The latest streaming company to adjust their pricing this year

“Since we launched Sling TV in 2015, we’ve been committed to providing the shows, movies and sports you love at a fair value, and we still offer skinny bundles at a price you can’t get with cable,” said Schlichting in a blog post.

“Sling doesn’t own the networks you watch—we have to pay programmers for their channels so that we can provide them to you, and the price of programming has been going up. Unfortunately, we have to share those rising prices with you, so we can continue to provide you with the same great experience you’ve come to expect from Sling,” added Schlichting.

Sling Blue offers more than 40 cable channels, including TNT, Bravo, AMC, CNN, Fox News, the Food Network and Comedy Central. It has not raised its price since its launch in 2015, though they have added 17 channels to Blue’s original skinny bundle. Sling Orange had a price increase in June 2018 and has added four new networks including Investigation Discovery, Comet, MotorTrend and Stadium to its channel line-up.

Schlichting quoted other benefits to subscribing to Sling TV, including:

• Sling’s on-demand library includes more than 126,000 titles. To put that in perspective, the service started with 12,000 in 2015.
• No equipment fees, long-term contracts or cancellation fees
• Sling subscribers who don’t subscribe to the Cloud DVR add-on service get 10 hours of storage without charge. Fifty hours of additional storage is available for $5 a month. Recorded programs are available as long as a customer is a Sling subscriber.
• Sling’s Total TV Deal includes seven Sling TV Extras (Sports Extra, Kids Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Extra, Heartland Extra, Hollywood Extra and Comedy Extra) plus 50 hours of Cloud DVR for $25 per month with Sling Blue and Sling Orange base package.
• Sling TV doesn’t charge for local channels, though some local channels like FOX and NBC are only available in certain markets.
• Roku, Amazon and Android customers can watch Sling free without a subscribe by watching free TV episodes, purchasing pay-per-view events or movies or by subscribing to premium channels without a base subscription package.

“We are continuing to innovate and add the features and channels you want, so stay tuned for more exciting news from Sling. Lastly, to all our loyal customers who inspire our team daily, thank you for choosing Sling. On behalf of all of my colleagues, we truly appreciate each and every Slinger,” said Schlichting.

As the streaming market becomes more competitive, services are raising prices and making significant changes. For example, Sony’s PlayStation Vue, another over-the-top TV service, is calling it quits. In November Sony announced it was shuttering its PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020 after four years.

“Today we are announcing that we will shut down the PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020. Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business,” said Sony in an October 29 blog post.

In November, Hulu announced that it is increasing the price of its live TV service. Starting in December, Hulu + Live TV increases from $44.99 to $54.99, a 22% increase.

“The new price better reflects the substantial value of Hulu + Live TV and allows us to continue offering all of the popular live news, sports and entertainment programming included in the plan,” said Hulu in a November 15 announcement.

“Price changes are never easy to stomach, and we know that many people don’t watch live television year-round, so we’ve made it easy for Hulu subscribers to switch back and forth between our plans to best suit their needs. If you love college football, choose Hulu + Live TV during the season, then switch to one of Hulu’s less expensive on-demand plans when it’s over. If you enjoy most of your TV on demand but really want to watch live election news, just switch to Hulu + Live TV for a few months,” Hulu added.

In April, YouTube TV increased its prices to $50 a month.

Insider Take:

This price increase is not a surprise. With the launch of Apple TV+ and Disney+ in November, consumers have a lot of choice when it comes to streaming subscription services. To compete, services like Sling and Hulu have to offer a user-friendly platform with the latest and most exclusive content available, neither of which are cheap. Sling TV’s price increase is modest and probably not enough to deter someone to subscribe, as long as Sling TV remains competitive with the growing field of streaming services.

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Senior Staff Writer, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, and reports.  

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