Sling: Live TV, Sports & News Reviews

by Pgsus

I had this app for a month and a half. The first two weeks it was great then it started being glitchy. One day it completely stopped functioning, the little thinking wheel just kept turning and nothing was happening. I tried everything I reset my device, my internet, rest my account downloaded Sling three more times , etc etc. I called customer service they told me to do everything I’ve already done which was fine, then they tell me there must be an update on Sling that they need to look into so they have to escalate the matter to the engineering department. I said ok sure thinking it will be fixed maybe later in the day or next day. I called again after 3 days still same answer. A week later I’m getting frustrated because there is no follow up on their end and Sling still doesn’t work. I call to cancel and was hoping like any other professional and ethical company that cares about their customers and customer satisfaction they would compensate me but they said the couldn’t unfortunately but can remove any new charges to my account. I was appalled!!! How can you ask a customer to pay for a service that isn’t working? It wasn’t about the money it was more about the principle. Oh and that was me talking to the manager who apparently has no authority to do anything. Unprofessional and extremely disappointing!!! Will never use them ever again.

by Kegangowens

this app tv advertises that they have the movie “Malignant” when I couldn’t find it I asked for a refund. An agent told me they could help me with that, then asked why I wanted a refund. When I explained the situation they looked in to it and I was told I needed. To get the “con tv” channel. Sense I wanted to see the movie I decided do that. After spending more money on the con tv channel I sat down to watch the movie only to find out that the movie that played was not the movie advertised. Different actors, different story, they just threw the cover are from “Malignant” on a different movie and falsely advertised ad having it available. When I tried again talking to a this app tv representative I was told they don’t to refunds, and beyond that he said that it’s not there fault that their con tv channel was Mis advertising the movie, and do was this app tv. Now not only did I not get the refund I was lead to believe id get from the first agent but I also spent more money on the channel the told me I’d be able to watch the movie on. Most important though this app tv is false advertising “Malignant.” How many other movie do the advertise falsely? How much money do they get from people because of these false advertisements, and then just say, nope no refunds? How much money is the actual movie “malignant” (and probably other movies) missing out on because of this app tv’s false advertising?

by Bella Serenity

To say I’m disappointed is an understatement, especially after paying for a subscription!!
There were shows that I wanted to watch that I was able to through other apps, but not all episodes...so I thought ok, based off of other reviews and other family/friends experiences, what the heck....Sling STINKS!!! or the subscription, I don’t know! The amount of times that I spend, shutting down, all apps, my phone, the TV, etc (and yes, not that it matters but, I do have a new iPhone 11Pro Max...) it connects MAYBE 25% of the time and even then it doesn’t always stay connected, if I have to pause the show to (ya know, have a life for a moment) and hit resume, IT RESTARTS THE SHOW!!! Then, when I try and skip ahead back to where I was, it freezes, and says, oops, UNABLE TO CONNECT, AGAIN!!!! I spend more time trying to connect and get back to my show than I do actually get to enjoy watching my show (and I’m talking 60 min long shows) I don’t think I’ll be paying for another month. It’s not worth the hassle, great idea, but I’m so beyond disappointed and frustrated that it’s not worth my time or my money (PLUS, even after paying, I still have to watch commercials...so why?!?! What’s the point?! There isn’t!!)

Nice try, but, bye-bye this app...you’ve let me down and I would NOT recommend to ANYONE!

by Dutchgirlmel

Your on demand programs crash and won’t cast to the TV, and in spite of several attempts via customer service to escalate the matter to get them resolved, after nearly a month, nothing has been resolved - even with proper error codes provided. To make matters worse, your customer service department says that you don’t credit back for the services you have failed to provide. This is INCREDIBLY unethical when a customer signs up in good faith to get a service and the provider fails to correct a problem, then adds insult to injury by saying they can’t credit back anything! The worst part of all is that I paid for your service unawares for 3 YEARS and never once used it until I researched charges on my bank account, and in good faith decided to try it out anyways - without complaint - and even upgraded the service to add STARZ and it doesn’t even stream on-demand without error codes and crashes (I never have gotten to watch a single on-demand show to it’s end). On-demand is the only reason I want this service to begin with, and your company simply can’t provide it- as is evidenced by bad review after bad review on Apple’s App Store! Your so-called customer service reps keep saying “sorry, but there are no refunds” and nothing ever gets fixed. What kind of business are you running there? This is outrageous!

