Q. I like the idea of getting Sling TV for just $30 a month, but can you get local channels with Sling TV? That’s important to our family, particularly during hurricane season. — Jennifer, Houston.
Jennifer, Sling TV’s base plan does cost just $30 a month. But there are two base plans and, depending upon which one you pick, you might not be able to get local channels with your package.
A live streaming service owned by Dish, Sling offers both ‘Blue’ and ‘Orange’ plans for $30 a month each. You can purchase both of them for $45 a month combined.
The Blue plan provides more than 50 channels including the three major cable news networks, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, as well as leading ‘basic cable’ networks as FS1, Bravo, The Cartoon Network, AMC, TNT, TBS, and your local Fox and NBC affiliates in select markets.
The Orange package only offers more than 30 channels so you might think Blue is better. But hold on. Orange includes ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN 3, which are must-haves for many sports fans. In addition, the Orange plan has CNN, Comedy Central, TBS, TNT and AMC.
But Orange does not any local channels. If you get the combo Blue/Orange plan for $45 a month, you might get local channels. But Orange alone won’t do it.
(Note: Blue also offers three simultaneous streams, meaning you can watch the Blue lineup on three different devices at the same time; Orange allows only one stream at a time.)
So I said if you get Blue or Blue/Orange, you might get local channels. That’s because they are only available in select markets.
Sling says its Blue plan offers the Fox affiliate in the following areas:
New York
Philadelphia
Chicago
Detroit
Washington, DC
Atlanta
Houston
Orlando/Daytona
Tampa
Gainesville
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Dallas
Austin
As for NBC, Sling says the following markets will get their local affiliates with Blue:
New York
Philadelphia
Chicago
Boston
Washington D.C.
Miami
Hartford
Dallas
Los Angeles
San Francisco
San Diego
The bad news is that local channels are not available in a large number of markets. But the good news is if they are available in your area, there’s no extra charge to get them.
Jennifer, hope that helps. Happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
While it is true that Sling TV Blue offers local channels in select markets were NBC and Fox Corp own the local affiliate, there is a way to get local channels to appear in the Sling TV program guide and stream them. This process requires either the Air TV 2 or Air TV Anywhere. You attach an Antenna to the Air TV device, setup the Air TV with the Sling TV mobile app, and then the local channels appear in the Sling TV program guide. The Air TV 2 requires an external hard drive to be attached to do DVR recordings from the Antenna. The Air TV Anywhere has a built in hard drive for Antenna recording.
AirTV is nifty *if* you can get an OTA signal. Nice to get big four, PBS, ION, and diginets integrated, etc. Unfortunately, OTA not and viable for many and AirTV is more involved than streaming.
Sling should be able to stream most of the diginets without having to raise prices. Maybe one day.