Have you considerws Sling TV or wondered if it’s worth the price?
Hopefully this quick review of Sling will help you decide whether or not it’s right for your family!
What is Sling TV?
Sling TV is a paid service that lets you instantly stream the most popular live sports, shows, and movies for a low monthly price.
Whatever you’re watching is currently live — so you’re watching what would normally be playing on television. This is why so many people choose it as a cable alternative at a lower price.
What channels are on Sling TV?
Sling offers a huge variety of channels, and most of them are channels you’d have to pay for with cable.
Some examples include CNN, HGTV, ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, Disney for kids, Lifetime, TBS, and TNT. You can browse ALL their channels here.
We’ve personally had a Sling TV account for the past six months or so and have really enjoyed it. We’ve never had cable TV, so this feels like an amazing luxury at a more affordable price!
Sling TV Cost – How much is Sling TV?
We initially paid for it so that Silas and Jesse could watch different sports on ESPN. But us girls love that we can get Food Network, HGTV, and the Hallmark Channel.
It’s also nice when there are major news events because we have access to multiple channels with live coverage. Plus, we can watch it on our TV, on our computers, or on our phones!
If you’ve thought about trying Sling, keep reading for a few of the pros and cons, based upon our experience and the experience of a number of my readers who shared their input on a Facebook Live video I did a number of months ago:
Pros and Cons of Sling TV
Pros of Sling TV
:: There are no long-term contracts or hidden fees. You’re never locked in. You can easily cancel online at any time you’d like. This is my favorite thing about Sling! If we ever found we aren’t using it Sling enough, I love knowing that we can just hop online and cancel our subscription. It’s SO easy to do, and you can always resubscribe again at a later date. We initially signed up for a trial subscription and then canceled with no issues at all. We then later decided to subscribe so that the guys could watch ESPN. (See below.)
:: You can watch from anywhere on any device at any time. It’s accessible on your tv, tablet, computer, or phone.
:: It gives you access to sports. You might have everything you want with your other streaming services, but if there’s a sports fan in the family, you can bet there are some complaints about access to sports coverage. Sling TV allows you to avoid cable costs by sticking with your streaming services, but still gives you access to some of the sports you’re missing out on.
{This is one of the main reasons people sign up with Sling TV. With a husband who loves sports, this was the only non-cable option we could find that would allow him to watch some of the sports he loves so much!}
:: It’s really nice for world events. We’ve used it for post-presidential debate coverage on CNN and also for the Olympics! It’s really convenient to have live coverage for world events.
:: It’s significantly cheaper than most cable packages. Packages start at just $20 per month (for the first month) for 31 channels. You likely will not find those prices anywhere with a cable subscription.
:: You get access to HGTV. Okay, okay. I realize this might not be a “pro” for everyone… but our family adores HGTV. My kids and I really love it, and it’s something we enjoy watching together. I love having access to it through Sling!
:: It gives you options in more remote areas. If you live in a rural area where you can’t access local channels with rabbit ears, this is a really great budget-friendly replacement for cable.
Cons of Sling TV
:: According to some of you, reception can be spotty at times. I haven’t personally experienced this, but I’ve heard about this from a few of you, so I thought I’d mention it.
:: You might not need it if you live in a big city. If you live in or near a bigger city, there’s a chance you might be able to pick up quite a few of the local channels with simple rabbit ears and not need to pay for a service like this. It really depends on why you’re using Sling, though.
:: You don’t get to individually pick your channels. I really, really wish they had the option to pick only the channels you want and modify your price accordingly. For example, we pay for the $40 package that gives you access to 31 channels, but we only actually use a handful of those.
:: They don’t have as many news or sports stations as you get with cable. While Sling gives you access to sports and news, you still won’t have nearly as many options as you would with a cable subscription.
Sling TV FAQs
I suppose it depends on your preferences… but Sling TV is a great choice if you want to pay a low price for popular live channels, with customizable add-ons that you can opt into if you’re willing to pay the extra price.
Sling currently has 3 different packages — and you can get 50% off your first month!
1. Orange (31 channels for $40/mo.) Best for sports lovers and families.
2. Blue (41 channels for $40/mo.) Best for pro football lovers and news junkies
3. Orange & Blue (47 Channels for $55/mo.) Best for everything!
Yes! Every Sling TV customer receives their cloud-based DVR Free service. With DVR Free you get 50 hours of recording capacity, free!
