Dish’s streaming television service Sling TV is offering a deep discount on some popular streaming set-top boxes in an effort to juice up subscriber numbers just days after it launched to the public.
On Thursday, Dish announced Sling TV was now available on Amazon’s streaming devices — the Amazon Fire TV box and Amazon Fire TV Stick — expanding the number of devices compatible with the online TV service.
As part of the announcement, Dish is offering subscribers 50 percent off an Amazon Fire TV box or a free Amazon Fire TV Stick when they pre-pay for three months of Sling TV service. For those who don’t want to be tied down to Amazon’s TV ecosystem, Sling is offering the same deal on two Roku streaming devices — 50 percent off the Roku 3 or a free Roku TV Streaming Stick, again with three months of prepaid service.
Both new and current subscribers appear to benefit from the deal, although it appears to be targeted more toward prospective customers who may not have a compatible streaming box or are new to streaming television completely.
Sling TVoffers nearly two dozen channels from Disney (ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family), Scripps (Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel), Turner (CNN, TBS, TNT), Univision (Galavision, El Rey Networks) and Bloomberg, with channels from A+E Networks (A&E, CI) and AMC Networks (AMC, IFC, BBC America) promised within the next few weeks.
Sling’s core package is offered at $20 a month. Three extra packages of channels can be added on for an additional $5 a month.