After raising monthly rates for new subscribers earlier this year, Sling TV will institute the same price hike for existing subscribers starting in August.
The live streaming TV service has begun sending out emails to subscribers to alert them that their Sling Orange or Sling Blue package will soon cost $35 per month instead of $30. The company has pinned the price increase on rising content costs.
“Sling fights hard to keep your price low but programmers continue to charge us more for the content we deliver to you,” the company wrote in the email.
E-mail from @sling an hour ago says my Sling Orange streaming TV will go from $30 a month to $35 starting 8/26. The message blames all those greedy networks: "SLING fights hard to keep your price low but programmers continue to charge us more for the content we deliver to you."
— Rob Pegoraro (@robpegoraro) July 26, 2021
A Sling TV representative confirmed the upcoming price increases.
RELATED: Sling TV raises prices for new subscribers
In January, Sling TV raised prices by $5 per month for new subscribers, taking monthly rates up to $35 per month for the Sling Orange or Sling Blue packages, or $50 per month for customers who subscribe to both. At the time, a one-year price guarantee instituted in 2020 protected existing customers from the price increase through July 2021 as long as their existing subscription remained active.
With that price guarantee expiring soon, Sling TV is moving quickly to bring new and existing customer rates in line with each other.
Even at $35 per month, Sling TV is one of the lowest-priced options among U.S. virtual MVPDs. YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and fuboTV all start at $65 per month. Philo, which only offers entertainment channels with no live sports, recently raised its price to $25 per month.
In its email to subscribers, Sling TV touted some of the recent updates to its service. The company has increased DVR free storage from 10 hours to 50 hours for all customers and added the ability to pause live content. Sling TV has also launched a redesigned app—which recently arrived on Roku devices—and provides local channel integration into the Sling guide with Locast.