Sling TV is Losing Steam

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
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Dish Network is losing satellite TV subscribers like crazy and their Sling TV streaming service isn't making up the difference. DirecTV satellite service is losing customers as well, but their DirecTV Now streaming service is more than making up lost volume. DirecTV Now has 1.8 million subscribers compared to 2.21 million for Sling TV. You would think Sling TV would be further ahead since they've been around almost two years longer than DirecTV Now. If this trend continues for Sling TV they are in trouble. The big difference between the two is number of channels/locals and DirecTV Now blows Sling TV away for just a little more money per month. This is why I picked them. You better get on the ball Dish.

Meanwhile, AT&T is also using its wireless business to push DirecTV Now subscriptions, with some plans offering $15 per month DirecTV Now discounts and free HBO. Given those advantages, it’s not hard to imagine DirecTV Now leaping into first place among live TV streaming services by the end of this year.
 
I wonder how many of the DirecTV Now subs are only temporary due to them giving away an Apple TV 4K for prepaying 3 months of service for $105?
I'll be canceling our sub at the end of the month since we only subscribed to get the cheaper price on the Apple TV 4K..
 
Uvaman2 said:
If direct tv now or sling tv is simply cable streaming over the internet, you are not a cord cutter...
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Cord whittler? Cause it saved me like $90 a month for essentially the same coverage (lost a bunch of channels nobody watched, but didn't give up any we did).

Maybe you aren't a cord cutter. Unless you ditched your cable company as your ISP.
 
Sling TV has constant outages, probably why people aren't using it.
 
pcgeekesq said:
Only if you actually watch that crap. I've got better things to do with my life.
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I hear ya. I mainly watch Science Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel a little DIY and that's about it. My wife is the TV junkie.
 
Last month I tried out all the free trials for PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, and Sling TV as I was wanting to try out these services for my 85 nyear old Dad that is tried of high cable bills from Cable One in AZ.
I list them in order of ease of use and features. PlayStation Vue and DirecTV now are far better than Sling TV as it in my opinion sucks. I like the Guide and DVR feature best with Vue but if I had to pay for one I would go with DirecTV now as it is cheaper and there isn't much difference to justify the cost.
Sling was just confusing, blue, orange blue + orange, WTF? The guide was terrible.
 
Had my eye on PlaystationVue for awhile now, anyone else checked it out?
 
DirecTV just tried to f$%# me over, raising my bill from $65 to $175 last month, which is insane for my kids to watch Sesame Street and Disney JR. NEVER believe anything DirecTV tells you on the phone. If they offer you discount or promotion or anything on the phone, get it in writing. They WILL screw you over.

P.S. - As soon as you "cancel" your subscription, you may as well be talking to a wall if you try to talk to DirecTV on the phone. They can't/won't do anything for you per company policy. If I get any more frustrated, I'll probably make a youtube video of me setting some DirecTV stuff on fire in my driveway. I guarantee the copious use of accelerant.
 
Sling TV's interface is absolute. Trash. How people put up with that thing is beyond me.


I had Playstation Vue in the past and loved it. I made a bad decision to go back to cable and now regret it. Will be going back to PS Vue once this ATT contract is out.
 
ThatsAgood1jay said:
Oh great White Knight, please virtue signal more about how you're above the entertained masses!
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Above? No, just different tastes and an intolerance for commercial interruptions.
I only watch 4K and Blu-Rays from my home library, 75% of which are Disney/Marvel/Pixar.
And I only watch them while eating dinner with my wife, 5 or so nights a week.

My 65" OLED will last forever (with no burn-in) at this rate. :)
 
Wife switched from Sling to Philo a while back. Had Sling from beginning. Service had the same issues 2-1/2 years later as day one. Crappy app, unstable streaming.
 
ThatsAgood1jay said:
Sling TV's interface is absolute. Trash. How people put up with that thing is beyond me.


I had Playstation Vue in the past and loved it. I made a bad decision to go back to cable and now regret it. Will be going back to PS Vue once this ATT contract is out.
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I made the jump from Sling (just an awful experience, UI, buffering) to VUE, overall, much better than Sling and a great guide, to Youtube TV, best streaming experience, but wish the guide was more traditional. Nice thing about YouTube TV is the sharing of a single account, the downside is availability and supported devices. Can you say eff you to Amazon Fire devices YouTube, oh yes we can.
 
trick_m0nkey said:
Sling TV has constant outages, probably why people aren't using it.
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I've had sling TV for a couple years and can count on one hand the number of times I've seen an outage. That's not the issue.

