For some reason, Dish is charging $80 for its AirTV streaming stick

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The streaming media market is already stuffed with services, so why not add more choices in the hardware that they can be watched on? The AirTV Mini is a purpose-built streaming stick primarily for use with Dish’s Sling TV service.

The kicker? It’s $80 when other streaming sticks on the market are in the $50 (or lower) range.

The AirTV Mini is an $80 streaming stick that does 4K

Image: AirTV

This AirTV Mini is joining the existing hardware stack that Dish has to serve its Sling TV service. It’s closer to a cable box than your normal streaming stick, as it only works with a limited subset of streaming services.

• Sling TV is the main service on this streaming stick, which can also play Netflix or over-the-air (OTA) TV
• Google Assistant is the voice assistant of choice on the Android-based streaming stick

It needs an OTA antenna and an AirTV Wi-Fi enabled network tuner as well to show OTA TV, making this a pretty expensive setup. Sling TV has a deal currently where paying for three months of Sling TV up-front gets you the network tuner and OTA antenna for free.

I’m not really sure why anyone would buy this over a Fire TV Stick or a Chromecast, it’s more expensive and only works with Sling TV and a couple of other services. Maybe you hate Alexa, but then just buy a Chromecast since Amazon Prime Video is finally back on those.

What do you think? Interested in this AirTV device from Dish? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.