Sling TV Review: Can You Build Your Perfect Streaming Plan?

Sling TV is one of the most customizable streaming services I’ve tried. Its vast array of add-ons lets you create a truly personalized streaming package that is cheaper than most cable replacement plans I’ve seen (probably because you’re not paying for excess channels you don’t use). I did find it lacking in local channels, though its integration with an antenna was surprisingly timesaving.

In a hurry? Sling TV allows you to build almost any channel lineup you want at a lower cost than most — great if you know exactly which channels you need and don’t want to pay for the ones you don’t. Save $25 on your first month of Sling TV.

Pros & Cons of Sling TV

Sling TV Overview

Sling TV is one of the cheapest ways to stream live TV online. I thought this was because it offered fewer channels than most, but then I realized this was actually Sling’s strength: first, it doesn’t provide many of the smaller niche channels you probably won’t ever use, and second, Sling TV’s customizable add-ons let you design your perfect streaming package — so you’re only paying for what you want.

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Sling doesn’t have tiered plans, only two different base plans starting at $40.00/month. If you combine the two, you can get 50+ at a discounted price of $55.00/month.

These include big sports networks like ESPN, Fox Sports (FS1), and NFL Network. You also get your local Fox and NBC affiliate if you’re within a select market.

You don’t even need to sign up to get content with the launch of Sling Freestream. This claims to provide 500 live channels and more than 40,000 on-demand shows and movies for free — though most of the titles and channels I’d never heard of.

Once you have a base plan, you can add more channels with one (or more) of Sling’s Extras add-on. These are typically 5-10 channels within a particular category, such as sports, kids, or movies, for $6-$11 per month.

Sling TV works on most devices, including smartphones, smart TVs, and even gaming consoles like Oculus Go. Depending on your plan, you can watch on up to four screens at once, and every Sling subscription includes 50 hours of cloud DVR storage.

Sling TV’s basic plans are comparable to Philo in price, though I think Sling offers a more premium channel selection. And with its bundles and add-ons, Sling TV rivals Hulu and fuboTV as a cheaper cable replacement.

Sling TV Base Plans

There are two basic plans with Sling TV. These are Sling Blue and Sling Orange. Each of them cost $40.00/month, but you can combine the two for $55.00/month.

Both Blue and Orange also come with 50 hours of free cloud DVR storage.

Here’s a summary of the two Sling TV plans:

• Sling Blue has 40+ channels (see all Sling TV channels) you can watch from three devices at one time. It’s news– and entertainment-oriented, but also sports-friendly with Fox Sports 1 and the NFL Network. This plan is a better all-rounder with the likes of truTV and National Geographic in the network list.
• Sling Orange gives access to 30+ channels (see all Sling TV channels), but only on one device. Still, it’s a live TV streaming plan designed for sports fans with ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. And that’s without the Sports Extra add-on. It also includes Disney Channel.

Combine Sling Orange + Blue and get a total of 45+ channels for $55.00/month.

If you’re an existing Sling TV subscriber and want to cancel your plan, we’ve got a guide for that.

Sling TV International and Latino

There are two other Sling TV services.

Sling Latino plans start from $10 per month. There’s a general “Sling Latino” bundle with a mix of 21 channels, plus five more bundles, each focused on a different region. For example, there’s a plan centered on Spain (4 channels) and another on Mexico (10 channels).

The core plan includes top channels like Discovery and Nat Geo in Spanish, as well as beIN Sports and Sony Cine. Sling Latino subscribers can watch three screens from three devices at once.

Sling International offers customized live TV plans in the following languages:

Sling even offers a Tamil Gold Plan for $25 per month — online cable-free TV channels in one of the world’s oldest languages.

In addition to programming in languages from around the world, Sling also provides Cricket and International Sports services.

How to Get Freebies from Sling TV

There are two different Sling TV deals with free devices and another two with huge discounts. If you want to watch more local channels than Fox and NBC, one of Sling TV’s freebies is an HD Antenna worth $44.99.

