Pros & Cons
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- Good channel selection
- Flexible subscription options
- Free tier
- Reliable streaming performance
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- Prices continue to increase
- Limited offering of local channels and regional sports networks
- Confusing channel distribution
Sling TV Specs
| 4K Live Streams | |
| Ads | |
| Anime | |
| Concurrent Streams | 1 (for Sling Orange channels), 3 (for Sling Blue channels) |
| DVR Storage & Retention | 50 hours or unlimited; Indefinitely |
| Live TV | |
| MLB Playoffs Coverage | FOX (in select markets), FS1, and TBS |
| Monday Night Football | ESPN |
| NBA Finals | ESPN3 (simulcasts of ABC) |
| On-Demand Movies and TV Shows | |
| Regular Season National NBA Coverage | ESPN and TNT; NBA TV (via Add-On); ABC (via Antenna) |
| Regular Season National NHL Coverage | ESPN, TBS, and TNT; NHL Network (via Add-On); ABC (via Antenna) |
| RSN Coverage | None |
| Sports Coverage | International*, National, & Regional |
| Starting Price | $46 per month; $66 per month |
| Sunday Football | FOX; NFL RedZone (via Add-On) |
| Sunday Night Football | NBC |
| Thursday Night Football | FOX and NFL Network |
| World Series Coverage | FOX (in select markets) |
A live TV streaming service can easily replace your cable subscription, and usually for less money. Sling TV lets you watch dozens of live television channels for a moderate monthly fee, explore extensive programming options, rent movies, and fire up a completely free tier of on-demand and preprogrammed content. That said, even when you combine its multiple options, Sling TV doesn't offer as many local channels as rival streaming services, and it lacks the high-end features found in our Editors' Choice winners for live TV, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV.
Pricing and Plans
Like many streaming services, the price of Sling TV's plans regularly increases. At the time of this writing, the Sling Orange (35 channels) and Sling Blue (48 channels) plans cost $46 per month and $51 per month, respectively. The combined Sling Orange and Blue plan (70 channels) is $66 per month.
The channels in the Orange and Blue plans overlap, making it confusing to choose between them. I'll break down the differences shortly.
(Credit: Sling/PCMag)You can expand Sling’s channel lineup with one of Sling TV's many Extra bundles, which start at $6 per month each. For instance, the Kids Extra add-on bundles family and children's networks like Disney XD, Nicktoons, and Boomerang. The Comedy Extra package includes CMT, Game Show Network, Logo, MTV, and TruTV. Sports fans will want to add the Sports Extra ($11 per month) to get ESPN U, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and PAC 12 Network.
Note that Sling TV offers a 4-Extras package, which includes Kids Extra, Lifestyle Extra, Comedy Extra, and News Extra for $13 per month. A $21-per-month Total TV Deal plan includes cloud DVR, Sports Extra, Kids Extra, Comedy Plus Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Plus Extra, Heartland Extra, and Hollywood Extra. You can add premium networks such as MGM+ ($5 per month), Showtime ($10 per month), and Starz ($11 per month), too. Remember that the prices of add-on packages and the channels you get differ depending on whether you subscribe to Sling Orange, Sling Blue, or both.
For comparison, Philo is $28 per month while Frndly TV is only $7 per month. However, those services focus more on entertainment and lifestyle channels than sports and news. Discovery+ is another inexpensive (starting at $6 per month) option within this category—it includes shows from Animal Planet, Food Network, HGTV, OWN, TLC, and Travel Channel, albeit without any live TV channels. It's more redundant now that most of its content is in the more expensive Max service.
Despite Sling TV's price increase, other live TV streaming services remain significantly more expensive. For instance, Fubo starts at $85 per month, while Hulu and YouTube TV are $83 per month. DirecTV Stream begins at an even more expensive $102 per month.
Sling offers a free tier with "live" and on-demand content from its channel lineup. You don't need to sign up for an account to access this library. At the time of testing, the so-called live TV content seemed preprogrammed except for the ABC News Live Update channel. The available on-demand content includes mostly incomplete seasons of modern TV shows (Brother vs. Brother; Conan; Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives; Rick and Morty; Teen Titans Go!; The Kitchen; and The Walking Dead) and complete runs of older shows (21 Jump Street (1987), 3rd Rock from the Sun, Hell’s Kitchen, Grace Under Fire, and The Commish).
Free movies, meanwhile, include Bernie, Highlander, and Train to Busan. Dedicated film fans should check out our roundups of the best documentary streaming services and movie streaming services for top-notch feature-length titles.
Sling TV's no-cost lineup is most similar to that of Plex, which offers a combination of both on-demand and preprogrammed streaming content. Other free, on-demand services worth trying include Crackle and Tubi (the latter is our Editors' Choice winner for free streaming services). Kanopy is free with a library card and is excellent for families.
