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3.0

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: October 26th, 2024

Sling TV won the CES 2015 awards for the "Best Home Theater Product" and the "Best Software/App." It has also been rated the "Best in Show" by Engadget for its pricing, easy-to-navigate interface, and the fact that it could be the beginning of the end for traditional pay television in the United States. 

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The Good

  • Innovative services
  • Add-ons for customizable package
  • Parental controls

New Innovative Product

Sling TV has created a product that combines traditional cable with video on demand services, streaming regular TV channels live and having thousands of movies available on demand.

Add-On Packages

With Sling TV, users can get different add-on packages such as HBO, Sports Extra, Kids Extra, Hollywood Extra, Etc. These packages average $5 more per month.

Ability to Watch Current Seasons

Users can enjoy their favorite series that is currently airing, rather than waiting for the season to finish and watch a season behind.

Parental Controls

Sling TV added parental control features so subscribers can easily sift channels and movies by rating.

Free Trial

Potential subscribers can try Sling TV free for seven days without any obligation whatsoever, allowing them to try services before making a decision. Overall, Sling TV has a lot of great features for their subscribers. The company has essentially created a new form of streaming TV, allowing subscribers to watch on demand and live TV channels without a cable or satellite contract. They have over 65 channels available and Sling TV works on a variety of devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, XBox One, Android TV and devices, iOS devices, Chromecast, and more.

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The Bad

  • More expensive
  • Replay issues
  • Can't stream on multiple devices

Monthly Price

The basic package is a flat rate of $28 per month, which is more than other competitors. However, Sling TV offers streaming movies and TV with live TV channels.

Roku Streaming Issues

Sling TV is fully supported on the Roku player. However, there have been complaints that the Roku app will crash, causing a bad user experience.

No Compatibility with Apple TV

Apple TV is one of the most popular streaming devices on the market. However, there isn't an Apple TV app for Sling TV.

Replay Issues

If a subscriber misses a show and wants to catch up next week, there is a limited time to re-play. Sling TV only allows for a three day "replay" on a few of its channels at this time.

Streaming on Multiple Devices

The most common complaint with Sling TV is due to the inability to stream on multiple devices at one time. You must get individual subscriptions if your family wants to enjoy their different programming on different devices at the same time. Although Sling TV is very innovative and has created a great alternative to cable and satellite contracts, it does have a few drawbacks. The price is a little high, when compared to other streaming TV companies.  Also, Sling TV isn't compatible with Apple TV and has streaming issues on the Roku. However, the main drawback is not being able to stream on multiple devices. This is a big deal now that households have multiple TVs, iPads, phones, and streaming devices.

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The Bottom Line

Sling TV is providing a new, innovative way to enjoy traditional cable or satellite broadcasts without breaking the bank. Sling TV is much cheaper than having cable TV with a traditional TV provider. However, the monthly price is a little higher compared to its competitors, but it is a very different service. For some customers, they will need to purchase additional packs in order to get some channels, like MSNBC, Golf, Oxygen, and more. So, if you are looking for a straight on demand streaming service, Sling TV isn't for you.  Sling TV is a higher price for a reason, providing customers with live TV channels and on-demand videos.
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Star Rating

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2.0

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237 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

10%

4 grade

14%

3 grade

8%

2 grade

4%

1 grade

65%

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Sean Bruno

Always buffering no matter what device you use to watch it. No matter how good the internet connection it still buffers constantly. Never saves place when viewing on demand and returning later to finish show. They say it's cheaper but to get the channels cable offers you end up spending the same. The picture quality gets pixlated often. The audio gets out of synch often as well. Honestly spend the extra couple bucks for reliability with cable that comes with a dvr . On demand populates much later than most other services. This would be great if your a casual user. We love news and movies so it's on often. Canceling soon.

7 years ago

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DA Jefferies

You get what you pay for. IF you don't want to see your local channels this may be ideal. Sling has quite a few disruptions in service & occasionally recycles ad/s

4 years ago

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JBow78 Lawrenceville, GA

Sling use to be wonderful. 40 bucks a month for access to my favorite channels. I happily threw cable out the window. For some reason over the course of the last year, Sling has become very glitchy. It freezes. It shuts down and takes me back to Roku's home page. Actors are frozen but dialogue is continuing. Just bazaar stuff. It's so often now that I keep the roku remote close by because I expect to push the back arrow to reselect the show so it starts playing correctly again. As of right now, no issues with customer service, billing, or refunds.

5 years ago

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Doyal Stewart Salt Lake City, UT

I liked that SlingTV had so much sports programming options. But we didn't end up using it very much. We decided to cancel because we found ourselves still using our Hulu and Netflix way more. We were hoping to just swap to SlingTV, but it wasn't a great replacement.

7 years ago

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cciriz

The whole reason i left cable is because I was tired of paying for commercials. Sling is no better. I understand they can't do anything about live TV, but the on demand programs should not have commercials. Netflix and hulu are both better.

7 years ago

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Suzanna Wootton Springville, UT

I tried to use sling TV to stream an event and it was TERRIBLE. I pretty much missed the whole event because sling TV was lagging so bad. Probably won't use again...

7 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Robert L Brown

I was charged for a account didn't setup I asked for a refund but I was told they couldn't refund me. Other than I like the service

7 years ago

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Karina Aguilar Managua, MN

when I bought sling they at first had a good selection of shows but then I switched to hulu and they offered more shows for less

5 years ago

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Bob Conley Crestwood, KY

Service rarely worked at night. I got this for ESPN. I rarely could get Monday Night Football or other major games to stream properly.

6 years ago