Live TV streaming service increases prices and adds Fox News, MSNBC to its lineup

Live TV streaming service increases prices and adds Fox News, MSNBC to its lineup
© Henadzi Pechan | Dreamstime.com

The main reason most cord-cutters left cable or satellite TV to begin with was to save money. There’s just no reason to spend up to a couple hundred bucks each month to watch TV when there are excellent streaming services out there that cost a fraction of the price.

Most people decided to go with an on-demand service or two like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video to fill their entertainment needs. Tap or click here to see which on-demand streaming service is the best.

But others still want to watch live TV and that’s OK. There are plenty of live-streaming options out there. The problem is, some of those streaming services keep jacking up prices and it’s getting to the point where cord-cutters might not be saving money at all. At least not like they used to.

Sling TV is raising prices…again!

Sling TV announced it is raising prices on customers yet again. The company hiked the price of its Sling Orange package last year from $20 per month to $25.

Now, both of Sling’s base packages are going up another $5 per month. Starting immediately, new customers will have to pay $30 for Sling Orange or Sling Blue. The combo subscription of both Orange and Blue is going up to $45 per month, from $40.

Existing customers will see the change on their next bill after Jan. 22, 2020.

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Passing the buck

The Executive Vice President addressed why prices are rising.

Sling doesn’t own the networks you watch — we have to pay programmers for their channels so that we can provide them to you, and the price of programming has been going up.

– Warren Schlichting

He continued, explaining they “have to share those rising prices” with users to continue providing the “same great experience.”

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Schlichting added customers will be getting more channels after the rate hike. Sling is adding Fox News, MSNBC and HLN to its current lineup of channels.

Also, Sling customers will receive 10 hours of Cloud DVR storage for no additional cost. You can pay $5 per month for Cloud DVR Plus, which lets you record up to 50 hours of content and you can keep them as long as you’re a Sling customer.

Sling isn’t the only streaming service to raise prices in 2019. AT&T TV Now, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV customers have all seen relatively significant price hikes this year.

This is not a great trend for cord-cutters. As of now, you can still save some money by getting rid of cable, but for how much longer? We’ll have to wait and see what 2020 brings.

Tags: Amazon, streaming services, video, YouTube