What Can You Watch on Sling TV?
Sling is available on mobile (Android and iOS), media streaming devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), the Xbox, and via the Microsoft Store. Notably missing from this list is the PlayStation 4, which both Hulu and YouTube TV support.
The Sling Orange plan has 35 channels, including AMC, CNN, BBC America, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Disney, ESPN, Food Network, HGTV, IFC, TBS, TNT, and Travel Channel. Sling Blue offers about 48 channels, depending on your local media market. While the Blue plan removes ESPN and Disney, it adds Discovery, FOX News, MSNBC, NBC Sports, NFL Network, Nick Jr., and SYFY. You also get FOX and NBC local affiliates in select markets with Sling Blue. You can subscribe to the combined Sling Orange & Blue plan for 70 channels. Hulu's lineup includes approximately 100 channels, by comparison.
Local ABC channels are unavailable without an antenna, which partially defeats the purpose of subscribing to an all-digital streaming service. Note that Sling TV sends you an HD antenna or a Roku Express if you pay for two months of service in advance. If you pay for three months up front, you get the antenna and an AirTV Player Bundle. The service lacks CBS broadcast channels, but Paramount+ is a relatively cheap way to watch live streams of that network's affiliate stations.
Although Sling TV may lack some local content for US subscribers, it is one of the best services for international TV, with channel packages aimed at Asian, European, Latin, and Middle Eastern audiences. Fubo offers a few channel add-ons (International Sports Plus, Latino Plus, Portuguese Plus, RAI Italia, and TV5Monde) for international audiences.
Sling TV lets you rent movies in HD or SD resolutions, with varied pricing for each movie. For instance, you can rent popular titles such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in HD for $3.99 (though Star Wars fans will find Disney+ a better option). Older and less popular movies typically cost less money. Rentals are valid for 24 to 48 hours after you press play, but you have up to 30 days to start watching them. Amazon Prime Video also offers movie rentals.
(Credit: Sling TV/PCMag)Live Sports
A good sports streaming service lets you watch all the games you'd get with cable without missing a beat. Unfortunately, neither Sling TV's Orange nor Blue packages are ideal for sports fans, as they split important channels between them. The Blue package loses all of the Orange's ESPN programming. Conversely, the Orange package lacks the Blue's FOX and NBC affiliates, NBC Sports, and NFL Network channels. Thus, sports fans are best served with the Orange & Blue plan. However, to get the MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and the Golf Channel, you must add the Sports Extra ($11 per month) package. Sling added the Big 10 Network to this package for Blue subscribers. On the plus side, when choosing what sport to watch, you can now keep track of scores across leagues in real time through the useful Sports Scores interface.
Another issue? Sling TV's low number of local and regional sports networks (RSNs). As mentioned, you can get local NBC and FOX affiliates in major areas. However, ABC and CBS locals are unavailable without additional hardware. Without those channels, many sports fans can't watch their favorite MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.
Football fans should look for an alternative in our best NFL streaming services roundup. There are ways to watch select NFL broadcasts for free, too, such as via the NFL and Yahoo Sports apps. We also have roundups of the best NBA and MLB streaming services. Sling TV is the only streaming service we've reviewed for NHL fans that offers an NHL Center Ice add-on.
Fubo offers most of the sports channels in Sling TV's combined plan, plus Bally Sports (although it notably does not include Turner Network channels). Hulu and YouTube TV beat Sling TV for sports coverage by offering all major broadcast channels. DirecTV Stream is another good option.
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(Credit: Sling TV/PCMag)Interface
Sling TV's web interface has a dark color scheme and a modular design. That said, individual elements feel slightly cramped. Hulu and YouTube TV offer visually compelling and informative home interfaces.
The home page has personalized recommendations, a guide with clearer navigation tools, and a dedicated DVR tab. You can create up to five profiles, each with personalized watchlists and recommendations you can access on any device.
Options across the top menu bar include My TV, Guide, Sports, On-Demand, and Rentals. A search bar and your account profile icon are in the upper right corner. YouTube TV's search is much quicker and more advanced; it lets you combine search terms, such as a genre and a year. In the Account section, you can manage your subscription, choose a streaming quality, set parental control limits, and manage your DVR recordings.
You can discover content in the My TV and Guide sections. The former displays a live video feed while the latter lets you browse by channel or a traditional grid-like guide. The channel guide has helpful category filters, such as Entertainment, Kids, News, Premium, Sling Free, and Sports. Oddly, when we filtered the guide to show channels available on Sling Free, it showed us fewer channels than were available to free users. You can use the guide to view listings and schedule DVR recordings up to six days in advance. You can also subscribe directly to new paid channels.
Once you decide what to watch, click the entry for more details or launch directly into the stream. A pane opens with a description of the content, release year, run-time, and genre. Sling helpfully notes what plans or add-ons you need to watch programming not available under your current plan.
