Does the Sling TV Flex Pass change the future of streaming?
Does the Sling TV Flex Pass change the future of streaming?
The Flex Pass is a first-of-its kind program, but will other streamers adopt it?
For many years, perhaps decades, viewers have been crying out for a cable channel bundle that offered them the level of choice they really want. Namely, audiences have hoped in vain for à la carte channel packages that offer them the option of only paying for the channels they want to watch. More and more live TV streaming services are now offering smaller, genre-based channel packs, but Sling TV has gone in a different direction to provide customers with a different kind of choice: shorter subscription terms. Sling’s new Passes allows customers to sign up for Sling TV for as little as one day, a game-changer that has the potential to revolutionize the streaming industry.
Key Details:
- A good bargain: Customers can watch Sling TV’s Passes for as little as $5 for one day.
- On-demand potential: On-demand streaming services could adopt the Passes model as well.
- Too little, too late?: The wave of creative thinking amongst live TV streamers is driven by necessity.
Sling announced the launch of its new Passes program on Tuesday, and to be sure, there is a high convenience factor involved. Viewers can sign up for a Day Pass for only $5, a Weekend Pass for $10, or a Week Pass for $15, allowing them to watch a key football game or other can’t-miss programming event without having to pay the full $46 per month for either the streamer’s Orange or Blue plan.
Unlike other live streamers who are actively trying to find ways to attract customers by streamlining their channel offerings to cut down on prices, Sling is already the most inexpensive streamer to offer a mix of the top broadcast and cable channels on the market. At $46 per month (or just $23 for the first month), Sling is as good of a deal as you’re going to get on live streaming, but by allowing customers even more flexibility to customize their viewing experience, Sling is truly helping to swing the pendulum more in favor of consumers than it ever has been before.
For decades, all of the power in the pay-TV paradigm was in the hands of the distributors, who leveraged multi-year contracts, ever-increasing channel packages, and the lack of better alternatives to keep customers locked into plans that gave them what they wanted, but often forced them to pay for even more that they didn’t want.
When coupled with DIRECTV’s move to introduce MyGenre Packs that allow cord-cutters to select genre-specific channel lineups at much lower prices than a standard subscription, Sling’s Passes is affording customers even more power over how they view content than ever before. Now, consumers not only have the ability to sign up for much more focused collections of channels in order to save money, but they can also select if they want to subscribe for one day, one weekend, one week, or one month.
Whether or not other live TV streaming services adopt a similar model in the future is yet to be seen, but it is clear that Sling’s Passes is yet another example of how the streaming entertainment industry is finally reforming itself into something that is far more user-friendly than its cable and satellite predeccesors ever had any intention of being.
What will the impacts be across the rest of the industry?
Outside of the live TV side of the streaming world, I think the biggest potential for change in the streaming world created by the Passes are the possibility that on-demand streamers like Netflix might begin thinking about offering similar options. It would be an especially useful tool for streaming services that binge-release titles for viewers to watch in a single day, and it would obviously give customers a way to stream marquee content while allowing services the opportunity to attract hesitant consumers in ways similar to offering a free trial; if a platform can prove its worth over a limited period of time, presumably customers would be more inclined to take the plunge into a monthly or annual subscription.
Thus far in the history of streaming, binge drops or one-night-only events have been used as ways to drive subscriptions, forcing people to sign up for a month at a time, even if they only had the intention to watch for a single day or a weekend. While the strategy behind such moves is solid, with the way that consumer habits are changing, and cord-cutters are becoming more cost-conscious, it might behoove platforms like Netflix to allow for a weekend pass so people can binge the final season of “Stranger Things,” or Peacock should let people sign up for a single day to stream Super Bowl LX in February 2026, or Paramount+ should let Taylor Sheridan fans subscribe for a week in order to catch up on 1883 and 1923 before the next installment of the Dutton Family Saga is released.
As consumers become increasingly frugal with their entertainment spending habits, as much of the country is dealing with financial concerns, it only makes sense that platforms would want to provide as many options to bring customers into their tent as possible. Then, once they are there, it is incumbent on the services to prove to the customers why they need to stay long term.
While a Passes model could have a significant impact on the streaming world, I don’t foresee it as offering a lifeline to flailing traditional pay-TV providers. While I laud cable and satellite companies for thinking creatively now that their backs are against the financial wall, the short-term subscription options at the heart of the Passes may be too little, too late to really change the trajectory of pay-TV in general.
Five years ago, I think the Passes or a similar product could have had significant potential to slow the decline of pay TV, but now, too many of the most popular cable channels have announced plans to distribute their content outside of the bundle for viewers to think of short-window access to that bundle as a revolutionary idea.
Just look at the landscape as it stands. Live sports programming is one of the last programming nails holding pay-TV together, but the cable bundle’s stranglehold on these events is slipping fast. ESPN and Fox have both worked hard on new ways to access their sports programming without a pay-TV subscription, and will launch direct-to-consumer services with all their cable sports offerings on Aug. 21. TNT Sports is also preparing a DTC streaming service, and you can already watch the games and events on TNT Sports channels with select HBO Max subscriptions.
On the entertainment side of the equation, viewers can find most of the primetime TV shows and movies aired on broadcast and cable networks the next day via on-demand streaming services. Why sign up for a one-day pass for $5 to watch an episode of a reality series on Bravo when, for $11, you can get a full month’s subscription to Peacock and stream every episode released during those weeks?
All in all, I think that the Sling TV’s Passes will be a welcome addition to the streamer’s offerings, especially since the platform already appeals to cost-conscious consumers; so, providing them with extra opportunities to save can never hurt. But I think the biggest impact that it could have is as another step in the evolution of the industry that puts more power in the hands of consumers. Whether other live TV streaming services or any on-demand platforms eventually adopt the model is yet to be seen, but in a market that has long achieved maturity, more and more companies will be looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition, and anything that they do that gives customers more options is a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.
What do you think of the Sling’s new Passes? Are you eager to take advantage of the new option, or is it an idea that comes too late to affect the way you consume TV? Let us know in the comments!
Sling TV
Sling TV is The Streamable’s choice for cord-cutters on a budget. Sling is a live TV streaming service with multiple channel packages. The $45.99/month Sling Orange plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $45.99/month Sling Blue plan offers about 40 channels, including ABC, Fox, and NBC in major markets.
You can combine Orange+Blue for a total of $60.99 / month. Sling also offers many channel add-on packages starting at $6/month.