Sling TV Loses 60K Customers in Fourth Quarter of 2023; Total Subscribers Now at 2.06 Million
The live TV streamer’s losses were still far less than DISH’s, as the satellite provider lost 250,000 customers during the quarter.
The fourth quarter of 2023 didn’t bring many holiday gifts to Sling TV. The live TV streaming service dropped 60,000 customers during the quarter, as announced by its new parent company EchoStar in that firm’s Q4 earnings report. Sling TV finished the quarter with around 2.06 million customers, a dip from the 2.12 million it claimed at the end of 2023’s third quarter.
- Sling continued to perform better than DISH, which lost 250,000 customers in the fourth quarter.
- The end of the college football season likely contributed to subscriber declines for Sling during the quarter.
- Sling added some new features during the fourth quarter that it hopes may keep subscribers engaged.
Sling TV may have lost tens of thousands of viewers during the quarter, but it still performed better than EchoStar’s linear satellite service DISH. The distributor shed 250,000 customers during the fourth quarter of 2023, dropping from 6.72 million at the start of October to 6.47 million by the end of the year.
The subscriber downturn comes at an interesting time in the broadcasting calendar. Traditionally, the fourth quarter is especially strong for linear providers as it is when the bulk of both the NFL and college football seasons are in full gear. However, Sling’s unique collection of channels might make it a bit of an outlier when it comes to the traditional football cycles.
Sling offers live sports channels like ESPN and FS1 which distribute a large number of college football games every week, but many viewers feel they don’t need to keep their live TV services once the season comes to a close. Since the college football regular season ends at the end of November, those channels become less important to fans, especially since Sling does not offer access to the majority of the NFL slate in most markets. The live streamer does not provide access to ABC or Fox in many markets, nor does it carry CBS anywhere, so customers who are looking for a live streamer to watch pro football, likely weren’t signing up for Sling in the first place.
Whether or not the college football season impacted the streamer’s subscriber count, Sling TV is still ahead of its sport-focused competitor Fubo and its 1.68 million viewers, but it sits well behind YouTube TV’s figure of 8 million, as well as Hulu + Live TV’s 4.6 million customers. Declines in pay-TV revenue led to total EchoStar revenue dipping from $18.63 billion at the end of 2022 to $17.02 billion at the close of 2023, a 9% decline.
How Will Sling Win Customers Back?
Sling TV is not alone in its precarious position; a recent survey found that traditional and streaming pay-TV distributors were set to lose nearly 50 million American customers in the next five years. To combat the exodus of cord-cutters from the pay-TV ecosystem, Sling TV introduced some features during the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2024 that it thinks could have a marked effect on customer engagement.
To start with, Sling is testing free DVR storage on its ad-supported streaming platform Sling Freestream. That test has only been made available to a handful of viewers so far, but the majority of those getting to try it out for themselves have been paid Sling TV customers.
A bigger draw for Sling customers will be its new rewards program, which rolled out in early February for a select group of subscribers. The program will expand to all Sling users in the coming months and could pay winners up to $5,000 simply for watching their Sling service every day.
It’s also helpful for Sling that 2024 is an election year in the United States. Sling Blue is the best way to watch election coverage for a great price, as the service includes CNN, MSNBC and Fox News so viewers can get their news from the source they trust most. Sling Blue starts at $40 per month, making it the cheapest way to get top-notch election coverage from trusted channels.
These new features and 2024 election coverage may not keep the wolf away from Sling’s door forever, but they’ll probably be helpful in boosting subscriber engagement in the short term. Sling lost 60,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2023, not good but far from as bad as DISH’s 250,000 subscriber loss during the quarter.
Sling TV
Sling TV is a live TV streaming service that helps users save money with the option of two distinct plans. The $40/month “Sling Orange” plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $40/month “Sling Blue” plan offers about 40 channels, including Fox and NBC local channels.