In the first two weeks of college football, one important reality has hit home again and again. Many of the biggest football games are on broadcast TV channels. For instance, UCLA’s epic comeback in week 1 was on Fox not Fox Sports 1 or ESPN. Antennas are one of the most forgotten parts of a cord cutters arsenal. Sling TV has a new partnership to address this. While it has pushed partnerships with streaming boxes since its start a new promo will get customers who sign up for two months a free indoor antenna. For people who already have Roku, Apple TV or a Fire TV that might be a nice way to get more equipment for checking out a service.
Sports are a big push for cable and skinny bundles and the companies that offer them have worked hard to try and get as many of the broadcast channels on board with the online services. But as we have mentioned before. Getting local network affiliates to all line up and agree to carriage fees in every market in the country is very difficult even for major cable providers which is why you see stories about blackouts every year or so for major stations in major markets. The easiest work around for all that (provided one will work for you, is an antenna.
Sling TV is the first mainstream skinny bundle to make such an offer to customers but one would expect more companies to follow suit. The biggest complaint I see about these types of services is usually that they don’t have local channels. In the end, I think millions should be asking themselves if free broadcast channels are their favorites then why do they still pay for cable in the first place.
It will be interesting to see how well this partnership works out.
Recomendation
If you are thinking about trying out this promotion a good purchase might be the Air TV which is an Android box that actually integrates local TV into the Sling TV interface. If you already have a capable set-top box then you are likely all set, but I find that the all in one setup is fun.
