Echostar’s streaming service Sling TV is hoping to win over sports fans with a new low-cost offering that unlocks access to ESPN and a few other sports channels for a short period of time.
On Tuesday, Sling TV announced the launch of a new “Day Pass” structure that unlocks its base subscription package Sling Orange for $5 per day or $15 per week, with a weekend pass also available that grants access to Sling Orange channels from Friday morning through Sunday evening for $10.
The passes target sports fans who don’t want to pay a higher monthly fee for Sling Orange, which starts at $46 per month but can be more expensive in parts of the country where Disney owns the local ABC station.
Most sports fans who feel streaming TV plans are too costly have grown accustom to using pirate websites to watch live events on a one-off basis — even highly-paid NBA superstars are known to do this on occasion — and asking them to pay $5 per day or $15 per week for something they already receive for free could be a hard ask, even if those free sports streaming sites operate illegally.
Still, Echostar is taking its shot — and for a good reason. For years, Echostar has worked to turn around its pay TV businesses (including satellite provider Dish Network), which have struggled with ongoing churn. The two products lost a collective 289,000 pay TV subscribers during its most-recent financial quarter; Sling TV now serves around 1.785 million customers.
Sling TV was one of the first streaming cable alternatives to offer slimmer packages of channels at lower prices, which cost just $20 per month when it launched a decade ago. Over time, Dish and Sling have been forced to raise prices, and the companies have faced aggressive competition from other pay TV brands like Charter’s Spectrum TV and DirecTV, which offer differentiated channel packages at lower prices and include access to ad-supported streaming apps like Hulu, HBO Max and Disney Plus.
In a statement on Tuesday, a Sling TV executive said the new day and week passes were “about putting control back in the hands of the fans, whether it’s tuning in for college football, professional sports, award shows or a spontaneous movie night, all without having to sign a long-term, binding contract.”
“With college football just around the corner, our new Day Pass offering is all consumers need to win on game day, for just $4.99,” affirmed Seth Van Sickel, Sling TV’s Senior Vice President of Product and Operations.
Notably, the new day and week passes are missing a few features: The plans are only available on Sling Orange, which means customers who want to watch Fox Sports, NBC Sports and the NFL Network are out of luck, since those are relegated to the platform’s other base package, Sling Blue. Other channels like NFL RedZone and NBA TV are available to day and week pass holders, but Sling charges extra fees to access the networks through add-on packages.
