Sling has added the ABC local channel and increased prices by $5 today for Sling TV Blue subscribers in five cities.
While Sling Orange-tier customers are not affected, subscribers who have Sling Blue as part of their package in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco will now have to pay extra but will gain access to local ABC, FOX and NBC stations.
Meanwhile, Sling Blue and Orange-and-Blue combo users in Fresno, Houston and Raleigh will now have both ABC and FOX, but will not have to pay extra.
Sling’s point of difference used to be that it offered cheaper prices than premium live services because it didn’t include local channels. The company even offers optional AirTV DVRs so users can add local channels for free, so it would have been great to see the ABC add-on as optional. Even so, at $45 Sling TV Blue is still $20 less than YouTube TV, which was CNET’s Editors’ Choice.
Last month, Sling TV revamped its free offering to Freestream, which also includes the ability to add premium upgrades like Showtime.
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