Skip to main content

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

House of Lies — Showtime
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

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…
Apple gives sports fans a live TV option with the addition of FuboTV
fubotv ad supported free tv channel turner networks

Apple's TV app, which lets you search for and watch content from more than 100 compatible video services in a single interface, has only offered one live TV streaming option -- Sony's PlayStation Vue -- until now. That service is joined by competitor FuboTV, giving Apple users a second choice for over-the-top (OTT) livestreaming from major broadcasters.

"FuboTV is a leading provider of live sports programming, entertainment, and news," Min Kim, vice president of business development, FuboTV said in a press release. "We're hyper-focused on delivering the best, most innovative viewing experiences possible as our recent 4K HDR Beta streams demonstrate. That's why we're excited about the FuboTV integration with the Apple TV app."

Read more
We all cut cable, and now we’re just as screwed on streaming
Live TV Streaming Services

Cutting the cord doesn’t look like such a bargain these days.

First, Sling TV raised the price of its base package last week by $5. Just a day later, DirecTV Now jacked up its price by $5, and on Tuesday, PlayStation Vue did the same, raising all of its packages by $5. In less than a week, almost every major live TV streaming service added a fiver to their subscription fees. Meanwhile, YouTube TV raised its price by $5 in March (ahead of the trend) while the only holdout, Hulu, already priced its base package at the new normal: $40 per month.

Read more
Your PlayStation Vue subscription is about to go up by $5 per month
how to watch the nba finals online playstation vue lifestyle

Over the course of a few short days, Sling TV announced it was raising the price of its Sling Orange plan by $5, followed by DirecTV Now revealing that it was raising monthly prices by $5 across the board. Now PlayStation Vue has followed suit, announcing that it would be raising prices on all of its packages.

"At PlayStation, we are always evaluating the PS Vue service to ensure we are providing a compelling value to our customers. Unfortunately, we must increase the price of our multi-channel plans to keep pace with rising business costs and enable us to continue offering a better way to watch the best in live sports, entertainment, and news," the announcement on the PlayStation Blog reads.

Read more