Sling is the cheapest way to get ESPN or Fox News without a cable box, and it has just been through a turbulent year: two brand-new $19.99 plans, the sudden end of its $4.99 day pass, and a Chapter 11 filing by its parent company. This guide explains what you actually get at each price, what Sling still leaves out, and which setup fits the way your household watches.
Key Answers Before You Sign Up or Renew
Sling’s lineup has been reshuffled enough this year that older guides are often wrong. These nine answers reflect what is on sale now.
As of mid-October: Essentials $19.99, Select $19.99, Essentials and Select together $34.99, Orange $45.99, Blue from $45.99, and Orange & Blue from $60.99. “From” matters: Blue and the combined plan can run $5 to $10 higher in markets where Sling carries local channels. Taxes are extra, and add-ons such as Sports Extra cost $11 to $15 more.
Orange and the new Essentials plan. Essentials gives you only ESPN and ESPN2 plus family channels, so it lacks ESPNU, ESPNews, the SEC Network and the ACC Network. Orange adds ESPN3 and a wider cable lineup, and SEC and ACC Network come only with the Sports Extra add-on. Blue and Select do not include ESPN.
Only partly. Local ABC, Fox and NBC appear in select markets on Blue, Select and the combined plans, and Orange has no locals at all. CBS is not offered anywhere. One tracker counted roughly 8 markets for ABC, 18 for Fox and 11 for NBC, but lineups change, so enter your ZIP code on Sling’s site. An indoor antenna fills the gap for free.
Essentials and Orange allow one stream. Blue and Select allow three. Essentials and Select together, and Orange & Blue, allow up to four, but only one Orange-exclusive channel such as ESPN can be watched at a time. A household with several sports viewers can hit that ceiling quickly.
There is no standing free trial; new-customer offers, such as a discounted first month, come and go. Sling’s own policy says there is no contract, your plan runs until the renewal date after you cancel, and refunds are not provided for prepaid or partial months. You can pause instead of cancelling.
It is gone. Sling launched Day, Weekend and Week Passes in August of last year, and in early October told customers that passes are no longer available. Disney and Warner Bros. had sued over them. A one-event viewer now needs a monthly plan, and the cheapest ESPN option is the $19.99 Essentials plan, which you can cancel afterward.
No evidence of that. Sling’s parent company’s satellite unit, DISH DBS, filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 on June 30, the court confirmed its plan on September 29, and it left bankruptcy on October 1. Sling and DISH TV kept operating throughout, and no changes to prices or plans were announced because of the exit. Sling’s subscriber count has been shrinking, though, and analysts expect the parent to consider selling or spinning off the TV assets.
Partly. Monday Night Football on ESPN comes with Orange or Essentials, and NFL Network is on Blue and Select. Sunday afternoon games on Fox and NBC appear only where Sling carries those local stations, and CBS games need an antenna. NFL RedZone comes with the Sports Extra add-on. For college football, ESPN, FS1 and, with Sports Extra, the SEC and ACC Networks cover most games.
YouTube TV’s main plan is $82.99 a month and includes local networks and unlimited DVR. Sling’s Orange & Blue at $60.99 is $22 cheaper, but add Sports Extra at $15 and the gap shrinks to $7 while Sling still lacks CBS and most locals. Sling wins on price only if you can live without those or use an antenna.
Every Plan, What Is Actually in It, and Who It Fits
Sling sells its lineup as two older families, Orange and Blue, and two new $19.99 slimmed-down packages, Essentials and Select, which are cut from Orange and Blue respectively. Understanding that lineage explains most of what each plan does and does not carry.
- ESPN and ESPN2
- Disney Channel, Freeform, Game Show Network
- 50 hours of cloud DVR
- No ESPNU, SEC or ACC Network
- No locals, no news, no Fox Sports
- Fox News, FS1, NFL Network
- National Geographic and more
- Local ABC, Fox, NBC in select markets
- No ESPN
- Both lineups in one bill
- Locals where Sling carries them
- $11 less than Orange alone, with different channels
- ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3
- TNT, TBS, CNN, AMC, HGTV, Food Network
- Disney Channel and Freeform
- No local channels at all
- Fox News, FS1, NFL Network, USA, Bravo
- Local NBC, Fox and ABC in select markets
- Three screens at once
- No ESPN, no CBS
- Everything in Orange and Blue
- ESPN and Fox News in one plan
- One Orange-only channel at a time
- Still no CBS, limited locals
Prices from Sling’s published rates as reported in mid-October and YouTube TV’s official page, before taxes and local-market surcharges. The $75.99 bar adds the $15 Sports Extra add-on to Orange & Blue.
