You have to pay $40 per month for Sling TV, or even more if you want the premium bundle with all the channels; a price like that probably has you asking "is there a Sling TV free trial so I can test it before I pay that much?".
Sling TV is our highest-rated live TV streaming service; it lets you cut the cord and stream from a large list of cable channels over the internet. Sling offers loads of popular channels like CNN, the Discovery Channel, E!, FX, NBC and loads more depending on your plan, and we have a guide to the three Sling TV packages here.
The service costs less than Hulu with Live TV, Fubo, DirecTV or YouTube TV, and has a much larger channel list than the only cheaper alternative Philo TV. What's not to love?
A free trial would let you test out Sling TV without having to pay, so you can come to your own conclusion. Unfortunately, there isn't one... but new customers can still get a discounted first month which is the next best thing.
Sling TV offer for new customers — how it works
So, there's currently no Sling TV free trial but Sling has put in place an alternative offer, giving new customers $10 off the first month's subscription (so, $30, instead of the usual $40 monthly Sling TV price). Sling used to offer half price on your first month, but stopped in May 2023.
Just note:
- It's only available for new customers. So you can't have been a Sling subscriber, "Slingers," they call 'em, in the past and use that same email account to the sign-up offer.
- After your first month, you'll be billed for Sling every month at the standard price (unless you go online to cancel.)
- If you live in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay area, the price is actually $5 higher, to let you access local news channels.
Although the free trial has gone (for now at least), with this new offer you still get a whole month to try out the service for just $30. That's plenty of time to kick the tires, for a pretty reasonable price.
Even though you get a whole month to test the service, it's still worth making sure you plan your viewing — you don't want to sign up and pay for the offer and then not actually use it very much.
- How do you get the deal? Head to the Sling website for the 50% discount
What comes after that Sling TV offer period?
Once your reduced-price trial period has ended, it's time to pay up in full. How much you'll pay depends on what, exactly, you signed up for.
Sling TV packages come in two flavors — Orange and Blue. They cost $40 a month each and share some channels while keeping others exclusive to their own track. If that seems like it's Sling trying to get you to sign up for both the Orange and Blue plans, then you're right. And that'll cost you $55 a month for Sling Orange and Sling Blue — still less expensive than the two leading streaming services, YouTube TV vs. Hulu.
Once you've answered that basic question, it's time to really build out your Sling TV package with all the "Extras." Those are mini-bundles of channels that complete your experience — and start to get you as many channels as the competing services.
It's not a bad deal, really. Your first month for $30 and then the ability to (mostly) build your streaming package the way you want it. Don't care about news channels? Don't buy that Extra add-on. But you will want to keep an eye on how many of those add-ons you're adding on, because $6 here and $15 there and suddenly you're spending a lot more than you anticipated — and even more than you might be spending on one of the competing services that had those channels to begin with.
Does the Sling TV trial include live sports?
Yes! If you're taking advantage of the 50% off your first month offer, you'll most certainly be able to watch live sports. That includes all kinds of Major League Baseball as well as the NFL. If you want to watch Formula 1 online, you can do that with Sling TV, too.
The usual caveats to the way Sling TV does things still apply, though. You'll need to make sure the channels you want are on either the Sling Orange or Sling Blue plan — or you'll need to get both with your free trial. That's the other side of the coin when it comes to the way Sling does things. Yes, you have more control over the channels you're choosing — but that also means you need to make sure you're choosing the right packages.
What else comes with your Sling TV trial period
There's one more little feature of Sling TV that's worth a mention — the DVR service. The "digital video recorder" is sort of a misnomer these days, but what it means is that you're able to "record" shows for playback whenever you want. It's all cloud-based in this case — you're not actually recording anything on your phone or digital device — but the end result is that you can watch what you want when you want to watch it.
As standard, your Sling TV subscription comes with 50 hours of free DVR. That's a great way to make the most of all the shows and movies you might want to catch up on during your first month.
