Sling TV splits into 'Orange' and 'Blue' tiers, adds NBC, BBC America & other channels

Sling TV on Thursday announced a slew of changes to its streaming service, including several new channels and the creation of "Orange" and "Blue" tiers, the latter bringing multi-stream support out of beta.

Orange is mostly the same as the previous base service, costing $20 month for 28 channels, which can only be streamed on one device at a time. Blue costs an extra $5, but bundles 43 channels with an emphasis on Fox and NBC content, and the ability to stream on three different devices.

Sling launched a beta multi-stream plan in April, which at the time cost $20 like the normal single-stream option but with a different channel selection, which was also smaller than what Blue would end up having.

An "Orange + Blue" package is available for $40, but many channels — like HBO, Epix, and Cinemax — are still in separate add-on packages costing between $5 and $15 per month. Sling's Latino content has been expanded with a "Caribe" package featuring Cuban and Puerto Rican material, plus a $10 standalone service.

The above-mentioned NBC content is new to Sling. The company has also added several other American networks, among them Syfy, Bravo, USA, BBC America, and some of Comcast's regional Sportsnet channels.

Earlier this month, Sling finally released an app for the fourth-generation Apple TV. The service was already accessible on many other platforms, such as iOS, Android, Roku, Chromecast, and even the Xbox One. Subscribers can get an Apple TV for $89 if they're willing to prepay for three months of Sling.

16 Comments

TurboPGT 9 Years · 355 comments

About 8 years ago

With this on the AppleTV and iOS, do we really need the "skinny" cable package from Apple? Is this not it?

tinfoil 15 Years · 6 comments

Has anyone tried the service - and if so, are you a happy user? I've tried signing up twice (Amazon Fire, then Apple TV) and the lag and stuttering made it unpleasant to watch - so I've cancelled each time. I love the idea of the service - but the tech issues drove me away.

fasterquieter 9 Years · 90 comments

$20 a month to watch ad-infested over the air channels that you can get for free with an antenna. No thanks.

iSRS 8 Years · 52 comments

tinfoil said:

Has anyone tried the service - and if so, are you a happy user? I've tried signing up twice (Amazon Fire, then Apple TV) and the lag and stuttering made it unpleasant to watch - so I've cancelled each time. I love the idea of the service - but the tech issues drove me away.

I have not yet (will wait until there is content I want to watch in the fall on).

But I had Comcast Stream TV, which is their version of this (except they don't have set top box apps) and it was

a

stut

tering

mess

To put it in perspective, the cost of the service was $15/month plus about $1.50 in taxes/fees. This was about 15 local channels, live and on demand, cloud DVR, plus HBO. They invited me to join a focus group on it, which I did. The focus group was running February through August of this year. Each month you participated in the group, you got a $10 amazon gift card. So my net was live tv, cloud DVR (meaning I didn't have to wait until the next day on the network apps or Hulu, or need CBS All Access) and HBO for just over $6/month

I cancelled it and reactivated my HBO Now and CBS All Access through iTunes. The service was so bad, I literally chose to pay $15/month more for less content.

jimh2 8 Years · 670 comments

fasterquieter said:

$20 a month to watch ad-infested over the air channels that you can get for free with an antenna. No thanks.

You can't get any of the channels over the air. At least pretend to know what you are talking about when you post.