by Java Learner

They sell fast and sell aggressively but provide no good support compared toother streaming services, i have tried all of them but this app is the worst. There is t any option to give lower than 1 star here. I like to watch live cricket matches. There was an offer where you can buy Annual Willow tv package for little cheaper. So i bought it. After few days i realized Willow tv was not showing the live match. Instead it was showing some old match highlights. And then i saw bottom message that as per willow tv and this app tv partnership they cannot show the live match. Then, the willow tv on this app is showing different matches than you take Original Willow Tv subscription from their website. This is misleading. When i contact them to discontinue subscription after 3 days. I asked i can remain subscribed for this month but i dont need Annual package. They said you can not discontinue Annual package.
WILLOW TV CHANNEL AND WILLOW TV ON this app SHOWS DIFFERENT PROGRAMS SO DONT GET ATTRACTED TO CHEAPER PACKAGES, YOU WILL BE STUCKED. Suppose tv streaming company tells you about new offer where you can watch HBO channel for $10 a month. You would buy it and then you realize that HBO channel showing old programs. How would you feel?

by Snmvogue

I use SlingTv with my smart tv and I must say that this has been a horrible experience. I attempted to call the customer service number for troubleshooting and the service professionals were extremely dismissive about the glitches that I detailed. When watching any program that has commercials, be prepared to be interrupted with 2 minute buffer and blackout periods. This is such an inconvenience as it subtracts from being able to have a seamless viewing experience. By the time that the program returns from the blackout/commercial break I’m completely exhausted and lost about what I was watching and where I left off. I would be far more satisfied if this app would fix this issue. If I must be subjected to commercials, they should play from beginning to end without stopping and starting then blacking out for two minutes before returning to the program. It’s exhausting and often times I’ve fallen asleep simply because the tv blacked out for so long! It’s very frustrating and the this app representatives were unhelpful and unwilling to offer any sort of compensation for this issue even though I’d only had the service for 2 days. I feel like I’ve been ripped off and I will not stop until my voice is heard!

by Momo*

We recently downloaded this app as an alternative to cable. I am a big fan of watching shows on demand and I am initially disappointed by the lack of episodes available for the shows. It looks like there’s a lot to offer by seeing the shows, but once you see the amount of episodes we kind of felt a little put off. Additionally, the shows are constantly buffering, constant ads throughout, and when there are ads, the episodes skip through so a 20 min show is really like 10 minutes of the actual show and another 10 of ads. If I try to rewind it to see the parts it skips over, it makes me watch more ads and will crash. It doesn’t cast well to the tv and we have Sling installed in our other television and it is a little bit less glitchy when watching “live” tv, but the on demand is still not that great. Additionally, we cannot watch live football even though it says we are supposed to. Going to have to look into other services, this has been pretty disappointing because it just looks so so promising and good on paper.

by Bartolomundo

I have subscribed to this app off and on for the last 5 years and though I like the service generally I hate the new interface! The greatest advantage to this app over it’s competitors apps was that you could search the guide at the bottom of the screen while watching something without disrupting the continuity of what you are watching. The new interface, however, makes this very difficult. It takes forever to scroll through the grid guide because of ‘visual enhancements’ to schedule data and now half the screen is filled with visual content (on Apple TV) that is redundant and unnecessary. Please return to your standard TV Guide-style grid and get rid of all this extraneous content. Also, make it easier to switch back to the last channel you watched. And, keep the guide preference (All, Favorites, Movies, Sports, etc.) locked until manually changed by the user. I am constantly having to move between screens now just to see what else is on. And, sometimes I lose streaming while trying to check to guide (which never happened with your easier, more stream-lined and more user-friendly older app). Change is NOT always better! And, if something is NOT BROKEN, DON’T ‘FIX’ IT! You had the best streaming app for user-friendliness and accessibility and you screwed it all up!

