How many devices can you watch Sling TV on at once?

Sling TV on an iPhone. — Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

One of the coolest things about live-streaming video is that you’re almost never limited to just a single feed on a single device. But if you’re trying to figure out how many devices you can watch Sling TV on at once, the answer is “it depends.”

Sling TV is unlike its competitors in that it has a couple of base plans from which to choose — Sling Orange and Sling Blue. They have fewer channels (separately and combined) than you’d find on other options, but they also cost less. You then couple them with add-ons (called “Extras” in Sling world) to fill out your plan. And the number of devices on which you can simultaneously watch Sling TV depends on how you put your scheme together.

Here’s how it breaks down:

Sling Orange: This one’s limited to just a single device at a time. And that includes any Extras you add to your service. There are half a dozen channels in Sling Orange that are not included in Sling Blue. Those channels are limited to a single device, even if you have the Sling Orange and Blue plans bundled together.

Sling Blue: This base plan gets you access to three streams at once. (You also get three streams if you subscribe to Sling Latino or Sling International.) Any Extras you add will be included in those three streams.

Sling Orange and Sling Blue: Subscribing to both tracks increases the number of devices on which you can watch Sling TV to four. But that really means that you get the three streams from Sling Blue, and the single stream from Sling Orange. Orange channels are still limited to one device and Blue channels are limited to three devices.

If that all sounds a little confusing, well, it is. And it actually gets a little worse. As you flip through Sling’s live guide, you’ll see demarcations of “Sling Blue Starts Here,” or “Sling Blue Ends here | Sling Orange Starts Here.” That’s meant to help you know that if you start a channel on the Sling Orange track and also want to watch it on a separate device, you’d need to select that channel on the Blue track in order to watch multiple streams. If you try to watch a Sling Orange channel on any second device, it’ll stop playback on the original device.

Yes, that’s clunky. But that’s the way Sling TV works.

If you subscribe to a premium service — say, Showtime — you’ll be able to watch it on up to three devices at once. But that’s separate from simultaneous Sling Orange and Sling Blue streams.

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