Sling TV
Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aims to complement subscription video on demand services for cord cutters, offering a selection of major cable channels and OTT-originated services that can be streamed through smart TVs, digital media players and apps. The service is available in the United States and Puerto Rico as of 2015.
Sling TV is led by Erik Carlson, who also serves as the President and COO of Dish Network. The service's precursor, the international television service DishWorld, was also brought under the auspices of Sling TV LLC and was rebranded as Sling International. Following an invitation-only beta launch of the service that began in January of that year, Sling TV formally launched on February 9, 2015.
In November 2023, Sling TV had 2.12 million subscribers. In January 2025, Sling TV has 2.09 million subscribers. As of May 2025, Sling TV has a total of 1.89 million subscribers.
History
Dish Network began to trial run an over-the-top internet television provider in 2012 with the launch of DishWorld, a service which provided access to over 50 ethnic and international television networks; DishWorld was initially made available through an app for Roku digital media players. In carriage deals that the company struck with major cable channel owners such as A&E Networks, The Walt Disney Company and Scripps Networks Interactive during 2014, Dish Network obtained the over-the-top distribution rights to their networks as part of clauses incorporated into the agreements pertaining to its existing direct broadcast satellite service – a move that served as a stepping stone for Dish towards launching a mainstream OTT offering. In November 2014, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen explained that the company planned to launch its OTT service by the end of that year and was aiming for the package to retail for around $30 per month. He explained: "the regular linear MVPD business is a mature business. You can't just go back every day and say 'I'm going to raise my rates to make my budget.' You have to figure out other revenue streams and get other people to pay for your product and watch more minutes of your product."The OTT service was officially unveiled as Sling TV on January 5, 2015, in a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas; the service is co-branded with the Sling entity owned by Dish Network's former parent Echostar, which also co-branded and provided placeshifting technology for the provider's Hopper with Sling multi-room DVR system. Dish did not provide any specific details on when the service would be launched, beyond "soon." The company also announced that the DishWorld service would be absorbed into the Sling TV subsidiary and rebranded as Sling International, and that it also planned to launch a Sling Latino OTT service, which would incorporate various Spanish networks. Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch explained that the service was designed to target the viewing habits of the 18–35 demographic, which he believed was being ignored by the traditional pay television industry. Lynch argued the service's approach required Dish to be selective in how it built the service's lineup, stating that "it would have been easy for us to do deals earlier on if we just agreed to say 'let's just take these big pay TV packages and put them online.' We would have ended up with $60 or $70 bundles. We don't think that is the way to reach that demographic. We spent a lot of time working with programmers to make sure we had smaller bundles, lower costs and more flexibility." He also noted the importance of reaching a deal to include ESPN onto the service, which he felt was a sign of validity for the provider.
After a one-month, invitation-only beta, Sling TV officially launched on February 9, 2015. That same day, Sling announced that it had reached a carriage deal with AMC Networks, allowing networks such as AMC, IFC, BBC America and SundanceTV to be included as part of the service. One week later on February 16, as part of a renewed agreement between Dish and the Paramount Pictures/Lionsgate/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer joint venture Studio 3 Partners to continue its carriage on the company's satellite service, Sling announced that it would carry Epix as part of its "Hollywood Extra" tier – in a package that includes its main channel and all three multiplex services – becoming the first premium channel to be made available on the provider.
Sling expanded its premium channel offerings on April 1, 2015, when Dish announced that it would add HBO to Sling TV as an add-on pack. Similar to the Epix deal, the addition of HBO was part of a wide-ranging deal between Dish Network and Time Warner that included the renewal of its carriage agreement for the Turner Broadcasting System's cable channels, including TBS, TNT, TruTV, CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Sling added HBO as an add-on pack – which consists of the east and west coast feeds of the primary linear channel, and allows on-demand access to HBO's programming content – on April 9, 2015. The Sling Latino service was introduced on June 4, 2015, featuring two add-on Spanish-language programming tiers, "Paquete Total" and "Paquete Esencial." Customers can purchase two additional add-on packs, "Colombia" and "España." This service does not require the purchase of the "Best of Live TV" package. On November 19, 2015, Blockbuster LLC migrated the Blockbuster On Demand VOD service exclusively to Sling TV; as a result, Blockbuster and Dish Network began redirecting all Dish customers who subscribed to the service to switch to Sling in order to continue accessing its film content.