How to Get Started with Sling TV
1. Sign up for a free 7-day trial here.
2. Choose your plan:
ORANGE: 31 channels for $40: ESPN, AMC, CNN, HGTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, History Channel, TNT, Food Network, BBC, Travel Channel, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, Freeform, and more.
BLUE: 41 channels for $40: Many of the channels listed above, plus Nick Jr, National Geographic, NBC, Fox, Fox Sports, Syfy, and more. (This almost seems like the best option if you’re only using it for sports, as it gives you access to multiple extra sports channels.) Just be careful! This option doesn’t give you access to some of the popular channels you get with the $20 subscription.
ORANGE AND BLUE: 47 channels $55: This option gives you access to all of the 47+ channels they offer.
3. After seven days, if you’re enjoying it, your subscription will automatically renew at the monthly plan price you chose (with a 50% off discount for the first month). If you’re not liking it, be sure to cancel your subscription before your trial ends.
4. That’s it! Watch on any of your devices at any time, and rest easy knowing that you can cancel at any time without any penalty if you discover it’s not for you!
Go here to sign up for a FREE 7-day trial of Sling TV.
Have you tried Sling TV before? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether it is worth the cost.
I love Sling and have been using it for a couple years. My only con is that you can only watch it on one tv. So if the kids are in the living room watching, you are out of luck trying to watch it in the bedroom.
I have a code for an extended free trail–for new customers–that I don’t plan to use. If you’re interested, email wifiwhenyoucanwalk-1 at yahoo dot com. Here is some of the fine print:
“Go to http://www.Sling.com/promo. Enter your promotional code & click “REDEEM CODE.” Create an account and finish check-out. Valid for free trial of Sling Orange and Sling Blue. Does not include Extras. After free trial, your credit card will be charged monthly for until you cancel. New customers only.”
So I’m assuming you have to have internet for it to work. If so then it’s possible to run up against internet usage limits with this. Did any of you encounter this issues?
Thank you for posting this!! I have heard so many people talking about Sling, but never really understood it fully. We cut cable, and just use Netflix now, but I love HGTV! I wish you could just pay per channel also.
I have had Sling now for about a year. I chose the 40 channel package and added Stars. I personally feel like they have too many sports channels. They should be optional as well as the International Latin channels. For what i look at its fine. You get most of the best cable stations and If there is ever a time when i feel like there is nothing on tv. I dont feel guilty that i have 1000 channels and spent $100.
I do have issues with drops outs, and freezes on Sling which is very annoying.
I don’t have that issue with Netflix or Hulu or Amazon. So i know it’s a Sling issue. Other than the freezes, which again i hate. It’s a good start in cutting the cable and trimming household expenses.
We’ve had Sling for about 6 months now and just recently it started acting up by taking forever to load. When I say forever I mean it never loads. The only way to load is to uninstall then reinstall every single time. We’ve tried to talk to customer service but it’s just as bad as talking to AT&T customer service, which sucks. They basically said there’s nothing they can do about it. We’re about to cancel & figure something else out.
I also love the extra add ons that are available. During college football bowl season we pay an extra 5 dollars for the sports package to get channels like sec network, espnu, ESPN goal line and others. Then we cancel once the season is over. There are other extra packages from 5 to 15 dollars a month for people who want certain channels.
We’ve had Sling for about 6 months and really love it! We watch a lot of news and that was the main reason we had cable previously. But with Sling, we were able to get CNN and MSNBC and we watch them a lot. As a bonus, I watch HGTV and my daughter watches Nick Jr at times.
They also have some international packages which are great for when my parents visit from India.
Thanks so much for mentioning the tip about international packages!
We have had it for abut 6 months. We have sketchy reception at times, it says something is wrong with the internet. We haven’t figured out how to fix this. We even upgraded our internet speed. We’ve missed the end of shows before, which is quite frustrating. My one major complaint is I wish they had a DVR. I saw something recently that that may be an option. I need to look into it. I miss being able to record ALL episodes of something then go back an watch it.
Can you do parental controls with Sling TV?
If you have a Roku, you can set up parental controls on it: http://help.sling.com/articles/FAQ/How-do-I-activate-Parental-Controls-on-my-Roku
Thanks for the review. We are looking at cutting cable and subscribing to a service like Sling to replace most of the channels we watch, so this is very helpful.