When we laid the lineups side by side, the new Essentials and Select plans turned out to be the most interesting part of Sling’s rate card. Together they cost $34.99, which is $11 less than Orange alone, and they cover ESPN, Fox News, FS1 and NFL Network, the combination most sports-leaning households actually want. What you give up is breadth: no TNT or TBS, no HGTV or Food Network, and no ESPN3. Orange and Blue remain better if the household watches a lot of general cable.
Add-ons change the math, so read them before you pick. Sports Extra is $11 on a single plan and $15 on a combined one, and has been described as adding NFL RedZone, NBA TV, NHL Network and Golf Channel. News Extra is $6. Unlimited DVR is another $5 a month. A household that adds Sports Extra and Unlimited DVR to Orange & Blue pays $80.99, close to YouTube TV’s $82.99, and should compare lineups before assuming Sling is cheaper.
Side by Side: Channels, Screens and Locals for Each Plan
Price is only half the story. Streams, ESPN access and local channels differ plan by plan, and those three differences cause most of the disappointment.
| Plan | Price | Streams | ESPN | Fox News, FS1, NFL Network | Local ABC, Fox, NBC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $19.99 | 1 | ESPN and ESPN2 only | No | No |
| Select | $19.99 | 3 | No | Yes | Select markets |
| Essentials + Select | $34.99 | Up to 4 | ESPN and ESPN2 only | Yes | Select markets |
| Orange | $45.99 | 1 | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 | No | No |
| Blue | From $45.99 | 3 | No | Yes | Select markets |
| Orange & Blue | From $60.99 | Up to 4 | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 | Yes | Select markets |
On the combined plans, Sling says only one Orange-exclusive channel can be watched at a time, even though other channels can run on the other screens. In practice that means two people cannot watch two different ESPN games on separate devices. If your household splits between a football game and a basketball game on ESPN, plan on one of those viewers using an alternative, such as a separate service or an over-the-air broadcast.
What Changed This Year, and Why Older Guides Are Wrong
Four developments within a few months explain most of the confusion people report when they search for Sling.
Dates from Sling’s April press release, EchoStar filings as reported by trade press, and Sling’s own customer notice about passes.
New cheap plans. Sling Select arrived last year as a $19.99 slice of Blue, and Essentials followed on April 9 as a $19.99 slice of Orange. Together they made Sling the lowest-priced way to get ESPN and Fox News on a live service. Reviews that predate April may still tell you Orange is the cheapest ESPN route, and those are out of date.
The end of passes. Passes launched in August of last year at $4.99 for a day, $9.99 for three days and $14.99 for a week, giving Orange’s lineup to occasional viewers. Disney sued over them and Warner Bros. followed, and a court initially allowed them to continue. In early October Sling posted a notice that its passes are no longer available. Viewers who used them for a single game now have to buy a month, which is roughly four times what a day pass cost.
A parent in bankruptcy. EchoStar’s satellite unit, DISH DBS, which houses both DISH TV and Sling, filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 on June 30 as part of a restructuring tied to the wind-down of its wireless network. The court confirmed the plan on September 29, and DISH DBS exited on October 1 after cutting about $4.35 billion in debt, according to EchoStar’s filing as reported. The company said its customers would not be affected, and nothing we found indicates any change to Sling’s plans or prices as a result.
For now, nothing. Chapter 11 is a reorganization, and Sling stayed up for the entire case. The longer-term signal is a business in decline: Sling reported about 1.71 million subscribers at the end of June, down from a peak near 2.6 million around 2020, and observers expect EchoStar to consider selling or spinning off the TV assets. A new owner could change prices or packaging. That is a reason to stay month to month and avoid prepaying for months you may not use, not a reason to panic or cancel.
