Sling TV is the grandfather of the streaming industry. Its roots lie in being able to watch your home cable feed from anywhere in the world – you’d literally plug your cable line into a Sling box, which would then spit out the line feed. Today, however, it’s a more modern streaming TV option.

Sling TV was once the most popular live TV streaming service in the United States but, facing competition from YouTube TV, it currently sits at No. 3 with 2.6 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter. 2021.

That doesn’t take away from the fact that the basic Sling TV packages are some of the most affordable – with a mix of channels as close to pay-per-view as possible – it’s even after Sling TV has increased its prices for new subscribers in 2021.

Sling TV’s flexibility is both good and bad – the channel options are plentiful, but you’ll need to do some homework to make sure you get the channels you want. You’ll also need to follow whatever Sling TV plan you build, as it’s easy to rack up the costs and end up spending as much as you would with any of the other streaming services. Remember, although Sling TV’s free trial offer has ended, you can still try it for a discounted price ($25) before you buy.

Here’s everything you need to know about Sling TV:

Sling TV channels: Sling Orange and Sling Blue packages

Here’s the gist of Sling TV: There are two main tracks. Yes, you can call them plans, but it’s almost easier to think of them as the two main trunks of a fairly large tree. They separate at first but also intertwine a bit.

Those two Sling TV plans — tracks, whatever — are Sling Orange and Sling Blue. You will mostly find different channels in each, although there are a handful of common channels. You’ll want to go through each plan to see if one has more channels than you want than the other.

For example: if all you care about is ESPN and ESPN2, you can get them in the Sling Orange plan and not have to pay anything else.

• Customers can choose Sling Orange or Sling Blue – each costs $10 per month for the first month and $35 per month thereafter.
• Or, you can choose to get both – the Sling Orange + Blue plan – which costs $20 for the first month, then $50 per month thereafter.
• From there, each track has seven additional “Extras” which add additional channels at different price points.

That’s where the fake pay-per-view sentiment comes in. You’re not locking yourself into packages as big as AT&T TV Now, but neither are you just paying for the channels you know you want to watch. There will be channels you don’t have in the plan that you don’t need.

Orange Sling Chains

Sling Orange chains are fewer than Sling Blue. But, if your focus is on sports, that’s probably where you’ll want to start because that’s the plan that comes with ESPN.

With Sling Orange, you can only stream to one device at a time. Like all Sling plans, it comes with a free 50-hour DVR.

Here are all the chains you will get with Sling Orange:

A&E, AMC, AXS TV, BBC America, BET, Bloomberg Television, Cartoon Network, Cheddar, CNN, Comedy Central, Comet, Disney Channel, Epix Drive-In, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Food Network, Freeform, Fuse, HGTV, History, IFC, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, Local Now, Motortrend, Newsy, Nick Jr., Stadium, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel, Viceland.

Sling Blue Chains

Sling Blue has about 12 extra channels (more or less) on Sling Orange. It has more news and entertainment options than sports channels

Sling Blue also offers the ability to stream up to three devices at once, which is useful if everyone in the house wants to watch something different.

Sling Blue channels in the basic plan:

A&E, AMC, AXS TV, BBC America, BET, Bloomberg Television, Bravo, Cartoon Network, Cheddar, CNN, Comedy Central, Comet, Discovery, E!, EPIX Drive-In, Food Network, Fox, Fox News, FS1, Fuse , FX, HGTV, History, HLN, IFC, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, Local Now, MSNBC, National Geographic, NBC, NBCSN, Newsy, NFL Network, Nick Jr., Stadium, SYFY, TBS, TLC, TNT, Travel Channel, TRU TV, USA, Viceland.

Orange Sling Supplements

These are all the channels available in the Extras on the Sling Orange track. If you have the Sling Orange plan, you can add as many (or as few) as you want. All prices are monthly.

• Orange Sports Extra ($11 if you have Sling Orange or Blue, $15 per month if you have both): ACC Network, ACCNX, beIN sports, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Longhorn Network, MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone, NBA TV, NHL Network, PAC 12 Network, SEC Network, SEC+, Tennis Channel
• Comedy Orange Extra ($6): CMT, feTV, Game Show Network, Laff, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, Revolt TV, truTV, TV Land
• Orange News Extra ($6): BBC World News, CGTN, Euronews, HLN, News18, Law & Crime, Newsmax, NewsNation, RT America, SCI, Weather Nation,
• Orange Lifestyle Extra ($6): Cooking Channel, DIY Network, FYI, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Lifetime Movie Network, VH1, WE TV
• Orange Hollywood Extra ($6): Cinemoi, GRIT, HDNet Movies, H&I, REELZ, Sundance TV, TCM,
• Orange Heartland Extra ($6): American Heroes, Destination America, Great American Country, INSP, Outdoor Channel, PixL, Pursuit, RFD-TV, Ride TV, Sportsman Channel, The Cowboy Channel, World Fishing Network
• AMC+ ($7): AMC+, Shudder, Sundance Now, IFC Films Unlimited

Sling Blue Supplements

These are all the channels available in the Extras on the Sling Blue track. If you have the Sling Blue plan, you can add as many (or as few) as you want. All prices are monthly.