by Commercial-free Guy

I like convenience of this app. I can run it on multiple devices simultaneously and it works great... well, when it does. However, the biggest annoyance I’m experiencing with constant advertising. It seems that 99% of the time, when I start live streaming, I’m getting 5 min. of commercials staring away. At first I thought it was just coincidental, but after using this service for several months, I can see a clear pattern. Also, commercials would continue popping up and you can’t even escape from them when watching archives. Today, I started CNN live and was presented with 3 min. of commercials right away, then there was a small 2 min. segment of CNN programming, and then it went back to commercials again. This is ridiculous. I’m sure this app people would dismiss it by saying that they are running the channel normally and commercials are being delivered as scheduled. But, my experience begs the difference. I’ll be probably canceling my service in the near future in favor of commercial-free services like Netflix. In the meantime, I’ll mute the sound and go do something else while commercials are being played. Those practices are very unfair, especially if you are a paying customer. At least, others would let you opt out of commercials for a bit extra money. Not this app.

by Illgmkeanedu

.Vue went away. Fubo is FUBAR (the one good thing about it being that I was finally able to make my own profile, then star channels in the order I want them in the guide.) I'd like to try Dish but like this app, it appears to be missing a particular crucial channel, somehow. I mean, what year is this? It shouldn't be too much to ask to have ONE perfect service with every channel that isn't an intelligence-insulting ripoff. You'd have all the customers. That I can't create my own profile, login on the site, arrange a custom channel list in my desired order, and save it, is disgustingly prehistoric at this point. I've got a list of about 116 channels, of which none should be missing from a service; don't you want the widest, largest audience possible? (Note: I cut out all the boring news, sports, etc. I should be able to choose the ones I want.) Also? You should be able to watch while scrolling. The guide boxes should include as much text (episode titles, descriptions, etc.) as reasonably possible. It's probably best to see a highlighted channel's program info at the top of the screen so that only one click is needed to select it.
I guess it'd just be a miracle for the free over-the-air channels (with the vastly superior guide) to be able to be added in with the rest instead of having to be separate.

by NYXAQ

I have had Sling for a couple of months... it’s been a rather inexpensive choice to gain some access to channels that don’t yet have a live TV subscription from their standalone apps. That’s about the only good thing with Sling.

Almost always, Sling will crash within a minute of first starting Sling . The guide does not allow you to keep a program playing in the background while you browse the guide for future showtimes. If you tune to a channel towards the end of an hour and a show is starting at the top, you cannot tune into the live channel and have to wait for the live broadcast to catch up to the guide. If you set up “my channels” the guide resets at some unknown interval, but quite frequently. You always have to set it again to just see your preferred channels. Programs often freeze and buffer.

I stuck around this long just because I had enough tolerance and wanted some live news channels through the end of the year. But I will be checking out other platforms even if the cost a bit more to avoid the frustrations.

by Briannajoy248

The concept of this app is great. An app that allows you to watch your favorite shows live and on demand, where ever and when ever, without all the equipment, hidden fees and insane contracts that regular cable a satellite providers are know for. It's a great concept, if this app was able to deliver. They don't though. There's still many channels that this app doesn't offer, like spike and TLC. They also don't offer the big channels like CBS,NBC, ABC, Fox, etc. The on demand shows rarely work, Sling usually crashes. Often times it will crash in the middle or towards the end of a show, and the only way to ever see the end is to restart it from the beginning and pray you make it to the end before it crashes again. There are symbols that you'd assume were fast forward/rewind/pause buttons, but they don't do anything when you press them. Sometimes the pause button works, but Sling crashes when you try to resume. So if Sling crashes 5 minutes before the end of your show, you can either restart it from the beginning, or move on with your life and never see the ending. Take my advice, spend the extra money and go with a provider like dish or direct TV. this app may be cheaper, but it's not worth $20-$40 a month considering it barely works. Spend the extra money of a different tv provider, at least their products and services function properly and you get all the channels you want and not just a few.

by Lg....

