Sling TV?

hoffse · May 2015

I'm wondering if anybody has signed up for this? The package of channels looks pretty good, since you get ESPN, ESPN2, Disney, and HGTV:

https://www.sling.com/package

Even with an add-on package or two, the price is still way cheaper than cable, and you aren't locked into a contract. And it's live programming.

H and I added cable when we bought the house because he really wanted to be able to watch sports. We're thinking of switching over to Sling when our contract expires. It's brand new though, and I haven't heard many reviews yet.

Thoughts?

TravelJunkie1234 · May 2015

I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds like a pretty good deal! I'd be interested to hear others' experiences.

Like you, we added cable (after years of not having it) when we bought our house. We have just the basic HD service, but we don't get a lot of channels (we don't get HGTV or food network, which I was really looking forward to having!) and our bill is about $125 (it does include internet at least). I'd love to lower that cost!

hoffse · May 2015

TravelJunkie1234 said:
I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds like a pretty good deal! I'd be interested to hear others' experiences.

Like you, we added cable (after years of not having it) when we bought our house. We have just the basic HD service, but we don't get a lot of channels (we don't get HGTV or food network, which I was really looking forward to having!) and our bill is about $125 (it does include internet at least). I'd love to lower that cost!

Right? It seems to have the 5 or 6 channels we consistently watch while excluding the 237 channels we've never watched.

I mean, I really am happy to pay for services. I get that these things can't be free. But the way cable packages are bundled is just really crazy, and it's a ripoff for what people actually watch. I also hate that they do these multi-year contracts with promo pricing for the first 12 months or whatever. And then the rates get jacked up and cancelling takes an hour of your time and your best negotiation skills to make them actually do it.

I'm thinking that with hulu, sling, and an antenna we really might cover 95% of our viewing wants with no contract. That would be awesome. I'm just wondering if Sling is really as good as it seems? Heck, I told H we could even add on the $5/month sports package to get the SEC network if we switched to Sling. He's been asking for it, and I keep telling him the upgraded cable package is too expensive.

hoffse · May 2015

It sounds like Apple is coming out with a similar service this fall.... only they will include more channels. I might hold out for that and see.

But I'm glad that cable seems to be on its way out!

simplyelise · May 2015

We get cable included at our apartment, but after years of not having it, we're both getting spoiled now. We'll probably try to keep something once we buy, but our area is severely limited in options. Any idea if sling is available in only some locations?

This looks really cool, althought I'm not seeing Fox Sports which has the majority of cardinals and blues games. Hopefully more options like this sprout up and force some competition for once!

hoffse · May 2015

simplyelise said:
We get cable included at our apartment, but after years of not having it, we're both getting spoiled now. We'll probably try to keep something once we buy, but our area is severely limited in options. Any idea if sling is available in only some locations?

This looks really cool, althought I'm not seeing Fox Sports which has the majority of cardinals and blues games. Hopefully more options like this sprout up and force some competition for once!

Yeah Fox Sports is a problem for us too (Braves). I've read that Apple TV is coming out with a similar subscription service this fall that includes the major networks like Fox (which are currently missing from Sling). I think they're aiming to price it $30-$40/month for about 25 channels. That might be the sweet spot if they snag the same channels that Sling offers. They're supposedly going to announce in June, with the goal to launch in September.

Sounds like Sling had a few bugs when it first launched, but they're getting worked out.

I think it's high time people had the option to just pay for the channels they want to watch instead of dozens (hundreds?) we don't care about! Honestly, I think most people don't mind paying for stuff they use. But nobody wants to pay for crap they don't use.

hoffse · May 2015

Oh and this shoudln't be limited by geographic area I don't think? Pretty sure all you need is internet for these services to work.

lifeonthehill · May 2015

Geez. This looks like a great deal. We don't have any of the devices needed to use it but it would honestly be worth getting one. H wants cable so badly.

I will probably wait for some reviews to come out before I worry too much about it.

vlagrl29 · May 2015

That sounds amazing! When we were on vacation DH and I would watch house hunters on HGTV because we don't have that channel and miss some of those shows. It always amazes me how big peoples budgets are for houses.

Right now we have an HD antenna on the roof which provides us around 20 channels and a free website we go to to watch old episodes of shows we like - house of cards, better call saul, etc.

Erikan73 · May 2015

We are thinking of getting an Amazon Fire Stick which I believe comes with Sling. We are in the in process of downgrading our cable step by step. The huge attraction to us with Sling is still being able to watch live TV like CNN when there are major world events going on. We just got rid of our movie channels and in the next few weeks down grade more as we add more from other companies like hulu. We figure go through a slow cable withdrawal instead of quitting cold turkey...lol. This way if we decide we don't like hulu we can always cancel that then upgrade our cable again.

cupcait927 · May 2015

We have it and love it! We currently have Netflix, Hulu and Sling TV. Those three plus our internet bill are still significantly cheaper than cable. I signed up for Sling TV when it first came out a few months ago and they have already added a few more channels since then, which has made it even more enticing for us. When we heard about the deal with the Amazon Fire TV stick, I cancelled my account and had H sign up so we could get the free Fire TV stick.

Currently we split our internet line and run it to our TV, which gets us the basic local channels, along with ION and Discovery. Then we have our subscription services and it covers just about everything we'd want to watch. The only two channels I wish we had were YES for Yankees baseball and TLC.

If anyone has more specific questions, let me know!

ETA - clarification

lcf415 · May 2015

wow, this looks awesome! thanks for sharing!

short+sassy · May 2015

I saw a commercial for Sling the other day. It sounds interesting and I have it in the back of my mind if our cable company ever changes things.

I'm very fortunate that my cable company's (Cox) basic expanded cable comes on the same line as our high speed Internet. So I only have to pay $53/month for the high speed Internet and the "basic expanded" package with about 60 channels rides along with it.

Of course, Cox will never tell you that is how it works, but we've been doing it for years. Supposedly they have "plans" to fix this glitch...for lack of a better word...but they haven't bothered yet.

cupcait927 · May 2015

short+sassy said:
I saw a commercial for Sling the other day. It sounds interesting and I have it in the back of my mind if our cable company ever changes things.
I'm very fortunate that my cable company's (Cox) basic expanded cable comes on the same line as our high speed Internet. So I only have to pay $53/month for the high speed Internet and the "basic expanded" package with about 60 channels rides along with it.
Of course, Cox will never tell you that is how it works, but we've been doing it for years. Supposedly they have "plans" to fix this glitch...for lack of a better word...but they haven't bothered yet.

Time Warner does the same thing, but I only get a handful of channels

If I could get the full basic package that way, I wouldn't need any subscription services!

short+sassy · May 2015

cupcait927 said:

short+sassy said:
I saw a commercial for Sling the other day. It sounds interesting and I have it in the back of my mind if our cable company ever changes things.
I'm very fortunate that my cable company's (Cox) basic expanded cable comes on the same line as our high speed Internet. So I only have to pay $53/month for the high speed Internet and the "basic expanded" package with about 60 channels rides along with it.
Of course, Cox will never tell you that is how it works, but we've been doing it for years. Supposedly they have "plans" to fix this glitch...for lack of a better word...but they haven't bothered yet.
Time Warner does the same thing, but I only get a handful of channels If I could get the full basic package that way, I wouldn't need any subscription services!

That is a bummer! It has been such a boon. Because that is exactly the package we would subscribe to, if it didn't already come free on our line. I think it is would normally be at least another $60/month.

Whoa! I just did the calculations. We've had this set up for at least 10 years. That is over $7K in savings and still counting!

Sling TV?

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