The condition with all Sling freebies is that they’re only available when you pre-pay a Sling subscription for two or three months, depending on the offer, and other discounts don’t apply.

Here are the offers:

• Free HD Antenna With Sling: When you pay 2 months in advance, you get the HD antenna worth $44.99 with which you can watch local channels ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC in available in your region.
• AirTV 2 + HD Antenna for $49: When you pre-pay 3 months of any chosen Sling TV plan, you can get this package of devices for $100 less than what they’re worth. The AirTV 2 device also allows you to stream local channels through the Sling TV app.

• AirTV Anywhere + HD Antenna for $99: Worth $244.98, but available at a discounted rate when you pay 3 months of Sling TV up-front. AirTV Anywhere also lets you record programs from local channels.
• Free AirTV Mini: When you prepay 2 months of Sling TV, you get this 4K smart streaming device worth $79.99 with built-in apps, Chromecast, and voice controls. The AirTV Mini also supports Netflix alongside Sling.

Channels On Sling TV

If you combine Sling Blue and Orange, you get a total of 45+ channels. See our Sling TV Packages Guide for a complete list.

In general, the Sling Blue plan includes Fox and NBC channels. And the Sling Orange plan includes ESPN and Disney channels. They both offer many of the same popular channels like AMC, Cartoon Network, CNN, Comedy Central, Food Network, Nick Jr, TBS, and TNT.

Local Channels

While we have a separate local channel guide, here are the most important details.

You only get local channels with Sling Blue — these are Fox and NBC in select areas. If you want to see if your area is covered, check out our guide to Sling TV local channels.

If you opt for a prepaid plan and get an HD antenna, you will be able to stream whatever OTA channels are available in your area — generally including ABC, CBS, NBC, and one or more Spanish-language channels.

To understand how local channels on Sling TV work, see our guide.

Sling’s Sports Networks

Across the Blue and Orange packages, Sling TV offers a total of 5 sports channels: ESPN (Orange), ESPN2 (Orange), ESPN3 (Orange), FS1 (Blue), NFL Network (Blue). Sling recommends the Orange plan for sports plans, because it has ESPN but most fans will also want the Blue plan.

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Sling TV used to carry Stadium in both plans, but they’ve dropped the channel entirely from their service. If it is essential to you, check out FuboTV. Note also that Sling TV does not offer any regional sports networks (RSNs), which isn’t surprising given its low cost.

Sling also offers non-sports channels that still air a lot of live sports programming: Fox (Blue), MotorTrend (Orange), NBC (Blue), TBS (Orange/Blue), TNT (Orange/Blue), truTV (Blue), and USA (Blue).

Sling TV has a Sports Extra add-on. But as with most things Sling TV-related, it’s kind of complicated.

• Sports Extra Orange ($11/mo): ACCN, ACCNX, beIN Sports, ESPNews, ESPNU, Longhorn Network, MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone, NBA TV, NHL Network, Pac-12 Network, SECN, SECN+, Tennis Channel
• Sports Extra Blue ($11/mo): B1G Network, beIN Sports, FS2, Golf Channel, MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone, NBA TV, NFL Network, NFL RedZone, NHL Network, Pac-12 Network, Tennis Channel
• Sports Extra Orange + Blue ($15/mo): ACCN, ACCNX, B1G Network, beIN Sports, ESPNews, ESPNU, Golf Channel, Longhorn Network, MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone, NBA TV, NFL Network, NFL RedZone, NHL Network, Pac-12 Network, SECN, SECN+, Tennis Channel

Sling TV Add-Ons

The add-ons are what make Sling TV stand out from its competitor streaming services, even those that cost more than twice as much per month. They come in two kinds: “Extras” and à la carte premium channels.

Sling TV’s customizable add-ons may seem like a pain in the brain at first, but they allow you to pick and choose what additional channel categories you want to add to your Sling Blue, Orange, or Orange + Blue plan.

Sling Extras

There are a total of 7 channel add-on bundles (for each plan) with 80+ channels, and premium network add-ons with 30+ more channels.

