Sling just put YouTube TV on notice with $5 live TV streaming

Streaming live TV is rapidly gaining popularity, with services like YouTube TV, Fubo, Hulu+ Live TV, and Sling TV drawing many cord-cutters. Usually, these platforms offer monthly plans to watch their live TV channels. However, Sling TV has decided to shake things up.

Sling TV has announced the introduction of a new $5 “Day Pass” for its live TV streaming service, which will allow users to watch select channels for 24 hours. So, if you want to catch a specific baseball or football game, or watch a certain award show, this is essentially a way to do that without having to commit to and pay for a monthly subscription.

Besides its Day Pass, Sling TV is also launching a $10 Weekend Pass, which allows you to stream for an entire weekend (Friday to Sunday), and a $15 Week Pass, which provides seven days of access to Sling TV.

“This launch is 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,” said Seth Van Sickel, Senior Vice President, Product and Operations, Sling TV, in a press release.

Sling TV’s new passes include its “popular networks”

There are over 30 live TV channels available

Sling TV / Pocket-lint

If you’re wondering what channels are actually included in all three of Sling TV’s new passes, they’re the “popular networks” featured in Sling TV’s Orange subscription, such as ESPN, ESPN2, A&E, Disney Channel, Comedy Central, and CNN. In total, Sling TV’s Orange plan has over 30 live channels, which the passes also have access to.

Sling TV’s standard Orange Plan costs $46 per month, which works out to approximately $1.53 per day. The $5 Day Pass for Sling TV is more expensive, but it offers the convenience of not having to pay for an entire month if you only want to watch one show or event.

Additionally, to access a channel outside Sling TV’s pass selection, you can purchase add-ons such as Sports Extra and News Extra. Each add-on costs an additional $1 with the Day Pass, $2 with the Weekend Pass, and $3 with the Week Pass.

Personally, I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of a day pass or weekend pass to access a live TV streaming service. There are a few times a year when I want to watch one big event on TV, like the World Series, Stanley Cup, and the Oscars, and something like Sling TV’s Day Pass would be a cheap and convenient way to do it without paying monthly for a streaming service, like YouTube TV. What I’m really wondering now is if more streaming services will adopt Sling TV’s approach here and introduce their own day passes or weekend passes.

In other TV streaming news, ESPN is set to launch its new live TV streaming service on August 21 for $30 a month, and a bundle offer with Fox One will be available on October 2 for $40 a month.