I love the concept of Sling and didn’t mind the minor issues. This recent update stopped the revolving favorites list, which I appreciate.
Unfortunately, this update has made Sling almost useless. It’s continually glitching up. In the shows with limited functionality you could generally go back if it skipped over something, no longer. It stops playing video, but continues playing sound and Sling must be closed to sink them. I thought perhaps it was the channels I was watching. So today two hours ago I tried to finish 17 minutes of one show on a less stable channel, watch a 23 minute show on a fairly stable channel, and watch a 45 minute show on a very stable channel. As of now I managed to finish with difficulty the first show, not get past the preview to the second show, and some where between 15 and 20 into the third show. It glitched up again, so I decided to review Sling .
If this is not fixed soon, I will likely have to cancel my subscription. I did give it three stars because until two days ago, it was a pretty good app.

by D9

The levels of channels, packages and device options at such a reasonable price makes SlingTV the service wonderful. However, it’s application solutions on every device (smartphone, Apple TV, web) hav such difficult and poorly performing user experience as to make it laborious to even want to use. The channel selection, the navigation, the program guide, and even the program options are just poorly thought out and weak. You can select favorite channels, but this app app will never return to this custom list upon each app launch...you have to manually select it again as your guide preferences on each visit. Filters often don’t fully deliver their selection...I can choose Movies and be shown three movies, but select all channels and you’ll see 7 or 8 movies are available. There are no last channel options or channel range selection. The use of pull down or drag up dialog windows (like program info) is often hit-or-miss in working...it can take several swipes to get the intended action to occur.

Again, great streaming service is countered by such a poor user experience and interface as to make you seek alternatives.

by Kmgjjr0510

I don’t normally write reviews but after being a paying customer for over a year I’m about done with this app. Don’t dare try to watch anything on demand. Sling constantly crashes especially if you’re using your cellphone. Doesn’t matter if you have the greatest cellphone provider along with WiFi just don’t even bother because you’re not going to be able to watch an entire show no matter what. It typically crashes towards the middle to end so if you want to watch anything you’re better off dvr’ing it and then watching it on a smart tv or Xbox. It’s a joke honestly. Unfortunately for us where we live we don’t get very many options as far as cable providers and WiFi providers. If this app doesn’t up their game we will be switching to direct tv now. Only reason I haven’t switched is because this app is the provider my autistic children have been raised on and big changes like that make for weeks of meltdowns. So frustrating when you pay for a service and get less than 1/2 of what you’re paying for. It’s like buying a bag of chips. You pay for more air than actual food.

by Mdriftda

I just recently switched to this app TV from DIRECTV in order to save cost every month. The one thing I will say is that when playing back episodes on A&E the screen tends to freeze and the video stops playing all the audio continues this happens a lot I have to restart Sling to get it to come back I reinstalled Sling a few times as well but it still happening not sure if it’s the one episode or if it’s a continuous issue I will update for sure but the developer may need to look at their on-demand video playback. The other thing that’s a little frustrating is that I can’t use my this app login on A&E to watch videos on their app since their app has no problems. I’m guessing more so this is a cable company contract a conundrum then something that this app has control over but it would be nice if I could use my this app cable subscription to login to all of the channels apps as well just like I used to with DIRECTV. I will also say that slings mobile app is much better than DIRECTV which has got to be one of the worst in the business

