Customers getting free Cloud DVR with price increase
Sling TV announced a $5 price increase for new customers.
The price hike means any new customer signing up for Sling Orange or Sling Blue will now pay $35 per month. Subscribing to both Sling Orange and Blue will cost $5 per month more as well at $50 per month.
Existing customers won’t see the price increase until July as part of Sling’s 1-year price guarantee made last summer.
“As disheartening as it is to us and our new customers, pricing disputes between pay-TV services and programmers are becoming ever more common,” Michael Schwimmer, group president of Sling TV said in a statement. “These disputes hinge on one simple factor — increased programming fees. The fact of the matter is, SLING TV doesn’t own the programming we provide to customers, and programming fees only go up.”
Sling TV hasn’t been alone with recent price hikes. Hulu, YouTube TV and fuboTV have all increased its price for its live TV services in the last year.
Sling TV has offered smaller channel packages since its inception in 2015. After picking a main channel bundle — called Sling Orange or Sling Blue — customers have the option to pay for extra sports, entertainment or news channels.
The build-your-own bundle approach has allowed Sling to offer a lower cost option to customers. But even the extras will cost a little more now.
Prices for Extra bundles
The Sling TV Sports Extra is now $11 per month for new customers with a subscription to SLING Orange or SLING Blue (an increase of $1 per month).
New customers who subscribe to both SLING Orange and SLING Blue will continue to pay $15 for Sports Extra.
All other extra bundles, including Comedy Extra, Kids Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Extra, Hollywood Extra and Heartland Extra, are now each priced at $6 per month for new customers. Those packages are also increasing by $1 per month.
Schwimmer said that the company will continue to “prioritize our customers and deliver the most choice and flexibility at the best value in the industry, allowing you to save hundreds of dollars each year compared to cable.”
During the announcement on the price hike, Schwimmer added that all customers will now get 50 hours of Cloud DVR as part of their subscription. The feature used to cost $5 per month.
And customers now have the option to upgrade to 200 hours as part of a new “DVR Plus” option for $5 per month.
Customers are also being treated to a free preview of four extra bundles. Kids Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Extra and Comedy Extra are available to Sling Orange and Sling Blue customers until Feb. 15. The bundle of all four extras costs $12 per month.
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Founder and Editor of The Cord Cutting Report. Before launching the site in 2016, he worked for more than two decades as a staff writer or correspondent for a number of daily newspapers, including The Boston Globe. His enthusiasm for tech began with the Atari 2600. Follow @james_kimble
Even though we knew this was coming since their “price guarantee” a couple months ago was only referring to existing customers, it still sucks. We have got to get someone that will give us at least a semi ala carte. I don’t see for example how abc can force a subscriber to take any of the fox channels. Let us do some kind of content selecting. For probably most of us the packages are packed with stuff we never watch. I had to look to even see all this junk youboobtv has that I was “paying” for.
Otherwise I am still going back to sling to save some money just on principle. I do 99% of my tv on dvr so that is important. So for now this will still be the same price for the package as now I won’t have to pay the extra $5 for 50 hrs of dvr. The upping to a potential 200 hours is a nice option, but I think with proper management I am likely good with the 50.
(And I am still in mourning over the loss of Playstation Vue a year ago. I still regularly am reminded how good it was for a few years. Bring it back someone.)