Sling TV is increasing prices for its packages by $5.99 per month, starting in December. The company says higher distribution costs are to blame.
The cost of Sling Orange, Sling Blue, and Sling Orange & Blue will increase by $5.99 per month, according to a support article on Sling’s website. The change will kick in with billing dates on or after December 20th, 2024. The new pricing is $45.99/month for the Orange package, $45.99/month for the Blue package, and $60.99/month for the combined Orange & Blue subscription.
Sling offers different channels across the Orange and Blue packages, allowing some customers to save money if all (or most of) the channels they want are in just one of them. Distribution deals with media companies generally block TV providers from offering channels individually to subscribers (à la carte), so the split Orange and Blue packages have been Sling’s attempt to work around that to a limited extent.
The company said on its support page, “The price we pay to provide you with the programming you enjoy continues to increase well above the pace of inflation. We actively fight every day on your behalf to keep costs as low as possible. […] These increases are industry wide — other leading streaming providers have had increases throughout 2024.” That last part isn’t entirely true, as the last increase for YouTube TV was in mid-2023, but its main package is much more expensive than Sling at $73/month. DirecTV Stream did get a price hike in October.
No one likes price increases, but Sling TV is still a good deal if it has the channels you want. You may be able to fill in some of the content gaps (especially in sports) with a TV antenna, and devices like the Tablo allow you to re-stream those local channels to other devices in your home. If you have a home server or NAS, you can also set up local channels in Plex.
Source: Sling via The Streamable
