What is Sling TV, how much does it cost, and what does it include?

Cutting the cord has never been easier, but what service is worth your hard-earned money? Sling TV is a service that’s been around since 2015, growing year after year, introducing new features, new channels, and offering quite a bit of content for a relatively low monthly subscription. It’s also one of the most versatile services out there, giving users quite a bit of wiggle room when it comes to choosing what channels to watch and what content to pay for.

What is Sling TV?

Sling TV is a live TV streaming service that lets users watch TV channels without a cable or satellite TV subscription.

The live TV streaming service offers a wide range of channel packages that allow customers to pick and choose the type of content they actually want to watch – so they can only pay for those specific networks. In fact, we find Sling TV to offer one of the best-built channel package systems across all similar services.

Sling TV

Sling is one of the best live TV streaming services available in the US. It allows you to watch live sports, news and hit TV shows and movies.

Where is Sling TV available?

Sling TV is available in the US, as well as Puerto Rico. The company has been discussing plans for international expansion for a while but has yet to take the plunge.

How much does Sling TV cost?

Sling TV/ Pocket-Lint

Well, this is a trick question, because Sling TV often offers its first month with a discount. As of December 2023, you can sign up for the service for as little as $15 for the first month, but that number can jump considerably based on what other channel collections one chooses to add.

The regular price for the base service is actually $40 for Orange, $45 for Blue, and $60 for Orange + Blue. We suggest you check out the Sling TV website every so often because they’re always running discounts, either slashing the subscription price in half or by $25.

Since we’re talking about deals, you should also check out Sling TV’s deals, because you can get cheaper Fire TV Sticks, discounts for various package combinations, and extras.

Sling TV/ Pocket-Lint

Which plans does Sling TV offer?

Sling TV base packages

Sling TV offers users two base plans: Orange and Blue. The full price of these plans is $40 for Orange and $45 for Blue, but users usually get heavy discounts for the first month. Alternatively, users can also go for the Orange + Blue plan $60 per month, which includes all 71 channels. Both plans share the following channels: TBS, TNT, CNN, HGTV, AMC, History, ID, A&E, Food Network, Nick Jr, Comedy Central, IFC, BBC America, Travel Channels, Cartoon Networks, BET, MGM+, Lifetime, Vice, AXS Tv, Fuse, Bloomberg TV+. Local Now, Comet, Charge.

On top of these, there are unique networks to each plan:

One thing to note about the Blue plan and its inclusion of local channels for ABC, Fox, and NBC is that users will only be able to stream the network version that’s available in their area. However, not all channels are available in all locations, and there are specifically designated market areas. If you find that you live in an area where you won’t actually get one of these networks, we suggest looking into bypassing the geoblockade with a VPN. If you don’t know which VPN to choose, don’t worry; we have a guide for that, so you can check which are our favorite VPNs.

What else can Sling TV do?

Simultaneous streams

Sling Orange subscribers can only watch content on one device at a time, but Blue subscribers get three separate streams. Orange + Blue subscribers get to stream content on up to four devices simultaneously, although channels exclusive to the Orange plan can only be viewed on one device at a time.

Cloud DVR

All subscribers get access to enough cloud storage for 50 hours of DVR content. This feature can be extended with the addition of the DVR Plus, which is $5 per month and upgrades users to 200 hours of DVR storage space.

Sling TV/ Pocket-Lint

On top of the base packages, users can choose to add various extra channel packs they enjoy based on their interests. Families may choose to add kids’ channels, football fans will want sports channels, and so on. Here are some of the interest-based packs you can get with Sling TV:

• Sports ($11 per month)
• Entertainment ($6 per month)
• Kids ($6 per month)
• News ($6 per month)
• Lifestyle ($6 per month)
• Hollywood ($6 per month)
• Heartland ($6 per month)

Since the base plans vary in composition, so will these Extra packages since they seek to level the playing field. Since Sling Orange features for lifestyle networks, the corresponding Extra package only features nine extra networks. For Blue subscribers, however, the same package has 14 networks.

Subscribers who want all the Extra packages can get an awesome deal by paying an additional $21 per month, which is considerably less than what they’d pay by adding them individually. Those who want the Kids, News, Lifestyle, and Entertainment Extra packages can also pay $13/month instead of $24.

Sling TV premiums

Here’s a table of the extra channel packages subscribers can add to their base plans and what channels they include:

There is also an extensive list of premium channels you can add, such as Acorn TV, BET+, CineFest, Curiosity TV, Hallmark Movies Now, and over 20 others.

Sling TV for basketball fans

Aside from the channel packs and premium networks they can add to the subscription, sports fans have a couple of extra options. The NBA League Pass costs $14.99/month and features access to live games of all NBA teams. Blackout restrictions for home market games do apply, however, so you should keep that in mind. Alternatively, you can also pay $13.99 per month for the NBA Team Pass which allows you to choose your favorite basketball team so you can watch all their live games.

Sling TV in another language

For folks who want to watch channels in a different language, Sling TV has quite the offer. There are Latino packages you can add to your account featuring Spanish-language networks. Additionally, you can get packages like Desi Binge, and Hindi Pack, or pick channels in Punjabi or Urdu, French, Greek, or Italian, to name a very few.

Where and how can you watch Sling TV?

Sling TV/ Pocket-Lint

Now that we’ve established just what you can get when subscribing to Sling TV, let’s see how you can actually enjoy the content you’re paying for. Thankfully, you can stream all these live networks on a long list of devices, including TVs, smartphones (Android and iOS), tablets, gaming consoles, streaming devices, computers, and more.

What is Sling TV Freestream?

Sling TV/ Pocket-Lint

As the name suggests, this TV you can watch for free. Sling Freestrean offers over 400 channels of news, movies, and shows for anyone and everyone. You don’t need to pay for the service or even create an account. You can find channels to watch or look for on-demand content. Maybe you want to get a blast from the past and watch White Men Can’t Jump or maybe you want to laugh at Whose Line Is It Anyway? or get the kids to sit still for half an hour with Peppa Pig. There are also plenty of newer films, too, so don’t worry, the content is not stuck in the 90s.

On the other hand, this is absolutely free content, so you don’t get to complain.

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Is Sling TV worth trying?

Based on how Sling TV is built, it most definitely is worth your attention. Being able to mix and match base plans with channel packages and premium networks is absolutely fantastic, especially when compared to other live TV services that charge you a ton of money by cramming in networks you’ll never watch five minutes of. In some sense, Sling TV is closer to what online TV should be as competitors more closely resemble the classic cable TV plans offered in the past few decades.