Find the Sling Plan That Fits Your Household
Choose what matters most and how many screens run at once. The finder suggests the cheapest plan that covers both.
Based on the plan prices and stream limits described on this page. Confirm local channels and the final price for your ZIP code at checkout.
Your Situation, Answered Plainly
People rarely search “Sling TV” out of curiosity. They do it because a game starts in an hour, a bill just arrived, or a headline about bankruptcy made them nervous. These are the moments we see most, with the move that costs the least.
Sling’s cancellation policy is simple and unforgiving. There is no contract and no cancellation fee, but you are billed in advance, your plan keeps running until the renewal date after you cancel, and the policy states that refunds are not provided for prepaid or partial months. The practical rule is to cancel right after your renewal charge goes through rather than the day before the next one, because you keep access either way. If you would rather keep your account, Sling lets you pause instead of cancel, though reports suggest recordings may disappear after a long pause.
Check where you subscribe. If you signed up through Roku, Apple, Amazon or Google, the cancellation has to happen in that platform’s subscription settings, not in Sling’s. Do it from the account that is actually being charged.
Be careful. While researching this page, we found several unofficial documents and pages, some hosted on sites unrelated to streaming, that present a phone number as Sling support and describe the cancellation process around it. We cannot verify that any of those numbers belong to Sling. Billing and cancellation help should come from sling.com’s own help center and your account page, or from the platform that bills you. Never give card numbers or account passwords to anyone who contacts you first, and if you have already called a number from an unfamiliar page, check your statements and contact your card issuer.
Sling can cover a lot of it, but not all of it. ESPN’s Monday Night Football comes with Orange or Essentials. NFL Network is on Blue and Select. Sunday afternoon Fox and NBC games appear only in the markets where Sling carries those stations, and CBS games are not available at all, so an indoor antenna is the fix for CBS. NFL RedZone comes with the Sports Extra add-on. Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market package, is sold elsewhere. For college football, ESPN, FS1 and, with Sports Extra, the SEC and ACC Networks carry most of the schedule.
The cheapest football-friendly combination we could build is Essentials and Select at $34.99 plus an antenna for the networks Sling lacks. If you also want RedZone, add $15 for Sports Extra, which brings the total to $49.99, still under Orange & Blue with its extras.
Local ABC, Fox and NBC appear on Sling only in select markets and only with Blue, Select and the combined plans. Orange has no locals. Large metros such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and San Francisco tend to have more of them, while smaller markets often get none. CBS is not offered anywhere on Sling. Enter your ZIP code on Sling’s channel page before you pay, and screenshot the result. If a station you need is missing, an inexpensive indoor antenna receives the major networks over the air for free, and you can pair it with a $19.99 Sling plan for cable channels.
That option ended in early October. The cheapest replacement is Essentials at $19.99 for ESPN, cancelled right after the event. Sling also offers Freestream, a free ad-supported tier with a selection of channels, which is worth trying if you only want background viewing. A one-month plan costs about four times what the old day pass did, so it is worth checking whether the game is also on a free broadcast network or an app you already pay for. Put the cancellation date in your calendar the day you sign up, because the price of forgetting is another $19.99.
Sling’s strength is a low floor. Select or Essentials at $19.99, or both at $34.99, is a fraction of a typical cable or satellite bill, and there is no equipment rental. We found no senior or AARP discount for Sling, so the savings come from choosing the smallest plan that covers what you watch. Remember the costs outside Sling’s rate card: you need reliable home broadband, a compatible TV or streaming stick, and an antenna if you want the networks Sling lacks. Avoid prepaying for several months, and watch for bill-change notices, since streaming prices have moved repeatedly.
Essentials and Orange allow one stream. Blue and Select allow three. The combined plans allow up to four, but only one Orange-exclusive channel at a time. A household where one person watches an ESPN game while another watches a different ESPN channel will hit the limit, no matter how many streams the plan advertises. If that is you, think about which viewers can move to Blue-side channels, an antenna or a second service, and test the arrangement during the first month before you commit to extras.
