Sling TV notches another major cord-cutting victory with introduction of cloud DVR
Sling TV continues to live up to its motto. Announcing today that customers using Roku devices may request an invitation to participate in a cloud DVR beta program, the service is allowing users to ‘take back TV’ one feature release at a time.
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The beta program begins in December and will support other devices besides Roku shortly after.
Lack of DVR capabilities has been one of the major drawbacks of streaming services, and has been a leading reason why people who otherwise would cut the cord have not. Cable companies have historically relied on hardware (i.e. set top boxes) to offer DVR services, but most now offer cloud DVR access to subscribers. Not having a hardware component was certainly an obstacle for Sling, but as they’ve shown with a number of feature and channel additions since launching two years ago, this was only a minor bump in the road.
Cloud DVR will be available to both Sling Orange (single stream) and Sling Blue (multi-stream) customers, who will be able to record full episodes and series. DVR capabilities will not be available on all channels, however, and it will be interesting to see which channels hold out at first.
For participating channels, customers will be able to pause, rewind, and fast-forward and can record multiple programs simultaneously without conflicts. Down the line, Sling TV plans to also offer the ability to expand storage space and protect recordings.