Confirmed: Sling Freestream Testing DVR Feature, but Available Almost Exclusively for Paid Sling TV Subscribers

As more and more consumers move from traditional pay-TV providers to streaming services, it becomes increasingly important for these platforms to provide features and a user experience that meets the expectations of those cutting the cord and leaving cable and satellite behind. While the navigation and discovery aspects of nearly all streaming platforms still leave much to be desired, one vital function that has become increasingly important to streamers is DVR capabilities. While the feature is now essentially standard on all major live TV streaming services, The Streamable can confirm that DISH’s ad-supported Sling Freestream platform is now experimenting with allowing users to record items from its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) linear channels.

• Sling’s free streaming platform is experimenting with allowing a small number of users to record content from its linear channels.
• Paid Sling TV live-streaming customers already have the ability to record programming on these channels.
• Not all channels are available to be recorded, regardless of if the customer is a beta tester or paid subscriber.

A Sling TV representative confirmed to The Streamable that the company is testing adding DVR functionality to a small group of Freestream users; subscribers to Sling’s paid live streaming service already had this ability. The Sling rep confirmed that the company had not made any official announcements thus far because it did not want to confuse its customers, since those involved in the beta test are only a small portion of the Freestream customer base.

“We will have more updates coming later this quarter to clarify what you are seeing,” the Sling spokesperson told The Streamable. “But the short answer is that it is something that is in beta, and not rolled out to all Freestream users.”

For viewers who have been included in the beta test or subscribe to Sling TV, they will see additional options on the menu page for individual programs. They will be able to record all episodes of a title or only new releases. Freestream users who have not been pre-selected for the experiment will only have the ability to add the series to their watchlist. The Freestream customers involved in the beta only receive 10 hours of DVR storage.

(Click to expand images.)

Despite the fact that only a small portion of Freestream users are involved in the DVR test, the platform has added a DVR tab to the top of its page. Customers who have access either via the test or as Sling subscribers, will be able to manage their recordings there, but those who don’t will receive a message detailing the benefits of Sling’s DVR and encouraging them to sign up for the live TV streaming service to unlock the feature.

As its name suggests, Sling Freestream is a service that viewers are able to use at no cost. In fact, consumers do not even need to create an account in order to stream from the nearly 300 channels available on the platform. However, to ensure that they will be able to record all of that content, customers will need to sign up for Sling TV, which starts at $40 per month and includes 50 hours of DVR storage.

Currently, Sling is offering new customers 50% off their first month of service, so you can sign up for either Sling’s Orange or Blue plan for just $20, or combine the two for only $27.50. A month should be more than enough time to survey the offers on both Sling and Freestream and determine how valuable the DVR is to your viewing routine.

If Freestream were to roll this out en masse, it would become the first FAST platform to allow users to record content for later viewing. While most of these services — including Freestream — also have ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) components as well, not all titles are included in those offerings, so having the ability to build up a library of shows that otherwise only air in predetermined timeslots is a fairly significant advancement for a FAST service.

While DVR capabilities are not new for linear channels — that is how DVRs work on cable, satellite, and live streaming services after all — adding them to FAST services further blurs the line between the otherwise fairly rigid categories of streamers. Since the launch of Freestream, this has been at the core of Sling's strategy. All of the Freestream channels were incorporated into the Sling TV channel guide at launch, providing extra entertainment options for paying customers.

However, there are some limitations to this functionality that have to do with existing contracts between Sling and the content providers.

“The only exception is when [the] programmer limits Sling from offering that option,” the Sling representative told The Streamable. “There is a small list of channels that do not allow any DVR recording even to paid users.”