Sling TV to Drop Remaining NBC Sports RSNs Ahead of MLB Season
Sling TV is dropping their three remaining Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) from their Sling TV Blue package. While they haven’t had Fox Sports RSNs since July 2019, and dropped NBC Sports Chicago in October 2019, they still offered NBC Sports Washington, NBC Sports Bay Area, and NBC Sports California.
The company in an email to subscribers said:
As of 4/1/2021, NBC Regional Sports Networks will no longer be on SLING. We are committed to providing the best value with the flexibility our customer’s deserve and, unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement on those terms.Thanks for being a loyal SLING customer.
The Sling TV Team.
Fortunately, unlike Fox Sports RSNs, there are still plenty of options to the stream channels - including fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, AT&T TV, YouTube TV, and T-Mobile TVision. But unlike Sling, which despite the price hike to $35 a month, all cost over $50 a month.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Get $10 Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| NBC Sports Bay Area | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Boston | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports California | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Chicago | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Northwest | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Philadelphia | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Washington | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| SportsNet NY | + $29 | - | ✓ | - | - | - | - | |
In a recent interview with The Streamable, we asked Sling TV Group President Michael Schwimmer what it would take for Regional Sports Networks to exist in a streaming bundle like Sling.
“I think it’s difficult,” said Schwimmer. “The thing for most customers to realize is, Regional Sports Networks are a terrible deal for customers.”
He continued, “Because there’s very limited viewership. And yet everybody has to pay for them…it really inflates the bill. We’d rather give the vast majority of our customers a good deal.”
In order to keep Sling’s prices low, regional sports, like locals – has been one of the areas that they’ve dropped from the service.
“We have to make choices, and our choice (with) regional sports…is keeping everybody’s bill low, as opposed to carrying something that in the end gets very limited viewership. There are some passionate fans, and we wish we could serve them by offering this content on à la carte basis.”
In fact, Schwimmer said that if RSNs could be offered on an à la carte basis, Sling “would offer every regional sports channel in America in a heartbeat.” But, that’s not an option right now because “what the regional sports providers want is, is for us to to make them available to everybody, even the people that don’t want them. And that’s where it breaks down.”