On April 13, 2016, Sling TV introduced a "multi-stream" package, which allows the ability for up to three users to stream different channels through a single subscription account. The package includes several networks owned by 21st Century Fox, including FX, Fox Sports 1, National Geographic Channel and the regional Fox Sports Networks, but excludes networks owned by The Walt Disney Company to hold the price of the tier at a moderated rate. Two months later on June 13, Sling added several channels to the multi-stream package: it added FS2, FXX and Nat Geo Wild among the Fox-owned offerings on the tier, and began carrying several channels owned by Viacom Media Networks. The Viacom deal – a caveat of a carriage dispute that Viacom and Dish Network resolved with a renewed agreement to keep Viacom's channels on the satellite provider – notably excluded Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, while several of Viacom's other flagship networks were primarily relegated to the service's "Comedy Plus Extra" and "Lifestyle Plus Extra" add-on packs. In addition, the service added support to allow access to its content on Apple TV devices.
Sling restructured its programming tiers on June 30, 2016, redesignating the "Best of Live TV" single-stream tier as "Sling Orange" and the multi-stream package as "Sling Blue". Additionally, the service added most of the NBCUniversal family of networks, as well as BBC America, BBC World News and Vibrant TV; the NBCUniversal channels joined sister service Local Now, which initially launched as a Sling-exclusive offering on January 25. In addition, subscribers could also stream NBC stations in all markets where the network has an owned-and-operated station. With this, Sling began offering existing and prospective subscribers an upper-end tier comprising the channels featured on both Sling Orange and Blue, as well as those that are restricted to the respective tiers. Those subscribing to the "extra" add-on packs are required to subscribe to the Sling Orange tier in order to access the Disney–ABC Television Group channels and Sling Blue to stream the NBCUniversal channels included in the service's subtiers. Comcast SportsNet California, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic were not among the CSN networks initially available in markets served by those channels, and would not be added to Sling until April 2, 2017.
On September 8, 2016, coinciding with the channel's September 10 premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Sling TV began carrying Starz as a premium add-on; its rollout was commemorated with a seven-day free preview of the Starz package to existing subscribers. The service also added the six regional Pac-12 Networks to its "Sports Extra" tiers, and added support for Windows 10 users through the launch of an app for the operating system. During October 2016, the service also added six additional channels to its lineup: Game Show Network, AXS TV, HDNet Movies, NHL Network, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. On November 2, the OTT business news service Cheddar was added to Sling's base tiers, while Sling Kids and TheBlaze respectively joined the Kids Extra and World News Extra tiers; two weeks later on November 16, NBA TV was added to the "Sports Extra" tier.
In April 2017, Sling began offering Showtime as an add-on pack. The east and west coast feeds of the primary Showtime linear channel and its seven multiplex services are included in the package, which also grants access to Showtime's on-demand service; sister channels The Movie Channel and Flix have been excluded from the package ever since Showtime's addition to Sling. With the addition, Sling became the first over-the-top MVPD streaming service to offer all five major premium networks: HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz and Epix. This was followed on April 5, with the introduction of the "Heartland Extra" add-on tier, and expanded its "Best of Spanish TV" tier with the additions of Estrella TV, V-me Kids and El Financiero-Bloomberg TV. Maker and Polaris TV were removed from the service in May 2017. On June 14, 2017, Sling TV moved the El Rey Network from the Orange package to the Comedy Extra add-on. However, the channel remained in the Blue package. Subsequently, on July 12, concurrent with the addition of Showtime Family Zone, Sling added WeatherNation TV to the "News Extra" add-on pack. On March 29, 2019, Sling TV added MLB Network and MLB Strike Zone to its "Sports Extra" package.
On July 24, 2019, Sling TV and Dish Network removed the regional Fox Sports Networks, as a result of Dish and Sling being unable to come to an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which had just acquired the networks from Disney through a joint venture with Entertainment Studios.
In February 2021, Sling added local stations to its guide from Locast in the 36 markets where that service is available. As of September 2021, Locast service has been discontinued, following a lawsuit held against them by broadcasting organizations.
In February 2023, the free portion of the service was renamed "Sling Freestream". At the time of the announcement, the plan was to offer users over 210 channels and more than 41,000 on demand titles, with additional content to be added throughout the year and an eventual goal of offering more than 400 channels. It would be available on LG, Samsung, and Vizio smart TVs.
In December 2024, Sling announced they would be increasing their prices by $6/month for the first time in almost 2 years, on their Orange and Blue base packages.
On June 6, 2025, it was reported that parent company EchoStar Corporation was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the Federal Communications Commission suspended EchoStar's ability to plan out strategic decisions for its Boost Mobile subsidiary. In addition, other factors contributing to this decision included missing over $500 million in interest payments and the termination of the Dish Network acquisition by DirecTV.