The author of the article guessed correctly that the issue is local channels. Sling simply does not have local channels without an extra cost. If you truly want local or as close as you can get to them you end up having to buy the most expensive package. People don't want to be nickeled and dimed like that.

If sling can start offering the local broadcast channels I think they can get back on their feet.

But I do think they need to take a look at their pricing model and adjust it. Their price slots are fine but their offerings in those slots leave a bit to be desired especially if a different package has something you want. You can't just go to that package and keep everything you had before. You lose things to gain other things and people don't like that.
 
Montu said:
I hear ya. I mainly watch Science Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel a little DIY and that's about it. My wife is the TV junkie.
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Those were my channels growing up, but I no longer watch them as they've all been devalued from the education-knowledge based programming into reality TV gimmicks. Discovery used to have a lot of engineering shows and History used to be about history.
 
Donald Bell said:
DirecTV just tried to f$%# me over, raising my bill from $65 to $175 last month, which is insane for my kids to watch Sesame Street and Disney JR. NEVER believe anything DirecTV tells you on the phone. If they offer you discount or promotion or anything on the phone, get it in writing. They WILL screw you over.

P.S. - As soon as you "cancel" your subscription, you may as well be talking to a wall if you try to talk to DirecTV on the phone. They can't/won't do anything for you per company policy. If I get any more frustrated, I'll probably make a youtube video of me setting some DirecTV stuff on fire in my driveway. I guarantee the copious use of accelerant.
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Yep! I'm someone who used to have DirecTV as well and they automatically withdrew money from our bank account when we cancelled without our authorization. It was total bullshit.

I will never use another DirecTV product.
 
Spidey329 said:
Those were my channels growing up, but I no longer watch them as they've all been devalued from the education-knowledge based programming into reality TV gimmicks. Discovery used to have a lot of engineering shows and History used to be about history.
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Yea, noticed that as well. Now its all reality TV bs. I keep cable tv because of sports channel so I can watch NBA/Tennis and bundling them with internet made it pretty cheap.
 
Cancelling was easy. Did it now so I don't forget.
directv-canceledd.jpg
 
Zepher said:
I wonder how many of the DirecTV Now subs are only temporary due to them giving away an Apple TV 4K for prepaying 3 months of service for $105?
I'll be canceling our sub at the end of the month since we only subscribed to get the cheaper price on the Apple TV 4K..
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My estimate is almost all of them are temporary activations not to mention the unknown number of multiple activations to get the devices. Between that and leveraging deals from their wireless arm and giving away HBO for free (or $5) I don't consider their rapid expansion anything to note or sustainable.
 
Zepher said:
I wonder how many of the DirecTV Now subs are only temporary due to them giving away an Apple TV 4K for prepaying 3 months of service for $105?
I'll be canceling our sub at the end of the month since we only subscribed to get the cheaper price on the Apple TV 4K..
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I was about to post this, but the last message quoted yours. That said, as I recall, DTV's service had most of the channels I wanted, so I might have stuck with it after the trial period, if not for the fact that I get to pay for Comcrap via my APT whether I want it or not.
 
I used to have DirectTV, but since i usually only watched NASCAR on it for the most part i figured it wasn't worth it for just that. (Especially once my year deal was up, the fee went up from about $90 to about $160 or so) Could have tried for another deal, but i get the races i want on Sling for about $25 a month so i'm happy with it atm.
I predict that the cable provider who eventually lets you pick only what channels YOU want to see with no fluff will make a killing. But i doubt that will happen in my lifetime....:nailbiting:
 
I love Sling TV. Had one issue in a year but that got resolved within a day. Could have better customer support hours though IMO.
 
Do any of these services provide 60fps on PC? I know a lot of them do on streaming devices, but I only have a Windows PC connected to my TV. I would like to find a good service for the college football season.
 
