Will Sling TV be for sale soon?
Will Sling TV be for sale soon?
Sling’s parent company is trying to build out a 5G network, and selling the streaming service could help it secure much-needed funds.
Sling TV spent 2025 doing what it has done since joining the live TV streaming marketplace: disrupting the status quo. In August, the service began selling Passes, a limited-time subscription option that allows customers to watch ESPN and other channels in the service’s Orange plan starting at just $5 per day.
Customers have been loving Sling’s Passes, but zooming out a bit, the streamer faces an uncertain future that has little to do with its own performance. Sling’s immediate parent company is DISH, which is in turn owned by EchoStar, and its balance sheet isn’t looking its healthiest. The company considered bankruptcy last year, and was barely able to make outstanding interest payments ahead of the summer deadline.
EchoStar is trying to build a nationwide 5G network as it transforms itself into a nationwide wireless and broadband provider. That evolution has been expensive, and it may increasingly view assets like Sling TV as a non-core part of its business as it shifts its focus to the future. That’s why we predict that Sling TV will find itself on the market in 2026.
Is Sling an attractive asset? I can certainly foresee companies that don’t already own a live TV streaming service having interest in Sling, which is currently the only major live TV service out there selling one-day access to its plans. As one of the cheapest ways available to watch ESPN, it’s got a loyal customer base, staying above the 1.5 million mark even amidst financial turmoil. Its smaller-sized channel plans that still include a little of everything are still unique in the marketplace, even as more genre-specific plans become available.
Comcast has already shown itself to be acquisition-minded, as it proved when it made attempts to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. It already has a pay-TV business, but its digital-only NOW TV plans aren’t as robust as Sling TV, which could instantly become the company’s top live TV streaming offering.
Would Paramount continue its spending spree to try to get its hands on Sling TV? What about The Roku Channel, which purchased another low-cost live TV service in Frndly TV last year? It seems to me that there are buyers out there for Sling if it were to become available, and as the closing of the merger of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo demonstrates, regulators aren’t currently all that skittish about the consolidation of the pay-TV marketplace.
DISH’s life as a satellite TV company is all but over, as it continues to lose customers and revenue. If EchoStar decides that its broadband and wireless businesses are its only chance at a future, it may well decide that selling Sling TV to put more funds toward evolving is the best move.
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.