Sling TV’s latest quarter results reconfirm that the live TV streaming service lost 77,000 subscribers during the fourth and final quarter of 2022. The results also represent a decrease of more than 150,000 subscribers when compared to the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.
In general, Sling TV had a fairly turbulent 2022. After starting out the year with just under 2.5 million subscribers, the number declined to around 2.2 million by the end of the second quarter. Sling TV then spent the second half of the year slowly restoring the lost subscribers.
Unfortunately, Sling was not able to recover all of them. Sling TV ended the fourth quarter with 2.334 million subscribers, according to the latest figures from Dish. In reality, this is not massively revealing news considering a recent SEC filing revealed Sling TV had ended 2022 with fewer subscribers than it started the year with.
For reference, Dish TV also lost subscribers during the quarter, resulting in a total pay-TV loss of 268,000 subscribers. This is slightly fewer than the 273,000 subscribers lost during the fourth quarter of 2021, which included a drop of around 70,000 Sling TV subscribers.
Sling TV raised its prices during the fourth quarter of the year, resulting in its base plans increasing to $40 per month. The company is also only days away from raising prices once again. This time, however, the price increase will only affect subscribers in areas where it provides access to ABC. Still, if the Q4 price increase led to some leaving the streaming service in the fourth quarter, it is possible more might leave next month following the next increase.
In spite of the losses, Sling TV remains in a similar position it was in at the start of last year. Specifically, Sling TV remains some way behind Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV in terms of the number of subscribers. At the same time, the live TV services continues to remain ahead of DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, and Vidgo.
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