Dish Network announces new streaming app for smart TVs

Dish Network has announced the “Virtual Joey”, a smart TV app that will come built into select LG televisions, and which will take the place of a physical Joey extender. To be clear, you’ll still need a Hopper DVR to anchor the whole experience, but this would at least mean you have one less piece of hardware taking up space in your house. According to company reps, the app will come to 2013 and 2014 LG smart TVs, though it’s working to ink deals with other manufacturers as well.

Dish already makes it fairly easy to watch live TV and DVR content throughout your house. Its small Joey set-top box can be placed in any room and communicate with the main Hopper in a customer’s living room. But things will be even more convenient soon for owners of LG Smart TVs. The two companies today announced that a “Virtual Joey” app will allow these customers to watch TV (both live and recorded programming) just as they normally would with a wired Joey — except there won’t be any extra hardware in sight. The Virtual Joey app will be available for 2013 and 2014 model LG Smart TVs and is scheduled to launch sometime this spring. As always, Dish has a sizable presence at this year’s CES, so we look forward to seeing what else the company has in store.