I have DirectTV. I use to have Uverse for both internet and TV. They talked me into converting my TV to DirectTV. What a POS. We had issues with the internet disconnecting our 4K TV. So twice a month, I had to delete the internet setup in the DVR, reboot all the boxes, then setup the internet access again in order to get on demand channels. The disconnection is associated with having a 4k TV. While watching any show, at times, the video will stop along with the sound for about 1-2 seconds. The other piece to this service is the POS interface that you get on the screen.
 
kamxam said:
I used to have DirectTV, but since i usually only watched NASCAR on it for the most part i figured it wasn't worth it for just that. (Especially once my year deal was up, the fee went up from about $90 to about $160 or so) Could have tried for another deal, but i get the races i want on Sling for about $25 a month so i'm happy with it atm.
I predict that the cable provider who eventually lets you pick only what channels YOU want to see with no fluff will make a killing. But i doubt that will happen in my lifetime....:nailbiting:
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I predict that we will eventually have ala carte and most will pay more to get less.

Why? Because if you like MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, FX or AMC and don't want the other stations from the company that owns those stations you will pay significantly more for those stations. I think Most of the aforementioned stations cost 20-50 cents/month. I'd expect each to cost 1-2 dollars ala carte (maybe more).
 
How are the ads on PS Vue and DirectTV Now? The ones on Sling can be blaring compared to the playback volume, and often there will be the same exact ad withiin a single break. It's fucking obnoxious.
 
YouTube TV is coming on strong and will probably dethrone both DTV Now and Sling soon enough
 
CzarKasm said:
How are the ads on PS Vue and DirectTV Now? The ones on Sling can be blaring compared to the playback volume, and often there will be the same exact ad withiin a single break. It's fucking obnoxious.
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On PS Vue they are pretty good. I have been on it for over two years now. Some on Syfy and sometimes on FreeForm have the sound issue but it has been awhile since I have had a "bleeding from my ear drums" Issue with a commercial popping on loud as hell. Most of the time I only watch DVR stuff so I can skip the commercials but Fox does some screw ball thing where it will remove the DVR version of a show and make you watch the On-Demand version with commercials you can't skip. But thankfully it is only a few shows and not all the time. Other than that, I can honestly say I really enjoy the services and have been very happy with it. I am currently on the $74.99 plan to get all sports and HBO.

Also Just FYI, only use Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Nvidia Shield TV or your Playstation 4. Roku's interface for PS Vue sucks as it is no way close to par with the rest of the devices and is slow as hell.
 
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Sling has never met my 'bang-for-the-buck' requirement for what I want/like to watch.
 
Dish needs to die. Terrible company. Made my mother cry with their customer service. Sling never worked and they never fixed it.
 
I tried them all last year. The Sling interface was the worst. I decided it wasn't worth it to "save" $20 over cable bundle... which I hate, but if the Mrs doesn't get her HGTV / Food network / Golf channel fix easily, she gets super cranky.

If I could get internet only that didn't cost as much as a bundle, I'd probably flip a coin between Vue or DirecTV now. I think they both cost the same around $45 when you include locals channels and sales tax.

edit - does DirecTV now still not have a good DVR? Been reading about it. I guess PS Vue wins. Not that I'm using either of them. Why can't a 3rd party ISP roll out high speed internet...sigh. My choices are FIOS or Spectrum (TWC). Would I like expensive and excellent internet, or slightly less expensive and download caps / cable modem outage BS / etc. SIGHS
 
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No local channel availability in my region has kept me from switching to any of these. It’s a real shame. I’m over 50 miles from the stations.
 
pcgeekesq said:
Above? No, just different tastes and an intolerance for commercial interruptions.
I only watch 4K and Blu-Rays from my home library, 75% of which are Disney/Marvel/Pixar.
And I only watch them while eating dinner with my wife, 5 or so nights a week.

My 65" OLED will last forever (with no burn-in) at this rate. :)
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This response is kinda funny. Seems close to exactly what he was referencing ;).

I enjoy all of the major sports as well as some of the more unique channels that only cable and sat offer, but the main issue with any streaming service is the extremely poor quality audio. Sling checks nearly every box including regional sports channels, but I trialed it and it's unbearable to listen to the audio quality on a fairly nice home theater - low end stereo is completely unacceptable today. Netflix is streaming a decent quality version of Atmos yet they can't get DD5.1 on the live streams... Understand it's different but c'mon. Watching premium channels on stereo is painful. It's a service targeted at people with low end hardware and we are coming into an era where sat and cable are premium services and streaming is the cheap ass garbage.

So I pay around 4x the cost to have Comcast and get anxiety everytime I think about it...
 
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