SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The company which started as a satellite specialist has a more diverse channel offering than its founders might ever have imagined.
On February 9, National Cut The Cord Day, DISH launched Sling Freestream, its latest digital TV service.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Kevin Arrix, SVP, DISH Media, explains what it means.
Covering bases
The launch means DISH and Sling services include:
- DISH Pay-TV.
- Sling TV, a virtual multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD).
- FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV).
Freestream follows its predecessor Sling Free, offering 210+ free channels and 41,000+ on-demand titles, launching across a range of connected TV services.
It comes at a time when DISH is losing customers from pay-TV and Sling TV.
Customer choice
For Arrix, it’s about allowing customer flexibility.
“If you take a step back and you look at streamers in general … they can sign in one day and they can they can sign out the next if they want,” he says.
“There are consumers that want to have an always-on pay-TV service. There are consumers that want a sometimes-on pay-TV service, and there are consumers that want just a free TV service.
“(Now) they can switch on and pay for TV when they want to watch a sport or a season or a certain content, and they can switch off and there’s tons of free content that they can enjoy.”
No over-exposure
Arrix says the new FAST service won’t run too many ads.
“We’re going to put a flag in the ground on frequency and make sure that there isn’t this over frequency that’s often seen in the same ad pod,” he says.
“We think that’s a quick win. We have the tech to do it. We can set the rules to execute against it.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat San Juan 2023, presented by LiveRamp, Madhive, Magnite, Paramount, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and VideoAmp. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page.