The evidence so far points the other way. EchoStar’s satellite unit filed on June 30 and exited on October 1 with Sling and DISH TV operating throughout. The more realistic risks are indirect: a sale to a new owner, new pricing, or programming disputes, as Disney’s lawsuit over passes showed. Protect yourself by staying month to month, keeping a backup option such as an antenna and a second service you could switch to, and avoiding multi-month prepayments. If Sling announces a change in ownership, read the notice before your next renewal.
Sling includes 50 hours of cloud DVR on its plans and offers an Unlimited DVR upgrade at $5 a month. That is far less than YouTube TV’s unlimited recording, and live sports that run long can consume hours quickly. Decide whether you need recordings before adding the upgrade; if you only watch live, skip it. Also know that a long pause can erase recordings, according to reports, so do not rely on a paused account to hold games you have not watched.
Sling is cheaper until you add what it lacks. YouTube TV’s main plan at $82.99 includes local networks including CBS and unlimited DVR, and its Sports Plan at $64.99 includes ESPN channels, locals and Golf Channel. Sling’s Orange & Blue with Sports Extra is $75.99, so the savings over YouTube TV’s main plan are only $7 and you lose CBS and most locals. If you can use an antenna and watch ESPN or Fox News mostly, Sling wins on price. If you want everything in one bill with locals, a bigger service is simpler.
Five Household Builds, Priced Over a Full Year
Monthly prices hide the real difference between a lean setup and a fuller one. Multiplying by twelve makes the choices easier to compare.
Our arithmetic from the monthly prices on this page, before taxes and local-market surcharges. Lean builds assume an antenna for the networks Sling lacks.
The solo sports fan. Essentials at $19.99 comes to $239.88 over a year. The same viewer on YouTube TV’s Sports Plan at $64.99 would pay $779.88, a gap of exactly $540. The Sling build gives up locals and the extra ESPN channels, which an antenna and a little flexibility can cover.
The couple who want football and news. Essentials plus Select is $419.88 a year. Moving to Orange & Blue with Sports Extra, at $75.99 a month, costs $911.88, which is $492 more. Whether that is worth it depends on whether you will actually watch TNT, TBS, HGTV and the other cable channels the bigger plan carries.
The busy family. Orange & Blue at $60.99 plus Unlimited DVR at $5 is $65.99 a month, or $791.88 over twelve months. YouTube TV’s main plan at $82.99 comes to $995.88, which is $204 more but includes CBS and the local networks and unlimited recording. For a family that depends on those, the bigger service may be the better value despite the sticker price.
Billing and Account Questions That Come Up Later
Why is my bill higher than the price I saw? Advertised Sling prices are base rates. Blue and the combined plan can cost $5 to $10 more in markets where Sling carries local channels, add-ons are extra, and taxes apply on top. Check the final screen before you confirm.
Are discounts and prepaid offers worth it? Sling has used first-month discounts and short prepaid plans, but offers come and go and a promotional price usually reverts to the regular rate. With the parent company recently out of bankruptcy and subscribers declining, we would be cautious about prepaying for several months. A discount that saves $15 is not worth tying up $100 you might want back.
What is Sling Freestream? It is a free, ad-supported service from Sling with a selection of channels and on-demand titles. It is not a substitute for a paid plan if you want ESPN or the cable networks, but it is a useful way to check how the apps look on your devices before you spend anything.
Who do I contact about a problem? Start with sling.com’s help center and your account page. If you subscribed through a device store, that store handles the billing and any refund requests, since Sling’s policy generally does not provide refunds for partial months.
Why Sling Splits Its Channels the Way It Does
Once you see the logic behind Orange and Blue, the lineup stops looking random.
Sling’s rate card follows its programming deals. Orange is built around Disney’s networks, which is why ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, the Disney Channel and Freeform live there, alongside cable staples from other programmers. Blue is built around Fox, NBC and a different set of cable owners, which is why Fox News, FS1, NFL Network and the local Fox and NBC stations sit on that side. The combined plan simply stacks the two. The new Essentials and Select plans are slices of each: Essentials is the Disney side trimmed to a dozen channels, and Select is the Fox and NBC side trimmed to its news and sports core.
