CuriosityStream, John Hendricks’s premium SVOD service focused on fact-based entertainment, has expanded its distribution partnership strategy via a deal with Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT TV service.
Under the pact, Sling TV is offering CuriosityStream as a premium add-on “channel” for $6 per month to customers who subscribe to its core Sling Orange or Sling Blue packages, or Sling TV’s Spanish-language and international services.
To help prime the pump, Sling Orange and Sling Blue customers have access to a free preview of CuriosityStream via the channel guide through Dec. 13, 2017. Sling TV subs can also add the SVOD in their account preferences. After purchase, CuriosityStream will appear in the Sling TV channel guide.
Dish doesn’t break out Sling TV subscribers, but Leichtman Research Group estimates that the OTT TV service ended Q3 with about 1.68 million subs.
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“Sling TV’s elegant, user-friendly platform makes subscribing to CuriosityStream extraordinarily simple, and gives viewers the ultimate power in on-demand viewing,” Clint Stinchcomb, CuriosityStream’s chief distribution officer, said in a statement.
Launched in March 2015, CuriosityStream markets its service as an OTT standalone with three tiers of service (up to $11.99 per month for an offering includes a library of 4K content), but has also been ratchetting up its distribution partnership strategy for a service that today offers about 1,500 titles.
On Wednesday (December 6), CuriosityStream announced an integration of its app with set-tops from Layer3 TV. That followed earlier distribution pacts with Comcast (via the MSO’s VOD platform for set-tops and its Stream app), VRV (Ellation’s SVOD aggregation and bundling service), and Amazon Channels.
RELATED: Layer3 TV Ties CuriosityStream to its Set-Tops
Update: Sling TV announced it has also added access to two more SVOD services -- UP Faith & Family and Pantaya.
UP Faith & Family, focused on family-friendly programming, is available for $5 per month to Sling Orange, Sling Blue and/or Spanish-language services.
Pantaya, which features movies in Spanish, is available for $6 per month to Sling Orange, Sling Blue, as well as to customers who take Sling TV’s Spanish-language and/or Brazilian services.
