Sling TV ended the second quarter of 2022 with just under 2.2 million subscribers, resulting in a drop compared to the quarter before. Even though adoption of live TV streaming services is constantly growing, not all services constantly see increases in their user bases. Sling TV is one of those that continues to increase and decrease quarter after quarter.
YouTube TV, on the other hand, is very much a service that seems to just continue to grow. In spite of only launching in 2017, two years after Sling TV, YouTube TV recently confirmed it was delivering live TV to more than 5 million people. A number of subscribers that firmly puts YouTube TV in the driving seat, and one that’s more than twice as many as Sling TV has.
Sling TV’s Q2 2022 ended with approximately 2.197 million subscribers, according to Dish Network. This resulted in a decrease of around 50,000 when compared to the quarter before when Sling TV had 2.25 million subscribers. The Q2 financial results also confirmed Dish saw an overall drop of 257,000 subscribers in the second quarter. Along with the 2.2 million Sling TV subscribers, Dish ended the quarter with 7.79 million Dish TV subscribers, resulting in a total of 9.99 million pay-TV subscribers.
While a drop of around 50,000 subscribers isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things, the picture is a little worse when looking at the year-over-year data. For example, in the second quarter of last year, Dish reported a total of 2.439 million subscribers, resulting in a drop of more than 200,000 since then. In fact, Sling TV remained above the 2.4 million marker right up until the end of last year. It was only at the end of the first quarter when the service confirmed a drop down below 2.3 million.
More recently, Sling TV has made a push to attract new subscribers. Not only is it currently running a Freeview Weekends promotion which unlocks access to premium networks for a limited time, but it is also currently offering an extended free trial to anyone who signs up to Sling TV before August 4th.
