That headline poses a valid question. It’s one you’ll encounter more than once when researching Sling TV, because the live TV streaming service has a reputation for being subpar.
Let’s explore the reasons why Sling TV is so bad, from price increases to honest feedback from Sling TV customers.
Sling TV raises prices without improvements
Sling TV never misses a chance to raise prices. Since its debut in 2015, the service raised costs roughly every 18 months (most recently by $6.00 a month in December 2024)—but without improving the service.
Meanwhile, Sling TV has notable gaps in its channel offerings. It still lacks local channels in most markets and is the only live TV streaming service that doesn’t include unlimited Cloud DVR. And yet, Sling’s monthly price is 225% higher now than it was at the service’s inception.
How Sling TV could handle price hikes better
If you’re gonna raise prices, add value. Add channels. Beef up the on-demand library. Offer free unlimited Cloud DVR (I complain about this next).
“[Sling TV’s] pricing seems to be increasing constantly, which makes me dislike the streaming service . . . I have considered switching.”
Sling TV doesn’t have a proper free trial
Every other live TV streaming service offers a free trial, but Sling TV does things differently. In lieu of a trial, you get Sling Freestream: A free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) service like Pluto TV and Tubi.
Sling Freestream has a lot to watch, including 600+ live TV channels and 5,000 on-demand movies and shows (with a 10-hour Cloud DVR on the side). Plus, you access everything via the same Sling TV app. So Sling Freestream is a trial of sorts; you just don’t get to try the actual Sling TV package you’re eyeing.
Now I’ll explain why that’s bad, borrowing from my article “Does Sling TV Have a Free Trial?”:
“If you’re gonna let customers test drive [Sling TV], why not let ‘em use the actual product they’re thinking of buying? It’s like if Baskin-Robbins offered you a taste of vanilla ice cream when you’re really interested in chocolate chip: You can’t imagine the chips—and the flavor you want is in the next tub over, anyway.”
How Sling TV’s free trial could be better
Just offer a real free trial, okay, Sling TV?
Sling TV paywalls unlimited Cloud DVR
Every live TV streaming service includes unlimited Cloud DVR—except Sling TV. Instead, you get 50 hours free with the option to upgrade to unlimited storage for $5.00 more per month.
Since most of us can’t fit all we wanna watch into 50 hours, it feels like a forced upgrade or a sneaky price increase. Stream with DIRECTV used to do something similar (20 hours free, unlimited for $10.00 extra), and even they stopped—but DIRECTV loves charging hidden fees.
How Sling TV Cloud DVR could be better
Sling has reliability issues impacting user experience
It seems like there’s always some technical issue with Sling TV. Pop into the r/slingtv subreddit and you’ll find complaints from the past two weeks about internet connection problems, DVR issues, and difficulties with Sling.com. My coworker reports having problems with the site as I write this.
And here are some comments about Sling TV from our 2025 customer satisfaction survey:
- “Not very reliable or effective.” — Mattie C., Colorado
- “Horrible guide issues on a daily basis.” — Aaron S., Florida
- “They sometimes have low quality and take a long time to fix it.” — Eli S., South Carolina
- “Poor content selection, buggy programming, misleading content that is not as described.” — Melinda Q., New York
Sling TV has local channels—but only in select markets
One of the primary reasons to have a live TV streaming service is to access your local channels, along with all the homegrown news and sports they offer (not to mention first-run, major-network TV series). Unfortunately, Sling TV offers limited local channels (ABC, FOX, and NBC) in select markets only.
If you don’t live in one of these areas, you’ll need to get your local channels another way, like through an over-the-air (OTA) TV antenna. That’s not awful news, since antennas are inexpensive (the Mohu Leaf is only $40–$50) and many TVs already have them built-in.
Pro tip: A drawback to OTA antennas, however, is you can’t access the local channels within the Sling TV app without an AirTV 2 or AirTV Anywhere device; you’ll need to switch to a different TV input. Also, you won’t be able to set DVR recordings for those channels.
How Sling TV local channels could be better
I’d like to say, “Come on, Sling TV—give us those local channels!” It’s not that simple, though. Those local broadcast affiliate rights don’t come cheap.
Licensing fees are why you see cable and satellite TV providers charging broadcast TV fees (or, in DIRECTV’s case, a local channels fee), and why other live TV streaming services like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV have higher pricing.
What’s more, not having to pay these fees is why Sling TV packages are so affordable. And there’s definitely a market for live TV streaming services without local channels—see Philo and Frndly TV, the two top-rated services in our customer satisfaction survey. So Sling TV doesn’t necessarily have to change on this count.
Speaking of the survey, Sling TV didn’t fare so well. Let’s see why Sling TV customers think the service is bad.
“They do not have local channels, but they do have the other channels that I need.”
Why Sling TV customers think Sling TV is bad
As a streaming TV expert, I can tell you that Sling TV is not ideal, but there’s another source you should hear from: Sling TV customers.
Every year, we survey thousands of real customers to see how they rate their live TV streaming services. Sling TV didn’t fare well in the last two surveys.
In 2024, the service had the lowest rating (57%) in overall satisfaction. Even more telling is that Sling TV had the lowest or second-lowest scores on almost the entire survey (11 of 14 questions) in 2024.
And in the 2025 survey, Sling TV improved somewhat, with the third-lowest rating (75%) in overall satisfaction. That would be great if not for Sling TV’s lowest/second-lowest scores on 17 of 21 questions—again, that’s nearly the entire survey.
This data led us to a conclusion that definitively answers the question, “Why Is Sling TV So Bad?” As I wrote in the survey wrap-up:
“Sling TV customers are more disenchanted with the service in 2025. Last year, customers complained about Sling TV’s channel offerings, app interface, and overall reliability. This year, the complaints grew to include user experience, streaming quality, Cloud DVR, channel guide, and price… [Ultimately], Sling fails to provide a cohesive service or even improve its product.”
“They aren't as good as when we first signed up, but my husband likes it and pays the bill, so we keep it. If it were up to me, I would cancel.”
Why you should trust our Sling TV opinion
Our TV experts have spent hundreds of hours using Sling TV and competing live TV streaming services. With hands-on experience and rigorous research, we’ve evaluated Sling TV, focusing on channels, on-demand content, features, user experience, and value. All recommendations and insights come from our firsthand experience and testing, which we cross-referenced with CableTV.com’s existing live TV streaming service coverage.
Check out our How We Rank page to learn more about our methods.
