Sling TV Discounts Base Plans to $15 a Month

Dish’s internet TV service Sling TV is introducing significant discounts as part of a tax day promotion: Both of the service’s base plans, Sling Blue and Sling Orange, are available for $15 a month for 3 months, as opposed to the usual $25 per month price tag.Consumers can combine the two packages for just $25 per month, down from $40 a month. The offer is only available for new customers, and Sling will start billing the regular price after 3 months.Sling Orange currently offers access to 34 cable channels, including TNT, TBS, CNN and ESPN. Sling Blue comes without ESPN, but includes access to Fox and NBC in select markets, as well as FX, USA and a number of other networks. The combined Blue and Orange package comes with access to over 50 networks.Dish has struggled to grow Sling’s user base amid growing competition from other streaming bundles, adding just 47,000 subscribers during the most recent quarter — not enough to make up for the company’s satellite TV subscriber defections, and resulting in a overall net loss of 334,000 customers for the quarter. The promotional price cut is clearly meant to boost Sling subscriber numbers, and comes at a time when competing services are forced to increase pricing. Just this week, Hulu raised the price of its own live TV bundle from $39.99 to $44.99 per month