You can even get a discount when you want more than one add-on. The standout offers are:

• Total TV Deal: All extras (Sports, Comedy, Kids, News, Lifestyle, Hollywood, Heartland) with the upgraded 200-hour cloud DVR included. This is a $52/mo value for $21/mo. If you get Orange + Blue, you get all the channels in either add-on but the cost is $27/mo.
• 4 Extras: If you don’t want to spend $21 per month more, you can opt-in for four of Sling TV’s most popular extras. You get Kids, News, Lifestyle, Entertainment extras — a $24/mo value — for $13/mo.

See our Sling TV Packages Guide for complete details on Sling TV’s add-ons and options.

• Entertainment Extra: Roughly a dozen channels that feature comedy and music.
• Heartland Extra: About 10 channels focused on the outdoors and rural life.
• Hollywood Extra: Around 10 film- and drama-oriented channels.
• Kids Extra: A half-dozen channels oriented toward children.
• Lifestyle Extra: Roughly a dozen food, home improvement, and other lifestyle-oriented channels.
• News Extra: About 10 channels to appeal to news junkies.
• Sports Extra: More than a dozen varied sports channels.

Sling’s à la Carte Premiums

Sling’s premiums are the icing on the customizable cake. No other service comes close to offering the sheer number of individual add-on channels. You can choose from standard premium channels like Showtime, Starz, and MGM+, or take a look at the three or four documentary channels, or subscribe to some TV for your dog.

Most are under $10/mo, and many are under $5/mo. You can subscribe and cancel at your whim and never commit to longer than that month.

Sling TV Add-Ons: Worth It but Dangerous

Let’s do some math. If you get the Sling Orange + Blue plan for $55.00/month and go for the Total TV Deal on top, you’re paying $82 per month.

For what?

120+ channels, multiple streams on up to four devices, 200 hours of cloud DVR, with sports networks to cover entire seasons of football, soccer, MLB, college baseball (schedule), and more. Meanwhile, there are a dozen of kids’ channels and general family-friendly TV shows and movie networks.

At the same time, charges can easily get out of hand. A $3 add-on here, a $6 add-on there and suddenly Sling isn’t the best deal around. If you want a lot of channels, you may be better off looking at FuboTV or DIRECTV STREAM.

This leaves us to compare Sling TV to the other major competitors:

• FuboTV
• Philo
• DIRECTV STREAM
• Hulu + Live TV
• YouTube TV

Sling TV in Action: User Experience

When you sign up and log in to your Sling TV dashboard, you have six main menu options:

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• My TV: Rows of categorized TV channels and programs based on the likes of genre and release date. You can also create your own custom row of live TV channels here. The most popular rentals are also shown here, so some of the sub-menu content overlaps.
• On Now: Similar to the ‘My TV’ tab, this sub-menu shows you categorized programs, but only what’s currently on. If you prefer a visual of titles, you may prefer to use this over the Guide tab.
• Guide: The classic TV guide with each channel taking a row where programs are shown by start and finish time. You can scroll through the page to see each channel’s program plan and change the day for which you want to see the guide. You can also filter channels by clicking on the ‘All Channels’ filter icon. The Guide tab has a list view and a block view of channels, too. When you pick a channel, you can choose to record a program, start it from the beginning, or watch in live in-time.
• Sports: Again, this page categorizes sports programs by type of sport like baseball, boxing, or football. You can see what sports are on live, categories of sports channels in your Sling TV plan, as well as sports on-demand.

• On-Demand: Sling TV has thousands of titles in its on-demand library, even though it’s mostly known for the cable-free live TV feature. From movies to TV series and documentaries, you can find many on-demand titles to choose from.
• Rentals: Movies that are not included in the on-demand library are available to rent.

Aside from these main menu options, you can also use the search bar to find titles by name.

