Sling TV Review for Cord-Cutters and Cord-Neverers

For years, cable was the only option if you wanted to watch TV. Luckily, that’s not the case anymore. There are plenty of options out there that offer live TV and we’ve tried most of them at this point. The first one we tried, and which we still subscribe to, is Sling TV.

While researching this article, I was shocked at how many negative reviews I found about the service. While it’s not perfect (after trying about five different options, we’re yet to find one that is), it’s still the best option we’ve tried when you combine factors such as price, channel offerings, and ease of use.

Below, we’ll reveal what we like about Sling, what we don’t like, their channel offerings, and why we’ve stuck with them for the past three years.

Sling TV Packages

Sling TV offers three different packages:

Sling TV Packages and Prices
Package Name	Monthly Price
Sling Orange	$25
Sling Blue	$25
Orange and Blue	$40

Currently (July 2019), they are offering signup discounts for 40% off your first month, which reduces Sling Orange and Sling Blue each to $15. The combined Orange and Blue package is currently $25 for your first month.

Sling Orange

Sling Blue

Blue and Orange

What Channels Does Sling TV Offer?

While not perfect, this is what makes Sling TV worth it in our opinion. Regardless of the package you choose, you’ll get:

• CNN
• TBS
• TNT
• HGTV
• Food Network

In addition to a couple others that we don’t watch, such as TLC, Bravo, and Lifetime.

Can You Get Local Channels on Sling TV?

The short answer is yes, you do get local channels with Sling. The problem is, you don’t get all of them. For example, we get Fox and NBC, but we don’t get CBS or ABC. It’s not like we miss them most of the time (except during football season when I can’t watch the putrid Jets find new ways to lose). But on the rare occasion there is something on one of those channels that we want to watch, we can’t. This is the life of a cord-cutter. You will have to make sacrifices if you want to save the monthly bill.

There are a couple of options. For one, Sling offers a free indoor antenna if you prepay three months (at least this was the deal in July 2019). Theoretically, we’d get CBS through the antenna. However, we have an indoor antenna from Cablevision and maybe Sling’s is better, but we get next to no reception on CBS and many other channels. When it actually does work, it works for two minutes at a time. We’re close to breaking out the tin foil and hanging out the window like it’s 1950.

The other option, and the one we do, is you sign up for free trials of other services when there’s something on that you want to watch. For instance, we have Sling Blue because I don’t watch ESPN. However, there are times when there’s a game only on ESPN that I want to watch. So, I sign up for free seven-day trial for PS Vue, Hulu, or another service and cancel it before the week is out.

What Channels Are Not Available on Sling?

As with all cord-cutting options, you will have some hard choices to make. I’ve searched high and low and unfortunately, the best way to get all the channels you want is to stick with cable. The biggest one for me is MLB Network. It seems that only one or two streaming services offer it and those packages start at $45 a month. At that price, once you add in Netflix and Amazon Prime, I might as well have cable.

There are a couple other glaring selections that are missing on Sling TV, mainly sports options such as SNY in the New York area that plays Mets games and MSG, which airs the Knicks and Rangers. There are some others, such as MLB Network or CNBC, but at least CNBC is available as part of the News Add-On package. For the most part, Sling does a good job of offering add-ons that can get you most channels that you want.

Sling TV Add-Ons

Without listing all of the add-ons and all of the options, here’s a quick run down of some of the more popular options:

• Comedy ($5/ month)
• Sports (NHL Network, NBA Network, others) ($5/ month)
• Kids (Disney JR., Nick JR, NickToons) ($5/ month)
• News (MSNBC, CNBC, Headline News) ($5/ month)
• Lifestyle (VH1, BET, Cooking) ($5/ month)
• Hollywood (Reelz, TCM, Sundance TV) ($5/ month)
• Heartland (Outdoor, RFDTV, Sportsman) ($5/ month)
• International ($5/ month)
• Español ($5/ month)

Keep in mind that the specific channel additions are different whether you have the Orange or Blue package. In addition, there are other add-ons that include:

• Cloud DVR (50 hours) ($5/ month)
• Premiums (A La Carte – Showtime, Starz, Epix)

Sling TV Dependability

For the most, say about 90% of the time, Sling TV has been very dependable for us. Sometimes, and with no rhyme or reason, we get the spinning wheel of death. In some cases, this goes on for a minute or so until we go back to our Roku home screen. Most of the time, it works after a couple of minutes. But there are times it reappears again and again and again. While this can be frustrating, it honestly doesn’t happen that often.

However, it’s worth noting that based on some of the other reviews we’ve read, others have had more issues than we have. Now, we don’t believe that all reviews are credible sources. In fact, most are either people who have nothing better to do overreacting to minor issues or they are paid actors by competitors.

The best way for you to see if Sling TV is right for you is to take advantage of the 40% discount for your first month.

Sling TV Customer Service

Besides the buffering issues, this is the one that came up the most in other reviews (and the comments sections). Many people have complained on other sites about signing up for a Free Trial and getting billed before the trial was over. Other people said that they cancelled and then a month or two later were billed again. In both cases, when these customers complained, Sling apparently offered no refund.

We cannot speak to this. Who knows the true story, especially in the comments section of review sites. All we can speak to is our own experience with Sling TV customer service.

When we first subscribed, Sling TV was still only $20 a month for what they call the Blue package. They called it a Beta because I guess they were testing to see if people would sign up for cable without ESPN. Being that I believe ESPN is a joke, I had no problem getting my sports news elsewhere (CBS HQ is a great option to consider). We had that for about a year and a half when the Yankees made the Wild Card game in 2017, which was only televised on ESPN.

Well, we were still paying $20/ month for the beta Blue package, but the Orange package was $25 a month (or, as I read it, $60 more a year). All I wanted was ESPN for one day. I contacted customer service through their online chat (they conveniently don’t have a phone number) and they said that if I switch packages, even for one day, I would lose the discounted price and have to pay the new monthly price of $25 per month for the Blue package.

I tried everything. I asked if they could prorate the Orange and Blue combined package for the week. I asked if I could open a new account. I tried everything. I even threatened to leave, which always worked so well with the cable companies during my two-hour long phone negotiations every year when the bill would skyrocket to more than $200/ month.

Nothing. They didn’t even flinch. I guess it’s really easy to say to no to paying customers through an online chat.

So, instead I signed up for a free trial of the PS Vue and watched the game there so we didn’t have to change our subscription to Sling. The whole process, including their complete unwillingness to work with their customers, really rubbed me the wrong way. But, when we take everything into account (channel offerings, price, reliability, UX), it’s still the best option for us.

Overall Sling TV Grade

When you put it all together, Sling TV is the best option for us. I don’t think the channel lineup is complete, which is one of the main reasons we keep looking for other options. But, it’s good enough to keep us as subscribers. So, their plan has worked.

Overall Just Married Life Grade of Sling TV: 7

Honestly, we don’t watch much live television anyway. Mostly, we keep it because it has the YES Network so I can watch Yankee games. And, sometimes we’ll throw on a TBS movie on a Saturday afternoon when we’re trying to nap instead of scrolling through Netflix for an hour trying to find something to watch, then praying it’s good. Randomly, we’ll also put on the Food Network or HGTV and watch some of their Chopped or House Hunters marathons.

Try Sling TV Today!

Are you finally looking to cut the cord and switch to streaming TV?

While it’s not perfect, Sling TV is the best service we’ve found because of the price, the ease of use, and channel offerings. Sign up for a free Sling TV trial today!

Not convinced? Wait for our upcoming reviews of Hulu, PS Vue, FuboTV, and DAZN to find an option that better suits your needs.