- Question.
Is it better to be first, or is it better to be best?
Well, Sling TV was the first streaming TV provider
in the marketplace, and they coasted on that advantage
for a long time.
But, I'm afraid that the industry has kind of caught up,
and that advantage is disappearing.
So the question, now, is whether Sling TV
can manage to be the best out there.
And that's a much more live question
than whether they were first.
So, that's what we're gonna be talking about today,
is Sling TV, where they came from, where they're at now,
some of the changes that have taken place
in the last few months that may make Sling TV
more or less attractive to you.
Including, now, an announcement, recently, of a big promo.
And this is something that I'll discuss
later on in the video, so hang with me.
But before we get there, make sure you subscribe down below,
because we're here every Wednesday and every Friday
with a new video on a topic like this.
So, I hope you'll hang with us.
Hit that subscribe button.
Anyway, let's dive into Sling TV.
(smooth music)
Now, on this channel, we've always liked Sling TV.
We've always given it high ratings,
but I've kinda felt like things have been slipping
a little bit, recently.
Now, in the past, we've always liked that,
even though it's not actually a la carte TV,
no matter what they say,
I've always like that it was the closest thing
that we had to that moniker.
They've got their base packages and all of the add-ons,
and that gets us the closest we've ever been
to a la carte TV.
So, that's great.
I also like that they've been
among the cheaper services out there.
Maybe not the cheapest, that's probably Philo, maybe.
But anyway, Sling is among the cheaper options.
And so, if you wanna keep your costs down,
they give you that option.
That's great.
But the times, they are a-changing, as they say.
And so, things are maybe not as cheap as they used to be.
There are some other reasons that you may
or may not find Sling very attractive.
And we're gonna talk about those changes,
but to understand them better, I think it's gonna help
to talk briefly about the history of Sling TV.
When Sling TV started in 2015,
they were the only game in town.
People were starved for choices
from their traditional satellite and cable companies.
So, you bet people flocked to Sling TV.
They were Hoover-ing up subscribers
the way I suck down carbs.
(sensual music)
Things have changed, since then.
Now, it's 2019.
There's a lot more competition out there.
And so, Sling TV isn't growing at the rate they used to.
In quarter four of last year,
they added 50,000 subscribers.
Sounds great, but, if we play the comparison game,
in all of 2018, Sling netted about 200,000 subscribers.
This is down from 2017,
when they were looking at about 700,000,
or 2016, when they added almost 900,000 subscribers.
So, they are still growing,
but you want that rate of growth to look like this,
and they were looking a little more like this.
Now, this slowdown in Sling's growth
is probably due to a couple of reasons.
The first is the loss of a few key channels.
Univision is the biggest Spanish language channel
out there in the country, and it is gone now.
HBO and Cinemax, these are owned by AT&T now,
which also owns DirecTV Now, and so,
they don't wanna play nice with Sling.
You can see why that goes.
And so, those are gone.
These channels, if you watch them,
this is a bit like losing a limb.
You'll still live.
Sling still works, but you are going to miss them.
- Don't say that! - No, no, stop it!
(grunting)
- [Monster] Stop it, what are you doing?
- Carol! - What?
- That was my favorite arm!
- Ugh.
Anyway, the other part of this
is the price-hike of last year.
Price-hike of $5 on the orange package.
It was $20 for a long time,
now it is the same price as the blue package.
They're both 25 bucks a month, 40 for the combo.
Anyway, is it that big a deal?
Maybe not.
This is still in the lower tier as far as price goes
of these streaming TV services,
so it's still a cheap service,
but any time you have to put out a press release
saying we raised prices, that's gonna scare people off.
It's just science.
And the other part of this is that the older accounts,
those prices were not grandfathered in.
So, a lot of times, when a price hike happens,
if you got in before the price hike,
you still get to keep that old price.
Not the case here with Sling.
So, a lot of people with those orange packages
suddenly saw their monthly bill go up five bucks.
You can bet it scared few of them off.
Now, the question, as always, is,
we wanna ask whether Sling TV is worth it.
Is it going to be worth it in 2019?
And there are a few questions to consider.
We already talked about the price hike.
Maybe you don't care about that,
if you're already on the blue or the combo package,
but if you're an orange-only customer,
it might scare you off.
Same thing with the lost channels.
If you don't watch HBO and you don't watch Univision,
you probably don't care that much.
But if you do, these are gonna be a big deal to you.
The other thing that I'm going to harp on forever,
until they change it, is the DVR situation.
50 hours of DVR content is just not very much.
To give you some context, that's about two seasons worth
of a one hour drama.
And if you look at your DVD shelf, if you still have one,
you'll see just how little content that really is.
It's just not that much.
But, on the plus side, there is some fun stuff happening,
like the partnership with Roku.
Roku users can now download the Sling app
and do a free version of it.
It'll give you a few free shows, some free channels,
kinda, you know, mostly minor stuff.
But it gives you a chance to try out the Sling platform.
And this is obviously meant to woo people over
to the Sling platform.
As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm always down for a chance to test drive a platform
before I say yes to it.
And, speaking of which, and, speaking of wooing,
there is a new promo.
This is what I was talking about in the intro to this video.
There's a new promo from Sling TV where,
for the first three months that you sign up,
you can get the orange or the blue package for $15,
or you can get the combo for $25.
That's 40% off the regular price.
You get that for the first three months.
Now, Sling is kind of pitching this as a relief
for people who are disappointed in their tax refund amount.
Honestly, though, I'm reading it
as a kick in the teeth of DirecTV Now,
which is struggling mightily.
We'll be talking about them next week in more detail,
but I think Sling is kinda going for the jugular
with this promo and, why not?
It's a good deal, 40% off for the first three months.
If you're thinking about signing up, now's a good time.
So, that's our take on Sling TV.
These days, it just kind of lacks
the luster that it once had.
The prices are coming up,
some of the good channels are going away,
and there's no sign of them coming back, either.
So, Sling TV may not be as attractive to you now
as it once was.
But, we wanna hear what you think
of Sling TV's new direction.
So, hit the comments below and let us know what you think.
And, speaking of comments, Antonio APC79, we've heard you.
You've commented on many of our last videos,
and you want us to review AT&T's Data Connect Pass.
Right now, we have no plans to do that.
So, in the description below,
I have linked to another resource that you can use to,
maybe, get the info you're looking for.
Hopefully, that helps.
It doesn't mean we won't review it,
I just don't have any plans in the immediate future.
But, hopefully that helps.
For the rest of you, and for you, Antonio,
hit the comments below with anything else
you wanna say about Sling TV.
So grateful you guys are here watching.
Give us a like, subscribe to the channel,
and we will see you next time.
(smooth music)