After officially opening for business Monday, Dish Network’s new Web TV service, Sling TV, landed in Amazon’s Fire TV products today. To celebrate the occasion, Dish and Amazon have cooked up a killer deal, offering users who sign up for 3 months of Sling TV a free Fire TV stick, or $50 off the regular Fire TV set-top box.
Not to be outdone, Roku has struck a similar deal with Sling TV, offering up the Roku 3 set-top box at $50 off, or a free Roku Streaming Stick with a 3-month Sling TV subscription. In addition to Amazon and Roku devices, Sling TV is supported by iOS and Android mobile devices, PCs, and Macs. Google’s Nexus Player and the Xbox One are expected to be next on the list.
Dish’s highly anticipated new service was officially unveiled at CES in early January, and since then Sling TV has continued to pick up steam. Subscribers to the service get a core base of live channels like ESPN, ESPN 2, HGTV, TNT, CNN, and TBS for $20 per month, along with a new deal that will bring AMC (and The Walking Dead along with it) on board. In addition to $5 add-on packs for news and kids programming, the service recently launched a new “Sports Extra” add-on pack, further underscoring the importance of sports programming for the fledgling service.
Amazon’s Fire TV devices have been making some moves of their own lately, reportedly growing their store of available apps by a factor of five since the Fire TV officially launched in April last year.
For those just beginning to build a system to supplant cable, or for those looking to upgrade their current setup, the new Sling TV hardware bundles both make for enticing ways to get started. If you’re just testing the Sling TV waters, you can find out more about the service by checking out our hands-on review here, and you can also find out how to ditch cable the right way in our handy guide. Or, if you’re ready to make the Sling TV leap, you might just want to sign up for one of the new bundle packs today.
