The Android-powered box brings Sling TV, Netflix, Google Play, and local channels.

Sling has lifted the curtain on a new "AirTV Player"—a set-top box that combines IPTV with an OTA antenna for local channel reception.

Like every other set-top box on Earth, the AirTV Player hooks up to your Internet connection and plays video, and here the SlingTV service is the primary provider. As a bonus you get Netflix, local TV, and access to the Google Play Store.

Thanks to Zatz Not Funny, we know the device is powered by Android. The site found the FCC docs for the AirTV Player, which indicates it was built by a company called "Technicolor." In the results database for Geekbench, a popular Android CPU benchmark, there is a "Technicolor AirTV Player" listing. The listing shows a device running Android 6.0 on a 1.2GHz ARMv8 SoC with 1GB of RAM. We're not sure if that means it's a custom build of Android or just Android TV.

Right now Sling recommends customers use hardware from other companies and is currently running a promotion for a free Roku stick with a one-month subscription to Sling TV. Pushing customers to hardware that it owns (and probably makes a profit on) is no doubt better for business.

The real question is if local TV is enough to make people jump on the AirTV Player over all the other boxes out there. As of now, there is no pricing or availability information.