Sling TV raises core package price by $5 to $25/month, introduces free content, and a la carte channel subscriptions
Sling TV, the first to deliver an over-the-top TV service aimed at cord cutters, is shaking up its business. The company announced today it's raising the base price …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sling TV built its brand as the cheap entry point for cord cutters — an early review framed it as 'not quite the cord cutter's dream, but a bargain' — and premium add-ons like the $15/month HBO tier layered on top of that low base. This move breaks the pattern: the core package goes up $5 to $25/month even as Sling adds free content and lets viewers buy individual channels outright.
The pricing is a hedge in both directions at once — charge bundle subscribers more, but give price-sensitive users an exit ramp into a la carte before they cancel entirely. The related coverage shows where this leads: within roughly eighteen months, Dish takes both Sling packages up another $5 to $30/month with added DVR storage and channels.
First-order effects
- Existing Sling subscribers see their core bill rise $5 to $25/month immediately, while new entrants can instead assemble a cheaper lineup from individual channel subscriptions or watch the new free tier.
Second-order effects
- Rivals face the same content-cost math: AT&T had already pushed AT&T TV Now's basic Plus package up $15 to $65/month, and YouTube TV subsequently cited 'the rising cost of content' in lifting its rate from $50 to $65 — leaving Sling's $25 tier as the value anchor in a market whose prices keep ratcheting upward.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, live-TV streaming services converge on cable-style pricing while a la carte and free ad-supported tiers split off the price-sensitive segment — the bundle stops being the default product and becomes one option among tiers, echoing the later $5 increase to $30 that paired higher prices with more features rather than fewer.
The trend: Live-TV streaming is repricing toward traditional pay-TV economics, with providers layering free and à-la-carte tiers underneath rising bundle prices to manage churn.