Sling TV AirTV fills a major hole in streaming

DISH managed to cobble together a skinny bundle of popular cable channels for online streaming with Sling TV, but it still doesn’t offer local network TV. Now the company could have a solution that brings some of the major networks onto its platform.

Zatz Not Funny reports that the company is prepping an AirTV box that will merge Sling TV’s service with free local television, citing a trusted inside source. The device would include an over the air (OTA) tuner combined with streaming hardware, and would require a separate TV antenna to work. You’d also need an internet connection, delivered over Wi-Fi or with an Ethernet cable.

Once AirTV is set up, all the free local channels would presumably show up in your Sling TV app, making it possible to watch on any device. The company is allegedly planning several different models, one of which could potentially include an HDMI port for plugging into your TV directly.

The entire idea sounds a bit like Aereo, the defunct service that streamed network TV through an app for just $8 per month before it was sued into oblivion. However, Sling should be able to bypass those issues by having each customer use their own antenna.