The streaming TV market just keeps improving.
One of the leading streaming services, Sling TV, seems poised to finally release a rumored standalone hardware device that integrates an over-the-air antenna to round out offerings from its own streaming service. Currently dubbed “AirTV Player,” it’s a small white-and-blue little box with its own remote and an integrated antenna for receiving signals from your local stations.
Though the Sling TV service is already available for streaming on just about every platform — phones, tablets and Android TV as well — this standalone box would offer up an interesting combination by giving you over-the-air local channels as well. Depending on how seamlessly the box can integrate both the OTA signals and the online content, it could become an extremely compelling service for those who live in a populous area with lots of local TV offerings.
Just what could that ‘G’ button do?
The AirTV Player is expected to include Netflix, which is basically a given nowadays, but slightly more interesting is a prominent Google-style “G” button on the remote. That initially points to the idea that the box is running Android, though so far no information is known about what exactly that Google button would do in the service.
Expectations are that Sling TV’s streaming service would continue to exist across multiple platforms, of course, though it wouldn’t integrate with an OTA antenna in the same way. Considering that the CES show is just around the corner, starting the first week of January, there’s a good chance we’ll learn more about the AirTV Player there.
