Sling TV extends price hike to existing subs

Sling TV confirmed it has moved ahead with a price hike for existing customers that mirrors a price increase for new subscribers that was introduced in January.

The increase focuses on Sling TV's baseline pay-TV tiers – Sling Orange and Sling Blue – which now fetch $35 per month (up from $30 per month previously). They can also be bundled together for $50 per month.

Figure 1: Sling TV, which ended Q1 2021 with 2.37 million subs, recently launched new design for Roku Ultra devices that is also available on Amazon Fire TV streaming devices.
(Image source: Sling TV)

The increase for existing Sling TV subs also takes shape amid the expiration of a one-year price guarantee that was introduced last July and pertained to new customers who signed up by August 1, 2020.

Despite an across-the-board increase that now hits both new and existing subs, Sling TV has embarked on promotions aimed at accelerating new growth. In April, it began pitching the service for $10 for the first month, along with DVR Plus, a premium cloud DVR offering with 200 hours of storage that typically sells for an additional $5 per month.

Sling TV lost 100,000 subs in Q1 2021, ending the quarter with 2.37 million subscribers.

Though the price hike keeps Sling TV among the lowest-priced OTT-TV services on the market, it's merely the latest virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) to fall prey to rising programming costs.

Among recent examples, Philo increased the price on its base service for new customers to $25, a 25% jump from a prior price of $20, starting June 8. YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and FuboTV have also raised rates in recent months in order to keep margins in check due to a confluence of new channels and the aforementioned increase in overall programing costs.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading