Sling TV Increases Cheapest Plan to $25/Month, Introduces Limited Free Content and À La Carte Channels

[lip008]

You don't get hbo for 'free'. Part of your sub is paying for it, Lol Do you really think that hbo gives it away free.or.that directv is doing community service?
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Its not free, part of your sub is paying for it.

Actually it is free. Whether you get HBO or not you still pay the $35. I have this bundle and my HBO after 12 months went from free to $5. Now I pay $40 for this super bundle. They'll have to pry it out of my cold digital hands or raise the price for me to cancel it...

 

[Sciomar]

I'll one up you on an even better plan... the Grandfathered GoBig tier for $35

So glad I jumped on that deal back then, especially with all the free HBO we got during it's initial blunders. Then came the free cloud DVR for beta testing lol. Being on AT&T unlimited even sweetened the deal with continued free HBO. I keep waiting on them to implement some back door rate hike.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

The recent merger and net neutrality decisions may very well push Sling and its non-telecom backed competitors out of business. Comcast, ATT and their pals scored big wins this year.

We’re unfortunately headed backward in this space. Expect more price hikes and less “innovation” to come.

 

[Plutonius]

Cable is the future after the cord-cutting is over.

I'm not too sure. Cable viewership has gone down and not just because of the cost. People don't like the advertisements and much of the programming. When they watch TV, many prefer services like Netflix where they can watch what they want without advertisements.

I think the main reason people still get cable is for sports.

 

[WarHeadz]

I'm not too sure. Cable viewership has gone down and not just because of the cost. People don't like the advertisements and much of the programming. When they watch TV, many prefer services like Netflix where they can watch what they want without advertisements.

I think the main reason people still get cable is for sports.

Yeah but all these services like Sling and Directvnow ARE cable, they’re just repackaged into an app instead of a bulky cable box and are much cheaper than cable. The reason I cut my cable and switched to directvnow was because of the major price difference, the fact that I can use the same account at home and at my business, and the horrific outdated user interface and bulky boxes that I dealt with. I don’t mind the commercials and I love network tv channels. I actually just cancelled Netflix because I don’t use it much. Kept Hulu though, as I use that daily. But with Directvnow, Hulu, Amazon Prime video, and free HBO, I’m coverered. My price breakdown:
Internet- $40
Directvnow with HBO- $20
Hulu- $12
Amazon- $99 per year prime subscription

I think having all that content is a much better value than buying a la Carte channels. Also, sometimes I just want to turn the tv on and watch something without having to think what to watch. That was always my biggest gripe with Netflix. “Just play something!”

 

[Plutonius]

Also, sometimes I just want to turn the tv on and watch something without having to think what to watch. That was always my biggest gripe with Netflix. “Just play something!”

I can agree with that. Often, I just want background TV .

For background TV, I highly recommend streaming Pluto TV.

Internet- $40

Does the $40.00 include all the taxes and fees ?

I currently spend
$64.96 / Month Internet (Could have gotten it much cheaper but I didn't want to sign up for more than a year contract).
$25.00 / Month Sling TV Blue.
$5.00 / Month Funimation Channel
$5.00 / Month Crunchyroll Channel
Over the air antenna (About 32 channels although some are duplicate networks).

 

[WarHeadz]

Does the $40.00 include all the taxes and fees ?

I currently spend
$64.96 / Month Internet (Could have gotten it much cheaper but I didn't want to sign up for more than a year contract).
$25.00 / Month Sling TV Blue.
$5.00 / Month Funimation Channel
$5.00 / Month Crunchyroll Channel
Over the air antenna (About 32 channels although some are duplicate networks).

Yes $40 includes everything. I was previously paying $65 for spectrum internet. Switched to Frontier. I only get 45 mbps down but that’s really all I need. I live alone and only stream on one device at a time.

 

[Plutonius]

Yes $40 includes everything. I was previously paying $65 for spectrum internet. Switched to Frontier. I only get 45 mbps down but that’s really all I need. I live alone and only stream on one device at a time.

Great Deal.

My internet at home is only 30/15 (fiber optic) but I have no issues with it (My Sling TV Blue has no buffering issues).

 

[marty11]

I have a Roku Ultimate with a hardwired internet connection and there is no buffering issue (i.e. I can't see any problem with the service).

I suspect it was either your internet connection or wireless connection.

You also might be using a Roku streaming stick which has video streaming issues in many cases.
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What hardware do you use for Sling (Roku, Apple TV, etc) and what is your networking setup ?

Apple TV or through the sling app on my iphone.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Maybe our needs are just modest, but I find that Netflix ($11), Hulu w/o commercials ($12) and occasional as-needed HBO Now ($15) or Showtime ($11) subscriptions cover most of what we want to watch. We probably spend an additional $15-20/month on iTunes rentals, and also Amazon Prime video (not counting the price because it seems more of a side benefit of Prime) fills in a few gaps. So that's ~$50/month or so? I think that still comes in well cheaper of traditional cable, so overall I'm fine.

You've got the right idea.

And the best part about what you're doing is that it's all on-demand. You pick what to watch on Netflix/Hulu/iTunes on your schedule.

On the other hand... services like Sling don't offer much different than traditional cable TV. They just send the same pre-scheduled content over the internet instead of to a cable box. You watch what they want you to watch.

Scheduled TV sucks. I wonder how much longer these linear channels divided into 30-minute blocks can continue to exist.

 

[WarHeadz]

You've got the right idea.

And the best part about what you're doing is that it's all on-demand. You pick what to watch on Netflix/Hulu/iTunes on your schedule.

On the other hand... services like Sling don't offer much different than traditional cable TV. They just send the same pre-scheduled content over the internet instead of to a cable box. You watch what they want you to watch.

Scheduled TV sucks. I wonder how much longer these linear channels divided into 30-minute blocks can continue to exist.

Hopefully a long long time. I like scheduled tv as much as I like on demand tv. The reason that sling and all those other services are doing so well is because they offer what cable offers for a lot less money with no bulky hardware, and they fill a need that on demand streaming services just can’t fill. I enjoy network television, I watch a lot of A&E, TLC, Bravo, etc. I actually cancelled my Netflix because I don’t ever use it. And a huge part of the reason I keep Hulu is because in addition to movies they offer new episodes of many of the network shows I watch so I don’t need to DVR them. Most times I don’t want to sit around scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch, I just want to turn on the tv and watch. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Not to mention local channels for live news and all that. Yeah, I like my live channels, commercials and all. They’re not going anywhere as you can tell by the popularity of Sling and Directvnow.

 

[Raist3001]

I have a Roku Ultimate with a hardwired internet connection and there is no buffering issue (i.e. I can't see any problem with the service).

I suspect it was either your internet connection or wireless connection.

You also might be using a Roku streaming stick which has video streaming issues in many cases.
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Totally agree. I have ZERO streaming issues with SlingTV. When I tried DTN, I had nothing but buffering issues which DTN was aware of and kept promising a fix. None came, and I dropped them and went back to SlingTV. At least I got a free Apple TV 4K .