All right so I'm getting ready to do a review
on Sling TV for 2020, looking forward into 2020.
And so I start poking around on other review sites
to see what they had to say.
It's what you do, right?
So I go over to cnet and I found
one of the greatest headlines of all time.
So now look, I don't mean to pick on cnet,
because honestly they are great,
but I just love the lead under this headline here.
It's our favorite budget cord cutter live TV service.
Well, yeah okay when you think about it,
let's break this down for a second.
All right so it's TV service, yep okay.
So it's a live TV service.
It's for cord cutters and it's the budget option.
When you put it that way, yeah of course it's your favorite.
All right, well let's dive in anyway.
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Now, for Sling TV, first of all
let's talk about what I'm going to talk about today.
So I'm going to go over the facts and numbers for Sling,
kinda just the basics that you need to know about them,
the current state of Sling TV.
I'm going to talk about the best and worst things about it,
how it compares to the competition,
and some of the sign up deals that they have
going on right now.
Now those deals might be a little less relevant
in the coming months so check the date
for when this video was published.
If it's been a little while,
just go straight to our description.
I'll have a link there to Sling's deals page
and you can check that anytime.
Alright so let's start with the facts on Sling TV,
some of the numbers here.
Now in some ways, Sling has been kind of the stable one
of the bunch, if we're talking about streaming TV.
Not a ton has changed in the last couple of years.
There was a $5 price hike about six months ago
on some of their packages,
but the structure here is the same.
So we've got Sling orange and Sling blue.
Those are their two different packages.
Each one of those is $25 a month,
$15 for the first month.
Now the two packages do share a few channels in common,
TNT and TBS, HGTV, AMC, and so on.
But the division between the two is in two things,
sports and local channels.
Now sports is simple, essentially it's orange,
you get ESPN and blue you get Fox Sports.
And then when it comes to local channels,
this is where it gets maybe a little bit complicated
so hang with me here on this one.
Now first of all, their local channel offering
is a bit sparse compared to other providers,
like Hulu Live and YouTube TV.
Basically these are major market only.
So if you're in a major market, there's a good chance
that you can get some local channels on Sling TV,
but they are kind of counting on you
to get an HD antenna to fill out
your local channel count.
We'll come back to that HD antenna in a few minutes.
So local channels, the orange package
simply doesn't have any.
But you can get the broadcast add-on for five bucks
and that'll get you ABC and UniVision.
If you're on the blue package,
blue has Fox, NBC, and UniVision,
again in some major markets.
You'll have to check on your availability.
But you won't ever get ABC on that blue package.
If you get both, orange and blue, the combo package,
again depending on your area you can get
ABC, NBC, Fox, and UniVision.
What you won't get on any package is CBS,
the CW, or Telemundo.
So they've got these divisions
between the orange and the blue.
And if it sounds like they're going to try
to push you toward getting the combo,
well you're absolutely right.
So you can get the Sling orange plus blue package
for $40 a month.
Again, there is an intro pricing on all of these.
It's 40% off for your first month.
So if you get one of those individually,
like I said orange or blue,
you get it for $15 in the first month.
If you get the combo, you get it for $25.
Now you can also get a cloud DVR add-on.
This is one of my most annoying things about Sling TV
is that the cloud DVR is not built in.
But it's only $5 a month.
You get 50 hours, and the good news on their DVR
is that there used to be all sorts of restrictions,
especially around ESPN channels.
But those restrictions have been removed,
at least for the broadcast channels.
If it's a digital only network like ESPN3,
or the SEC Network Plus, or whatever they call
those digital versions, then those restrictions
are still in place as far as not being able
to pause, rewind, that sort of thing.
They also got rid of the other annoying thing
that DVRs sometimes do, these digital DVRs,
where they'll swap in the on-demand content
if you recorded some movie or some show.
They don't do that anymore, so now you can in fact
fast forward through commercials.
This is your recording; it's not some other swap in program.
All right so let' talk about some of the
pros and cons for Sling TV.
Now there are the usual streaming pros and cons
that kind of go with the territory.
You don't have any contracts and that's great,
but streaming TV depends on great internet speed
and a high data allowance, if you have a data cap at all.
For Sling specifically,
Sling is cheaper than its competitors.
You've got Hulu at $55; YouTube TV at $50.
AT&T TV Now is at $65.
These are your kinda cable replacements,
and yeah, they are expensive.
Those are their base packages.
But while the Sling prices can get high
if you get all their add-ons and whatnot,
they start low.
So you know, hurray for choice and all of that.
That being said, bummer about having to pay extra
for the DVR, but at least it is behaving better
now than it used to.
So the thing that I like most about Sling TV is,
I've kind of said, is the choice that you get with it.
You can make it very expensive just like
those other providers, but you have the option
to keep things lower if you find a package
that works for you that doesn't make you spend
$65, $70, $75 a month for it.
Okay, so if you are going to sign up for Sling,
you might as well get something out of it, right?
So let's talk about the deals that they have going on.
This is kind of the hardware that they offer
to bring you into the fold if you want to pre-pay for Sling.
So if you pre-pay for two months,
you can get a Firestick, that's the Amazon Firestick,
it's the 1080P version.
Usually you can get that for around $35 anyway.
You can get an HD antenna.
You could probably get that for $20,
so that's even cheaper.
Or you can get the Air TV mini which normally
would retail for $80.
So it sounds like that's a pretty good deal.
But, if you pre-pay for three months,
you can get the Google Nest hub,
which is again $80 and that's the one
that I would push you toward.
As far as I'm concerned, go for the Nest hub.
It's the best of that bunch as far as
bang for your buck.
The Air TV mini is the same price,
it's that $80 price tag.
So you might think you're getting a better deal
with the Air TV mini, but honestly it's not
the device that I would recommend for you to stream with.
So I would think you'd be better off
with a Firestick or a RoKu stick and you can get those
off of Amazon pretty darn cheap.
So I will link to those devices below.
If you want to get a streaming stick,
or if you want to get an HD antenna,
I'll have links for those below.
So go check that out.
So bottom line here, now I was kind of poking fun
at cnet earlier, but they're right.
Sling TV is the best budget, cord cutter,
live TV option out there.
So if you're looking to save money
and keep live TV, then Sling TV
is going to be your best bet.
Now their channel counts are not the same
as what you're going to get on Hulu Live
or YouTube TV, or Fubo, but you're also not going to have
the price tab that you would pay
for those other ones as well.
So if you're looking to save that scratch, go with Sling.
Now let me know what your experience has been with Sling.
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