Comcast-owned NBC refused to run commercials for Sling TV's competing streaming service

Sling TV, the company delivering Internet-based streaming TV, says it's being boxed out by Comcast-owned NBC. Sling CEO Roger Lynch tells us that NBC refused to run ads for Sling TV. The company, which is owned by Dish, offers an over-the-top television streaming service that gives subscribers access to live cable channels. Sling says that its target demographic are millennials who are often wary of signing lengthy and expensive cable contracts.

Lynch and his creative team wrote and produced a series of commercials aimed at this younger demographic. The commercials are silly, portraying kids as the mean bureaucratic cable company workers who bully grown adults into signing unwanted cable additions. The tenor is fun, irreverent, and similar to a slew of other commercials out there also targeting the 'weirdness' of the younger generation. Sling submitted these commercials to eight local television markets: both the affiliate stations as well as the owned and operated stations of ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. Lynch said all stations accepted the commercials except for the ones owned and operated by NBC.