I’m so glad it was helpful!
We did the free trial for the Olympics in August because even though I live in a larger city, my antenna doesn’t pick up NBC. Once i subscribed to Sling, I found out that only certain markets are offered NBC and the rest of us only got the NBC owned stations such as MSNBC, NBC Sports, etc. While these had some Olympic coverage, they didn’t have the “main” event that NBC was carrying.
I also have never had a problem with streaming TV in my home, as we have both Netflix and Amazon. Sling was always glitchy. Their customer service told me it was my internet speed, but I question that since I have never had a problem with my other streaming services.
I really wanted this to work. Maybe by the next Olympics they will carry the NBC station in my market and have fixed their glitchy service.
Thanks so much for sharing about your experiences with Sling!
I had the same issue when I tried getting Sling specifically to be able to watch the Olympics. First I had tried 3 different antennas , but I only picked up 2 or 3 channels, I suppose because we live in a hilly area of Tennessee. Then I got the free week of Sling, but, as Amy said, they didn’t show the “favorite” sports that they usually show during the prime time hours on NBC. I was so disappointed. I had tried every way that I could think of to be able to watch the Olympics.
We did the free trial of both Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, and settled on Playstation Vue. It had more channels that we watch regularly, and was easier to navigate. It also had more sports in our area and was more reliable. I would strongly suggest that you use the free trials to make sure whichever you choose is the best fit for your family. PlayStation for us was $35 , and it varies by package and area. With either, it was significantly less than our old satellite service. Oh, and we stream on Roku.
Thanks so much for the tip and sharing your input!!
We made the switch to streaming television about a year ago and a few months ago added Sling. We are not huge sports fans so that did not play into any of our decisions. What I love about Sling — as well as other streaming channels — is that we can watch what we want when we want. Our busy lives don’t always allow for “appointment” television and we don’t have a DVR. I’m not sure we are saving a whole lot of money over cable television but I find that we spend way less time in front of the TV just killing time. Our TV watching is much more intentional.
Thanks so much for sharing your input!
We enjoyed Sling for about a year. Recently, we found Playstation Vue which allows my husband to watch college football (BigTen Nextwork)! We have been looking for a non-cable, monthly membership option for football viewing for years. It’s also a higher quality picture at our house than Sling.
PlayStation Vue also has free dvr for most shows.
Thanks so much for that tip!!
We had the basic sling tv for about 9 months. We also have Netflix and local channels via antenna . We did like the sling, but there were a couple of reasons we cancelled:
1) most of the channels showed tons of reruns we had seen on satellite years ago.
2) commercials , self explanatory:)
3) Disney started out having Disney jr during morning hours, which was great, but then for some reason did away with it and showed the regular Disney shows ,which quite frankly most I do not like at all ( note: we actually loved quite a few of the older Disney shows , but the newer ones , not so much)
4) hgtv has really changed over the years! It use to have a good variety but now it seems to be reality house buying or house flipping shows
They do have add on packages for $5 or so and its a good deal if you like the programming offered. We just felt like we had watched as much Dog the Bounty Hunter and Flip this House as we needed:)
All that being said, we may try it again sometime once we get bored with Netflix and want something different for awhile:)
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences — very helpful!
Is there a way to block channels you would not want access to in your home?
If you have a Roku, you can set up parental controls on it: http://help.sling.com/articles/FAQ/How-do-I-activate-Parental-Controls-on-my-Roku
Do you find the parental controls work really well?
Here is my answer from Sling on some parental control issues:
Thank you for contacting Sling TV Support. We have received your email in regards to the parental controls.We understand the importance of knowing how our parental controls work. You are able to lock purchases and content. You are not able to block channels completely. In order to set it up, you will need to set it on every device that uses the service. You also cannot unlock something remotely, it would need to be done directly from the device that wants to purchase or watch content that is locked.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
So you can only watch live? These days I rarely watch anything live since so much is offered on demand later.
They have some shows that are available on demand and some that are available live. If you try the free trial, you can see how it works. Great question!
One of the add-on packages available is a 50 hour DVR. While this isn’t as large as the DVR capacity we had with DirecTV, it hasn’t been an issue for us.
How much does it cost?
I can’t remember if the dvr is $5 or $10 but I know it’s not more than that.