SlingTV’s Crash Raises HBO Now Concerns
SlingTV, Dish Network’s foray into streaming TV over the internet, hit a major snag this past weekend during the Final Four. The package, which includes ESPN and costs only $19.99 per month, had been out for over two months with zero complaints, up until now. Heavy promotion by Dish urging users to watch the Final Four games last weekend caused a major spike in people trying to log on.
This is concerning to those who are looking forward to the HBO Now launch this week. HBO is only seven days out to the premiere of their current flagship show, Game of Thrones, and they haven’t even released the streaming service to see if it can handle regular traffic, let alone the sort of heavy spike that will arise when the show airs, not just on the East Coast, but in 170 countries all at once.
And though HBO claims the streaming service is built on the same bones as other successful services such as MLB.tv and the WWE Network, the latter sports entertainment channel also went live with their network weeks in advance, and still had problems during their first test of heavy usage, while MLB.tv continues to be plagued with problems. There is no proof right now that HBO Now won’t experience these same problems, unless (as I’ve said before) they are counting on the number of AppleTV subscribers being really low.
SlingTV’s failure is also a concern to HBO, as they are partnering with the streaming service–not to carry HBO Now, but HBO GO–for an extra $15 a month. This service will also start this week. HBO GO is already known for instability during heavy usage. It would be an even bigger issue if it was being broadcast by a platform that couldn’t handle the traffic. But it’s doubtful that many users will really know the difference. What they will know is they want access to HBO streaming, they don’t want to buy an Apple TV, so they will either sign up for (or borrow a friend’s password for) something like SlingTV. And like so many things with technology, it just has to work.
Until it doesn’t, anyway.
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