Mobile Apps
We tested Sling TV’s mobile app on an Android phone. The app defaults to the My TV section, which shows horizontally scrolling lists of content categories, such as Trending Live, Popular Shows, and Kids' Favorites. The rest of this main interface is clean, easy to navigate, and lets you access the search bar or Settings section without opening additional menus.
Additional menu options on the bottom navigation bar include Guide, Channels, Sports, and More. Oddly, your DVR Recordings are only available from the main My TV screen. From the Settings, you can view your add-ons, set up parental controls, view remaining DVR storage, and edit closed-caption settings.
The Channel area lets you view content specifically from your add-on channels and those in your plan, while the channel guide lets you filter by genre and air date. On-demand content and rentals are accessible via the More menu icon.
Features and Playback Experience
Sling TV's playback screen is typical, with an information bar at the top and playback controls on the bottom. You also get a 10-second rewind button and a 30-second fast-forward button. However, you cannot select the playback resolution for either live or on-demand content. Note that the sliders and buttons for adjusting time are only available for some content, such as your DVR content. Clicking the arrow at the top of the playback bar opens a navigation menu that shows a guide to upcoming programming. Sling TV’s playback screen on mobile looks like a scaled-down version of the one on the web. Thus, it looks cluttered, especially if you expand the guide from the bottom of the screen.
(Credit: Sling TV/PCMag)Sling Orange subscribers can only stream to one device simultaneously, but Sling Blue users can stream up to three. If you have Sling Orange & Blue, you can stream to up to four devices simultaneously, which is better than average. Hulu and YouTube TV, for example, respectively limit you to two and three simultaneous streams by default. Hulu and Fubo offer add-ons that considerably expand this support.
Sling TV offers 50 hours of DVR storage for free. Recordings remain available for as long as your subscription is active. For an additional $5 per month, you can increase the storage limit to unlimited hours. Sling TV notably allows you to fast-forward through commercials when you watch recordings.
For comparison, YouTube TV keeps titles for nine months, but imposes no storage limits. Fubo stores unlimited hours' worth of content indefinitely. DirecTV Stream, by default, lets you save 20 hours of content for up to nine months. Hulu enables you to save unlimited hours and keeps the content as long as your subscription is active.
Sling TV's live streams are mostly capped at 1080p; the service does not publish details about the streaming resolutions and frame rates it supports for live content. However, it occasionally supports 4K streams. While it's relatively rare for a cable-replacement-type video streaming service to support this resolution, others offer it for select programming. Fubo, for instance, airs select NFL games in 4K. YouTube TV and Hulu support 1080p live streams on select platforms.
Sling TV recommends 5Mbps internet connection speeds for single-device streams. For households with multiple internet users, your internet speeds should be at or above 25Mbps. We tested Sling TV over an Ethernet connection (200Mbps download) and had no streaming issues. At the time of testing, we watched live news shows without trouble. We also watched a stream of a Women's FIFA World Cup matchup over a much slower Wi-Fi network on an Android phone; the stream launched quickly and looked crisp in playback.
Accessibility and Parental Controls
On the accessibility front, Sling TV's closed-captioning features are par for the course. You can adjust the appearance of the text, edges, background, and window, but only on some platforms (web excluded). You can't make these changes directly from the playback screen; you must head to the Settings section. We don't like the positioning of the closed captioning for some on-demand shows; the captions appear close to the speaker on screen, rather than in a consistent spot. It's very distracting. During live broadcasts, the captions were also several seconds behind the action.
Some on-demand services offer enhanced capabilities. For example, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and Prime Video host content with Audio Descriptions, or narrations of on-screen events that might not be discernible from a scene's dialog alone. Audio Descriptions are typically only available for on-demand content.
Sling TV lets you set parental control restrictions based on content rating and for purchases, which we appreciate. However, you cannot restrict access to entire channels with these settings, nor apply these restrictions to specific viewing profiles. That means you must enter the parental control PIN whenever you want to bypass these settings. In addition to the benefits they can bring to a parental control system, profiles help keep recommendations relevant to individual users based on their watch histories.
Can You Watch Sling TV With a VPN?
A virtual private network (VPN) is an excellent way to protect your privacy online. However, many video streaming services may block VPN users due to content licensing restrictions or other geographic-based policies. Sling TV is only available for US and Puerto Rico users, so this rule applies to people in other countries using a VPN to access its region-locked content. However, when we connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server, we had no trouble launching and watching live or on-demand content from a phone or web browser.
You will likely have a tough time finding a VPN that works with every one of your video streaming services since they actively look for new ways to detect and block VPN traffic. Some VPN services maintain dedicated servers for the various streaming platforms, but this shouldn't be your main concern when choosing one. Instead, you should look for a VPN that best protects your privacy.