Sling TV closed the third quarter of 2021 with 2.56 million subscribers, marking another quarter where there was an increase in the number of users. However, Sling TV’s subscriber base has been somewhat up and down over the past year or two, resulting in little change to the overall position when compared to other live TV services.
One of Sling TV’s main strengths is its lower price. Compared to many of the other services, Sling TV is considerably cheaper each month and this makes it an appealing option for those looking for an affordable live TV streaming solution. However, the service has been feeling some pressure in the affordable live TV segment with Philo making its own gains here as well.
As part of its Q3 2021 results, Dish Network confirmed Sling TV had 2.56 million subscribers as of September 30, 2021. Dish also ended the quarter with 8.42 million Dish TV subscribers, taking the overall number of pay-TV customers to 10.98 million for Q3. According to Dish, this represented a decrease of 13,000 subscribers when compared to the previous quarter, as well as a decrease when compared to the third quarter of 2020.
While Dish saw an overall decrease in the number of pay-TV subscribers, Sling TV was actually up. The live TV service finished the second quarter of this year with 2.44 million subscribers, resulting in an increase of around 120,000 between the second and third quarters of 2021. The second quarter was also up on the previous quarter by around 65,000 subscribers, making the service up nearly 200,000 subscribers when compared to the first quarter of the year.
Still, when looking at the overall picture, not much has changed and this has routinely been the case with Sling TV. In the third quarter of 2020, Sling TV was serving 2.46 million subscribers. While this does mean it is up around 100,000 compared to the year before, the number of subscribers has routinely increased and decreased over the quarters. Not to mention, Sling TV gained around 200,000 subscribers in between the second and third quarters of 2020, resulting in a lower quarter-over-quarter change this year compared to the previous year.
When compared to the other live TV streaming services, not much has changed here either. YouTube TV is understood to be serving more than four million subscribers, while Hulu Live TV last confirmed 3.7 million. Both of which remain significantly ahead of Sling TV. In turn, Sling TV still remains ahead of DirecTV Stream (formerly AT&T TV), fuboTV and Philo.