by Szana1951

Oh my gosh ...when this app first came out I wasn’t very happy, I told em an I canceled ...then sometime later they actually sent me an invite to give em a try again & I did an I was impressed😬...now I been back for a while, but didn’t realize I hadn’t updated my review/comment & I feel bad...cuz they have grown WONDERFUL, I have ZERO complaints! for an App they have a good TV an movie selection that changes & rotates, yes there r some commercials but I don’t mind ...this app is not the big name cable company (thank god🙄), & if ya can afford THEM then more power to ya, I can’t, I love the History Channel an I can access w/ this app that’s my big happy...also their viewing selection is a nice buffet it’s great for me also an included w/ price is “💯” hours of record time I LOVE IT the whole
“30 buck” pkg is perfect for me, disabled, SSI, an all I have to view on is an IPad...it’s GREAT and even better I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS😂
SO Thank You this app
PS
I have Apple iPhone an iPad I have ZERO connection problems Apple has this app app for iPad an that’s shared to my iPhone ..once in awhile the only problems I ever have has been w/ Cox WiFi that I been stuck having to use an that’s been once in awhile I tex em they fix it

by RCRussell

So far, my family and I are really enjoying this service. In my line of work, there can be times where there is absolutely no work and so I have the time to watch a show or two. While there are a few glitches while watching, I hardly ever come across these issues. For what it is as a whole, I couldn’t be happier with this service. I know there are a bunch of negative reviews, but honestly I think there might be something wrong on their end of the spectrum. As with any company there is always room for improvement on quality. Besides the rare glitch that I have noticed, I have no issue with this service as I have had with certain cable companies that charge the hell out of their customers. We don’t even have upgrade channels and still paying almost $200 a month. Keep up the good work this app.

by Luuvsydd

I really love this app. I hated cable because I didn’t get the shows I wanted without paying more money. I don’t want sports so I can select not having that package and costing more when basic cable packages usually included a majority sports. I love being able to have my reality tv shows for only $5 more a month. That’s well worth it when cable was $20+ for nearly not as many channels.
I also like I can stop and start this subscription easier than cable. I’m in my 20s and have months where I’m barely at home or I’m at home constantly. Being able to start and stop without hassle is the best.
I also like being able to watch all my shows in one place instead of jumping from app to app like cable companies often require.
One thing I would like to see is a more refined search, kind of like categories on Netflix. The On Demand section, but with a little more defined categories that show ALL the available on demand movies or shows, not in the categories this app creates.

by Chinese Guy 100

I enjoy watching ESPN, CNN, HGTV, and a few other channels of this app TV. Although there is limited number of channels with either the (basic) Orange package or Blue Package and given me lack of time to watch a lot of channels, this $35 a month value is well worth it. You can also bounce back and forth at any time of the month between the Blue Package (NFL network, USA, Fox Sports 1, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, USA, HGTV but not have ESPN/Disney channel) and the Orange Package (ESPN 1/2/3, HGTV, CNN, Disney, but not have NFL network, USA, MSNBC, Fox News, and Fox Sports 1 channels). The other downside is you have to rely on internet connection. I do not experience too much “buffer” issues due to internet issues. You can also add-on channels to your basic package like for children, sports, Cantonese, Spanish, Christian channels, comedy, and so on starting at $3/mo to like $15/mo. I highly recommend this cable streaming app and it is tremendously an impressive alternative to paying hefty cable/satellite bills like over $100/mo from Comcast or Direct TV. I think there is a 3 day free trial for this app tv, which I did try out.

by Tall Drink Of Sailor

I’m reporting inconsistency on Sling on all platforms be it apple, Samsung tv, or google play store. Here’s my issue. First of all the system won’t let me record a specific program. That program being any Formula 1 race. I can record almost everything else I want except for F1. I have to watch it as a past program only if I don’t catch it live. Doing this prevents me from fast forwarding. Normally I would be ok with this but the “resume” feature does not work @ all! So if I pause or exit the stream that I’m in the program will start itself over every time no matter which device I start or resume from. This is obviously frustrating not to mention how sluggish & unresponsive the commands are from my remote ...& it not my tv cause every other app works fine & does not crash nearly as much. I deleted all unnecessary data & have everything set to auto update & it’s still glitchy. As of right now I regret paying for this app TV. I hope they can fix this because they have a good thing that could easily turn customers away to other platforms if they don’t fix this.

by Bound4Pleasure

I like the idea of this app and I like the service WHEN it works! Was better in beginning but worse for last couple of months, and always well below ideal. There’s the frequent rebooting and streaming lags. Last couple months app will start recording 30 mins into a one hour show. Very frustrating!! But the WORST thing is that recorded shows almost NEVER play back on Chromecast and often won’t play back on Firestick. I occasionally watch content on my phone when on the move. But who wants to watch all of their recorded shows that way just because it won’t play back on big screen via chromecast/fire stick (because the service they paid for won’t perform as advertised)! this app, do whatever is necessary to make your app actually work with Chromecast and Fire Stick, or at least honestly advertise that these platforms will likely not work.