That structure explains several things people find frustrating. It explains why ESPN and Fox News never appear in the same base plan, why the stream limit is lower on Orange than on Blue, and why the combined plan carries the caveat about one Orange-exclusive channel at a time. It also explains why the day pass drew lawsuits: the programmers had agreed to specific packages and price structures, and a $4.99 pass sat outside them.
For a buyer, the takeaway is to choose by owner as well as by channel. If most of what you watch comes from Disney’s networks, Orange or Essentials is where it lives. If it comes from Fox, NBC or the news networks, look at Blue or Select. If you are split down the middle, the combined plans make sense, and the gap between them and a bigger service shrinks quickly once you add extras. Reviewing your last month of viewing, and noting which network owned each show, takes ten minutes and is the best predictor of which plan you will stay happy with.
Seven Checks Before You Pay
Because Sling is flexible and its lineup is fragmented, a short routine prevents most regret.
Name the networks and the specific events. The plan that fits a list of five channels is usually obvious once it is written down.
Use Sling’s own channel lookup and screenshot what it shows. Markets differ, and Blue costs $5 to $10 more in some of them.
Remember the Orange-exclusive limit: only one ESPN-type channel at a time even on the combined plans.
Sports Extra is $11 or $15, News Extra is $6, and Unlimited DVR is $5. A plan that looks cheap on the page can end up next to a bigger service once these are on the bill.
Signing up on sling.com keeps cancellation in one place. If you use a streaming device’s store, you must cancel through that store.
With no trial and no refund for partial months, a forgotten renewal is the most common way to overpay.
An antenna covers the networks Sling lacks and protects you if a carriage dispute or ownership change disrupts a channel.
Which Sling Plan Fits Which Household
At $19.99 it is the lowest price for ESPN and ESPN2 on any live service. Use it for Monday Night Football and basketball, and accept one screen at a time and no ESPNU or SEC Network.
The best-value combination on the rate card at $34.99, with up to four streams. Pair it with an antenna for CBS and locals.
From $60.99, it has the widest Sling lineup and up to four streams. Add Sports Extra only if you will use RedZone, NBA TV, NHL Network or Golf Channel, and compare the total to YouTube TV before you commit.
Blue from $45.99 for a broad lineup and three screens, or Select at $19.99 for the essentials of news and NFL Network. Check your ZIP code for locals.
Sling has no CBS, limited locals and a smaller DVR. If those are essential, a bigger service such as YouTube TV is simpler, even at a higher price.
Our current prices come from reports dated mid-October that cite Sling’s own site, and Sling states that offers change frequently, so confirm at checkout. We could not verify Sling’s exact local-channel market list today; counts we cite come from a tracker and should be checked by ZIP code. We found no confirmation of any announced change to Sling’s plans because of the parent company’s restructuring, but that could change if ownership does. We also could not confirm how long recordings survive a pause, and the claim that they may be lost comes from older reporting.
How This Page Was Checked
We started with Sling’s own April announcement of Essentials and its published cancellation policy, then compared recent price tables and notices that cited sling.com, including those dated mid-October. We checked trade press and EchoStar-related reports for the Chapter 11 timeline and the end of Sling’s passes, and cross-read several channel-lineup guides to see where they disagreed.
Where sources differed, usually on local-channel counts and the exact Blue price in local markets, we used ranges and said so. The twelve-month costs, the price gaps against YouTube TV and the add-on totals are our own arithmetic from the published monthly prices, and any reader can reproduce them. Streaming prices and lineups change quickly; if a figure has moved since this page was reviewed, trust Sling’s own page over ours.
Prices and plan details reflect published or reported U.S. rates as of the date this page was last reviewed, before taxes, fees and local-market surcharges, and may change without notice. Channel lineups and local stations vary by ZIP code. This page is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Sling TV, EchoStar, DISH, Disney, ESPN, Fox, YouTube or any other company named. It is general consumer information, and you should confirm current terms with the provider before you subscribe.
Key sources: Sling TV press release and cancellation policy · EchoStar and DISH DBS filings as reported · The Desk · Cord Cutters News · Broadband TV News · YouTube TV plan pages