Dish Network to Offer ESPN, TNT and Others in $20/Month Streaming Plan

One of the problems with cutting cable is accessibility to live events, such as sports. It's easy to wait until the next day to catch an episode on Hulu, but watching a playoff game the next day can be disastrous unless you can stay off of Facebook and Twitter for 12 hours.

Dish Network might have a solution for those who hope to cut cable but still have access to sports, and it'll only cost you $20 a month.

The web-based service is called Sling TV, and for the $20 a month subscription cost, users will be able to stream ESPN, TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network and Cartoon Network without a cable subscription. Currently, the only way to watch ESPN's online streaming service is to have a cable subscription.

This would open up the world of cable-cutting to sports fans, who would be able to watch the playoff games that often air on TNT and TBS (basketball and baseball in particular) as well as college football games that often air on ESPN. It also offers programming for the whole family, with comedies on TBS, dramas on TNT, children's programming on Cartoon Network and news and reality/cooking shows on CNN and Food Network, respectively.

However, the service will have some limitations. Most notably, users will only be able to stream the channels on one device, so it won't be nearly as portable (or shareable) as Netflix or Hulu. Also, the service will not be available on Apple TV at launch, so Apple TV users may have to buy a Roku.