Customer service is completely useless and apparently only there for appearances, and all of the many negative reviews doesn’t seem to bother this app at all.
As a last resort I’m hoping this app responds to my review and makes a good faith effort to improve situation. If so I will change my rating &review. If not I will dump this app like radioactive waste!
Sadly I won’t hold my breath.

by Bama52

this app has great potential, and with some improvements, it could be a great app. The improvements needed would include PiP. As far as I know, this app is the only streaming app that does not take advantage of PiP used with the iPad. Therefore, I have to shut Sling down when I need to check email or try to do other tasks. A comment made by one of their competitors, when I checked to see if their app has PiP, was, they didn’t think this app had the technical know how to do PiP. I’m beginning to wonder if that is true.

There is no clock to see the time. You can get a general idea of the time based on the show you are watching, but to get the specific time, again, you have to shutdown Sling . In fact, I had to shutdown Sling to write this review that Sling asked me to write. I feel disconnected when using Sling due to having to shut it down just to check on various items.

Sling hangs and/or shuts down. I have missed many “good parts” due to Sling either hanging up or just completely shutting down on its own.

by FrustratedManager

My family uses this app at home with no problems. Sling for XBOX works amazing. However, the iPhone app is GARBAGE. No matter where we are or what kind of connection we have Sling crashes constantly across all our devices- tablets, phones, laptops, everything but the XBOX. For every 30 seconds of show you’re able to watch there is at least a minute of buffering. All the buffering and trying to get a better connection absolutely kills our battery percentage. Your typical trouble-shooting measures like reinstalling Sling and upgrading your network connection do nothing. I’ve tried downloading and using the apps for the individual channels I like, but this app doesn’t work with any of them so unlike other cable services I am unable to use those apps as an alternative when the this app app is down. Also, again unlike the XBOX app, you are unable to skip through commercials and they play the same one over and over and over and over and over. this app as a cable service is great, however their iPhone app is HORENDOUS.

by JMDragonWake

I really enjoy using this app in lieu of cable to watch live and recent TV, but doing so on the iPhone can be annoying at times. For one thing, the menus are confusing: Suppose I want to watch CNN live. Should I look under “My TV,” “On Now,” “Guide,” or “Channels”? The interface doesn’t make it easy to watch the channels I view most often. It also cuts out at breaks between live shows, forcing me to refresh Sling to watch the next program. On some channels, that maybe makes sense, but on news networks program boundaries aren’t supposed to be so disruptive.

One of my biggest gripes though is that the audio doesn’t pause when I receive or accept phone calls. Every self-respecting audio or video app silences playback during phone calls, but this app keeps the show blaring in the background as you try to talk to the person on the other end.

I like my this app subscription but I really hope they make some improvements to Sling .

by Cfwguy

I have this app blue for $25 a month it allows 3 screens simultaneously and is not ip linked(you can stream away from home). I recently convinced my parents to ditch cable and this app is a great substitute for us. The only downside is it lags when streamed via chromecast (I have a gen 1 chromecast so that could be why) otherwise playback via iPhones/iPads is great as well as on the Xbox one s my family’s main media hub. I would like there to be a way to continuously stream episodes but I get that they are trying to not strain their servers with unattended streams (It would be nice for this to be fixed but it likely isn’t going to happen). I’m happy with this service DISH is definitely on the right track with this app hopefully it remains as affordable as it is now! I am trying to get my family and friends to use streaming services like this to gut their cable bill with this app and a OTA antenna you can easily save $1,200-1,800 a year put that money to good use elsewhere.