Cord Cutters News has a fresh snapshot of the live TV streaming market, and Sling TV did not get much room to breathe. In a survey of more than 1,000 readers, Sling drew 4.7 percent of responses, the same share as Philo and far behind YouTube TV’s 35.7 percent.
That gap is the reason people are searching this now. YouTube TV is reportedly serving more than 11 million subscribers, and the survey results suggest it remains the service most likely to come up when readers talk about Live TV options. For Sling, the result is harder to square with its pitch: customizable channel packages at competitive prices, a setup aimed squarely at viewers trying to keep costs down.
The rest of the survey fills in the picture. Frndly TV finished at 9.5 percent, DIRECTV at 5.1 percent, Hulu + Live TV at 3.8 percent and Fubo at 1.6 percent, while other respondents said they did not use a live TV service like this. Together, the other named services accounted for 29.4 percent of responses, still well short of YouTube TV on its own.
That leaves Sling in a familiar but awkward spot. It is built to look like a smart budget choice, yet this reader poll shows only a small slice of the audience actually chose it. The survey does not explain why, but it does sharpen the question that matters most: whether Sling’s mix of price and flexibility is enough to keep pace with a market led so decisively by YouTube TV.