How to Change the Settings on Your Sling TV Account

There’s a settings menu labeled with ⚙️. It has six sub-menus where you can manage your Sling account settings:

• Account: Here you can manage your username, password, and subscription plan.
• Parental Controls: If you have kids using the Sling TV account, this menu allows you to filter any content that’s considered inappropriate based on ratings. You can also lock rentals and add-on purchases.

• DVR: Your recorded titles and DVR settings can be managed from this menu. If you have the basic 50 hours of DVR space, you can also upgrade to 200 hours here.
• Support: Contact Sling TV’s customer support via this sub-menu. There’s a URL that takes you to the online help center.
• Closed Captions: Toggle closed captions as default for all available titles.
• Device: A device manager where you can see which devices you’ve used Sling TV with. You can also rename devices in this menu.
• Connection: Check your Wi-Fi connection and bandwidth use and set limits to your maximum bandwidth.

If you have an OTA antenna with Sling TV, you’ll also have a settings menu for Over-The-Air Channels, where you can manage the local channels you have access to.

Note that these sub-menu labels may be different with some devices, but the features are the same.

How to Add Channels To Your Custom List

To create a custom list of live TV channels, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Sling TV
2. Go to My TV > My Channels
3. Click Add Channels
4. Select channels you want to add to Favorites by clicking on the icon
5. Click Done.

Now you’ll have your favorite channels categorized with each channel showing you what program is currently playing, whether it’s a new stream on live TV, what time it started, and what program is up next.

Sling TV’s Performance and Specifications

As far as our streaming experience goes with Sling TV, we couldn’t find 1080 HD streams available. Most streams are available in 720p HD, and lower resolutions of 480p when the internet connection is slow.

The minimum recommended internet bandwidth for Sling TV streamers depends on the device and the number of devices used on a single broadband:

• Mobile/Tablet – 3.0 + Mbps
• PCs/Mac/Laptop – 5.0 + Mbps
• Multi-Device Households – 25 + Mbps

Despite the lack of 1080p streams, Sling TV offers an AirTV device that supports 4K streams with other apps, and some live TV channels are also supported up to 60 frames-per-second.

Sling TV Interface

Sling TV released a major interface overhaul in 2021, which slowly rolled out to various devices over months.

The old interface provided four main areas: My TV, Guide, Sports, and On Demand. The new interface removes the Sports area. But the Guide is now subdivided into several useful categories: All, A-Z, Favorites, Recents, Sports, News, Movies, Kids, and Free.

We find the Recents function particularly useful (perhaps because we are too easily distracted).

For general viewing, this new interface is better than fuboTV’s (although they do still have the advantage of being able to filter by sport). But the new interface is a distinct improvement, and we hope to see competitors step up their game to match.

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TV Everywhere Coverage with Sling

Sling TV allows you to use other apps to watch supported content. But they provide a relatively limited selection:

^† Only with the Best of Spanish TV add-on. ^†† only with NBA League Pass. ** Only in select media markets.

Devices Supported by Sling TV

Here is the list of supported device types for Sling TV users:

For more details, see our Sling TV Devices page.

How To Watch Sling for Free

You read it right. There is a free version of Sling TV and you can even access it from your browser. You don’t even have to sign up or enter a credit card — just head over to:

watch.sling.com

Once you’ve accessed the link, Sling will present you the option to go to watch.sling.com. Here, you’ll see every menu tab, except the “On Now” tab.

The selection is what you are probably used to from Roku Channel, FreeCast, and others. There are a lot of branded channels like BET Pluto and so on. Frankly, it’s way better than anything we grew up with. But it’s also not up to what you get with a paid service.

It is most useful for checking out the Sling TV interface.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, Sling TV is a unique service that has a lot to offer. You can take advantage of the free offerings, get just the base package as a low-cost bargain service, or go nuts making your own custom package with Sling’s unmatched add-ons. Sling TV really is in a class by itself. Try it today.

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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com, specializing in sports streaming and regional programming issues. With a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and extensive experience in remote sensing technology, including early video streaming, I bring a unique technical perspective to the streaming industry.

My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.

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