which is why it has been the most popular user interface for live TV over the years. And despite Sling TV and other streaming TV services\u2019 intention to compete with on-demand rivals like Netflix, they\u2019re not really in the same business.<\/p>\n

Live TV services are aimed at those looking to cut ties with cable or satellite television \u2013 perhaps for cost-saving reasons, because they want more control over which channels they want to buy, or because they want to watch TV across mobile devices, even when outside their home, with less hassle.<\/p>\n

But streaming TV subscribers aren\u2019t ready to fully give up the TV experience. They still want a TV guide to see what\u2019s on, a personalized list of favorite channels, a DVR, and so on.<\/p>\n

The new grid guide is being added as option alongside Sling TV\u2019s prior guide, now renamed the \u201cChannel\u201d guide. The grid lets you see what\u2019s on, filter channels by genre, and peek at the upcoming schedule.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The feature is launching first on Android devices, and will then roll out to Sling TV\u2019s other platforms.<\/p>\n

Along with the launch of the grid guide, Sling TV says it will also soon expand its personalization options with the addition of new content ribbons to the \u201cMyTV\u201d section to include Featured Movies and Featured Shows. These are basically Sling\u2019s own recommendations of its on-demand content.<\/p>\n

Sling TV\u2019s on-demand programming is a bit more limited than what you\u2019d find on a service like Netflix or Hulu \u2013 it\u2019s similar the on-demand video you can get via cable. But Sling still tries to cater to would-be Hulu subscribers by touting its on-demand library.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Sling TV interface will also get a new \u201cShows\u201d button for finding on-demand TV series from its catalog of 31,000 episodes. And its \u201cOn Now\u201d section will be improved to recommend the more popular content first in its sorting.<\/p>\n

These features will also roll out in the weeks ahead, says Sling TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Sling TV, the Dish-owned streaming service for cord cutters, wouldn’t win any awards for its app’s design, which at best is merely functional and at worst, downright confusing. The company, however, has been trying to improve the experience over the years to make its features easier to access and today, it’s continuing those efforts with a somewhat interesting choice:… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-342388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}