Competition is dead in pay TV. Where once cable and satellite TV providers stood as proud pillars of the entertainment empire, the landscape is now clouded by crumbling columns consolidating closer and closer for structural support. By making Sling TV available on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform, this is the first concrete evidence of the dilution of Dish Network following the acquisition by—and subsequent merger with—EchoStar, for $26 billion in January 2024. The two long-term pay TV competitors—Comcast in cable and Dish in DTH—have been forced to compete for streaming eyeballs while grandfathering weakening subscriber bases, and the latest partnership is just one more steppingstone on the inevitable cruise to the crematorium for both, but mainly for Dish. What has…