• Blue Sports Extra ($11 if you have Sling Orange or Blue, $15 per month if you have both): beIN Sports, FS2, Golf Channel, MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone, NBA TV, NFL RedZone, NHL Network, Olympic Channel, PAC-12 Network, Tennis Channel, Big Ten Network
• Blue Comedy Extra ($6): CMT, feTV, Game Show Network, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, Revolt TV, TV Land
• Additional blue kids ($6): BabyTV, Boomerang, ducktv, NickToons, TeenNick
• Additional Blue News ($6): BBC World News, CGTN, CNBC, Euronews, France 24 (English), Law & Crime, News18, Newsmax, NewsNation, NDTV 24×7, RT America, SCI, Weather Nation
• Additional Blue Lifestyle ($6): Cooking Channel, DIY Network, FYI, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Lifetime Movie Network, Oxygen, VH1, WE TV
• Blue Hollywood Extra ($6): Cinemoi, FXX, FXM, GRIT, H&I, HDNet Movies, REELZ, Sundance TV, TCM
• Additional Blue Heartland ($6): American Heroes, Destination America, Great American Country, INSP, Outdoor Channel, PixL, Pursuit, RFD-TV, Ride TV, Sportsman Channel, The Cowboy Channel, World Fishing Network, Nat Geo Wild

Additional extras for the Orange and Blue plans include:

• The Total TV Deal ($21), which provides all additional channels and cloud DVR space
• Offer 4 extras ($13), offering Kids Extra, News Extra, Lifestyle Extra, and Comedy Extra for half the price of all four
• NBA League Pass ($28.99), lets you watch all out-of-market games
• NBA Team Pass ($17.99), choose 1 off-market team to follow
• Digital Recorder More ($5) gives you up to 200 hours of DVR recording.

Premium channels on Sling TV

Sling also offers a few dozen “premium” channels that you can subscribe to individually. They are:

• Acorn TV
• all Black
• CONTV ($5)
• CineFest ($5)
• CineMoi ($3)
• ON
• Dynamic comedy ($5)
• CONTV
• The plus country network
• CuriosityStream ($3)
• DOGTV ($5)
• DOX ($3)
• Docurama ($5)
• Canal Dove ($5)
• EPIX ($5)
• FlixLatino ($3)
• Grokker ($7)
• Hallmark Movies Now ($6)
• Here TV ($8)
• Hopster ($5)
• Magellan Television
• Magnolia Selections ($5)
• Monsters and Nightmares ($3)
• Outdoor TV features ($5)
• Pantsaya ($6)
• PlayKids
• STARZ ($9)
• Show time ($10)
• quiver
• sony books
• Stingray Karaoke ($7)
• Stingray Qello ($8)
• Sundance Now
• Tastemade+
• The National Network ($3)
• real royalty
• Tumblebooks TV
• UP Faith and Family ($5)
• VSiN ($4)
• Warriors and Gangsters ($3)

Spanish and international plans on Sling

Sling TV also offers a number of international options.

Spanish packages include:

• Best of Spanish TV ($10): UNIVERSO, Discovery en Espanol, History en Español, Estrella TV, Azteca, beIN SPORTS en Español, Discovery Familia, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, Cinelatino, Cine Sony, Pasiones, Vme Kids, PX Sports, NTN24, BabyTV Español, ¡HOLA! TV, Nat Geo Mundo, Tarima TV, Nuestra Vision, France 24 en Español, El Financiero Bloomberg TV
• Mexico ($10): Canal Once, CBTV Michoacán, Multimedios Televisión, AZ Clic, TeleFórmula, Milenio Televisión, AZ Cinema, Teleritmo, Video Rola, AZ Corazón, Cinema Dinamita, Mexicanal
• Caribbean ($10): WAPA America, CubaMax, Telemicro, TV Quisqueya, Dominican View, Supercanal Caribe, Teleuniverso, Cinelatino, Pasiones
• South America ($10): Caracol, Nuestra Tele, NTN24, RCN Novelas, TV Venezuela, EVTV, Ecuavisa Internacional, Telefe Internacional, Todo Noticias, El Trece Internacional, TyC Sports, Bolivia TV, Canal Sur, Estudio 5, A3 Series
• Central America ($10): Centroamerica TV, Multimedia Costa Rica, Tele El Salvador
• Spain ($10): TV Española Internacional, Antenna 3, A3Cine, A3 Series
• Sling Sports ($5): beIN SPORTS, TyC Sports, Nuestra Tele

Other international TV packages on Sling TV include:

• South Asian: offering Voot, DESI Binge and Sony LIV on-demand services and a cricket channel, as well as online packages Hindi, urdu, bangla, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Maratha, Tamil, telugu
• Middle East : offering channels in Arab
• European: offer French, German, Greek, Italian and Polish
• South American: offer Brazilian
• From East Asia: offer Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese
• International sports: offer world sports and cricket

About Sling TV DVR

Sling now offers 50 hours of DVR for free, no matter what plan you have.

If you need more, you can pay $5 per month for the upgraded “DVR Plus”. This will give you 200 hours of recording capacity. If you go over that, however, you’ll be able to “protect” your recordings so they don’t completely disappear. (Anyone who previously had 10 free hours now gets 50, and anyone who once paid for 50 hours now gets 200.)

The majority of Sling TV channels can now be recorded, with the exception of some digital offerings like ESPN3 or ACC Network Extra.

Does Sling TV stream in 4K?

Nope. Not yet.

Does Sling offer free movies and shows?

Sling TV doesn’t have free movies in the same sense as services like Tubi TV or even The Roku Channel. What you get is what you pay for – many channels that also offer movies and shows.

But if you’re looking for a really good way to augment your Sling TV experience with more free movies and shows, there are definitely some great, legit services out there that do just that.

How to Subscribe to Sling TV

1. Head to sling.com/signup
2. Enter your e-mail adress
3. Enter a unique and strong password.
4. Choose if you want Sling Orange, Sling Blue or both. 5. Scroll down the rest of the page for Extras, Bonuses and International options.
5. Click “Continue”.
6. Enter your billing information.
7. To verify.