Sling TV currently offers a 3-day free trial. However, the length can vary throughout the year, with the service occasionally offering no free trial at all. As a result, it is never quite clear if a Sling TV free trial is available, let alone how long it lasts. In spite of this, Sling TV often runs promotions to reduce the cost of signing up and even offers the option to stream some content for free.
Sling TV is one of the oldest and most popular live TV streaming services around. One of the reasons for its popularity is the low cost. With plans starting as low as $35 per month, a Sling TV subscription is a much cheaper option for live TV than Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV, and others. However, the low monthly price is only the base cost. Sling TV is also highly customizable and this can greatly impact the overall price.
Having access to a free trial is important, as it allows consumers the opportunity to test out the service before having to pay. Generally speaking, most live TV streaming services are happy to provide consumers with a free trial, but Sling offers new customers more than one way to save.
Sling TV standard free trial
Sling TV currently only offers a three-day free trial. This is less than many other services, with the likes of Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV typically providing new subscribers with seven days for free. However, many of the other service are also more expensive in general. For example, a Hulu or YouTube base TV plan costs almost twice as much as Sling’s.
It is also worth noting that Sling TV’s 3-day free trial is not static. Instead, the service tends to vary how long it offers at different times of the year. In some cases, this can result in a new user receiving a longer free trial while at other times, there might not be any free trial at all.
Due to this, Sling TV tends not to have a standard free trial in the typical sense. Even though the ability to watch free for three days tends to be the most commonly available option.
Sling TV’s alternative to free trials
Besides offering a free trial, Sling TV also tends to encourage consumers to sign up through deals. In fact, Sling TV is nearly always running some sort of promotion, providing consumers with an alternate way to save while signing up, including straight cash discounts. For example, previous deals have included offering new subscribers a $10 reduction on their first month, or the option to pay for one month and get the second for free.
As well as offering financial discounts, Sling TV very often offers free devices to add value to a new subscription. These are nearly always for AirTV devices (AirTV and Sling TV are both owned by Dish Network), such as an AirTV Mini. Occasionally, other bundles will be on offer that include third-party branded products, such as over-the-air antennas.
All of these device-based deals require the subscriber to prepay for at least one month. In some cases, the deal might require two or more months to be paid in advance, with the value of the free devices and bundles increasing as the prepaid amount increases.
Sling Free streaming
Even during times when Sling TV is not offering a free trial, that’s not to say consumers cannot still test out the service for free. In fact, Sling TV does provide consumes with a completely free tier. Although this is an overall lesser product than its paid live TV streaming plans, it is still an option for those who want to get a feel for how the service works before signing up.
While Sling Free is largely made up of on demand show episodes and movies, it does also provide access to some live news and sports as well. However, this shouldn’t be thought of as a typical live TV streaming service, as most of the channels consumers want access to are reserved for paying subscribers. It is simply an example of the type of experience Sling offers.
One of the added benefits of Sling Free is that there are no commitments at all. Users don’t need to sign up for an account or provide any payment information. Instead, they can simply access Sling and start streaming shows and movies. What’s more, as this is a non-commitment free service, there’s nothing stopping consumers using Sling Free even when they are paying for an alternative live TV streaming service, such as Hulu Live TV or YouTube TV.
Sling TV free trial summary
Sling TV currently offer a 3-day free trial, but that changes throughout the year. In the past the free trial has been as short as no trial and as long as a couple of weeks. Due to this, there is no real indication of a standard length, although three days is the length of time most commonly offered. While Sling does not provide a standard free trial like other live TV streaming services, Sling TV is nearly always running a promotion. This can either result in reducing the cost of a subscription for the first month or the subscriber gaining a free streaming player or device.
Regardless of whether Sling TV offers a free trial, discounted first month, or a free streaming device, consumers are able to get a sense of what Sling TV has to offer without having to pay. This is thanks to the Sling Free tier which provides the opportunity to stream select show episodes, movies, live news and sports at no cost.
Read more: Sling TV DVR: Recording Cost, Upgrades & Limits Explained
Updated March, 2021
Leave a Reply