Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Sling TV subscribers can now watch Showtime content for an extra $10 a month

By Keith Nelson Jr. April 5, 2017

House of Lies — Showtime — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Catching up on all of the CIA drama from Homeland just became a bit easier — if you’re a Sling subscriber. As of Wednesday, Sling TV, the over-the-top subscription streaming service, is offering Showtime as a premium channel add-on for $10 per month.

Along with Showtime, Sling TV gets seven more Showtime feeds including Showtime 2, Showtime Showcase, Showtime Extreme, Showtime Beyond, Showtime West, Showtime Next, and Showtime Women. Sling TV customers who add Showtime to their channel package will get access to nearly 2,000 on-demand titles from the premium cable service. Sling TV channel packages start at $20 per month for 30 channels.

Showtime joins a growing list of Sling TV premium channel offerings that includes Cinemax, Starz, and HBO. According to a report by Variety, parent company Dish says the addition of Showtime makes the two-year-old Sling TV the first over-the-top streaming service to offer content from all four of those premium channels. That is a major draw to new customers looking to choose between cord-cutting options.

Bringing Homeland, Billions, and thousands of other titles to Sling TV is only the CBS-owned cable network’s latest move outside the cable arena. When YouTube TV debuts later this year, Showtime will be the only premium channel offered as an add-on. In July 2015, Showtime completely cut the cord by offering a stand-alone streaming service of all of its content for a $10.99 monthly subscription price.

The future is starting to look brighter for services like Sling TV. By July 2016, 25 percent of U.S. households did not have a pay TV subscription, with six percent only using streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu. The trend is expected to only get more widespread, with more than 33 million households anticipated to not be paying for a TV subscription by 2021, according to Statista.

Sling TV has an estimated 1.18 million subscribers, but adding Showtime comes at a time when it’s facing competitors offering attractive skinny bundles. Fellow over-the-top subscription service DirecTV Now garnered 200,000 subscribers in its first month, and its customers recently were able to get HBO for free for as long as they have an AT&T’s Unlimited Plus wireless plan.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Keith Nelson Jr.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Keith Nelson Jr is a music/tech journalist making big pictures by connecting dots. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY he…

Entertainment

The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now

A woman points a gun and stares.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Zack Snyder is back in the top 10 with Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, the second film in his space opera series. Despite Snyder's popularity, the new Rebel Moon film could not unseat What Jennifer Did, which is the No. 1 movie for the second straight week. New additions to the top 10 include the comedy Knocked Up at No. 8 and the action movie Anna at No. 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Entertainment

Deadpool & Wolverine: Everything we know about the film formerly known as Deadpool 3

Deadpool and Wolverine stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In retrospect, we should have suspected that Deadpool & Wolverine wouldn't keep its most famous co-star out of the title. In 2022, Ryan Reynolds coaxed Hugh Jackman into reprising his role as Wolverine for the first time since 2017's Logan. Once that happened, the name Deadpool 3 didn't fully convey how monumental this film would be.

So Marvel Studios has officially retitled it as Deadpool & Wolverine. Jackman has also humorously rebranded the film as Wolverine & [expletive], which would make this R-rated flick a lot harder to market!

Entertainment

5 years ago, Game of Thrones aired its last great episode. Here’s why it still holds up

Jamie knights Brienne in episode 2 of Game of Thrones season 8.

Many fans would likely agree that Game of Thrones went out not with a bang, but a profound whimper. After dominating pop culture for nearly 10 years, the hit HBO series concluded with a trio of episodes that were universally reviled by both fans and critics alike. The show's lackluster, ham-fisted finale led to its popularity seemingly vanishing into thin air. In the five years since it aired, time hasn't been kind to Game of Thrones season 8.

To this day, many people still discuss the series' final season with a mix of bitterness and disbelief, and those fans won't find any disagreement about the quality of Game of Thrones' last few chapters here. As disappointing as its eighth season remains, though, April 21 marked the five-year anniversary of its noteworthy second episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The fan-favorite installment ranks not only as its season's best chapter, but also as the last great episode that Game of Thrones ever produced.