Between the commercial-skipping goodness of AutoHop, seemingly bottomless recording capacity, integrated Sling for placeshifting, and the ability to record up to 8 programs simultaneously, Dish customers already have plenty of reasons to love their Hopper and Super Joey whole-house DVR systems. For Dish customers who subscribe to Showtime, life is about to get even better. That's right: SHOWTIME ANYTIME is now available for Dish subscribers.
If you're familiar with HBO GO, SHOWTIME ANYTIME essentially offers the same proposition: instant access to the network's rich catalog of original series plus a constantly-changing assortment of movies, stand-up comedy, and other filmed entertainment. Only instead of HBO's Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and The Wire, SHOWTIME ANYTIME brings you shows such as Homeland, Dexter, House of Lies, Masters of Sex, Weeds, and Speechless, to name but a few - every episode, instantly available. For fans of these excellent Showtime series, this is a big deal.
According to a recent Dish press release, "SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® programming will soon be added to Video-On-Demand content available on broadband-connected DISH set-top-boxes, on DISHAnywhere.com, and the DISH Anywhere app for tablets and smartphones." In the mean time, Dish customers can start diving into SHOWTIME ANYTIME now using a PC, mobile device, or one of the many internet streaming platforms on which the SHOWTIME ANYTIME channel/app is available.
The SHOWTIME ANYTIME app is available for Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, XBOX 360, and the XBOX ONE. Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android devices and there's also web access on your computer via showtimeanytime.com. Said another way, there is no shortage of ways to access SHOWTIME ANYTIME.
Since I have a Roku 3 and Dish service here at home, I spent some time last night exploring the SHOWTIME ANYTIME experience. After adding and launching the channel to my Roku 3 and selecting Dish as my service provider, I was given an on-screen code and instructed to use my computer to activate the Roku device. The website process was quite painless and it connected to Dish.com to validate my subscription. Once that was done, the Roku channel automatically refreshed and I was granted access to the content menu. The entire setup process took less than five minutes.
On the Roku 3, the SHOWTIME ANYTIME app is attractive and intuitive to navigate. Content is grouped into areas such as "Series," "Movies," and "Comedy." Once you drill down, it's easy to find what you're looking for. At least on the Roku app, I think I prefer the layout and structure of the SHOWTIME ANYTIME app to that of HBO GO, but it's safe to say that if you've used HBO GO, you'll have no trouble setting up and using SHOWTIME ANYTIME.
If you're anything like me, you hate being late to the party on a good show. You want to watch a quality series from the very beginning, in order, and not miss a single episode. SHOWTIME ANYTIME lets you do that. And while some of Showtime's best shows are at least partially available on Netflix (e.g. Dexter, Weeds), there's plenty more that aren't (e.g. House of Lies, Shameless, Penny Dreadful, Masters of Sex). If you're a Dish/Showtime subscriber and you've been waiting to catch up with these top shelf series, I'm happy to report that the wait is over.
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