Many people today are deciding to get rid of their cable or satellite subscriptions for TV and join one of the growing number of online “cord-cutting” streaming services. Two of those services are PlayStation Vue and Sling TV.

Overview

PlayStation Vue offers four plans: Access Slim ($29.99 per month), Core Slim ($34.99 per month), Elite Slim ($44.99 per month), and Ultra Slim ($64.99 per month). Sling TV offers three different plans: Sling Orange ($20 per month), Sling Blue ($25 per month), and Sling Orange + Blue ($40 per month).

Value/Channels

Sling Blue and Sling Orange have different channels, but there are some channels that are included in both. Sling Blue costs more because it allows three people to stream on the account at once. Sling Orange + Blue is the both of them combined.

With PlayStation Vue, each plan has all of the channels that are included in the plans that cost less money. PlayStation Vue’s Ultra Slim has ninety-four channels while Sling Orange + Blue has fifty-seven channels as it is less expensive. However, Access Slim has fifty channels, so Sling TV’s most expensive plan only has seven more channels than PlayStation Vue’s least expensive plan.

PlayStation Vue has Add-On Channels. One Add-On Channel is NFL RedZone available for $39.99 per season. Another Add-On channel on PlayStation Vue is Epix Hits. It’s included in Ultra Slim. Showtime is available on PlayStation Vue for $10.99 ($8.99 for PlayStation Plus subscribers) per month and HBO is available for $15 per month.

For local channels PlayStation Vue offers the local CBS channel pretty much everywhere, but the other local channels are only available in certain areas. The same pretty much goes for Sling TV. However, CBS isn’t available for Sling TV.

DVR

PlayStation includes cloud-based DVR in all of its plans. Every PlayStation Vue user has a list called “My Shows.” PlayStation Vue has a list of episodes available to view via “On-Demand” for each show. Once one adds a show they like to their “My Shows” list, PlayStation Vue will automatically record every episode of that show and the DVR recordings will replace the episodes in the list of episodes available to watch via “On-Demand.” That’s probably because commercials can be skipped on DVR, but not when watching via “On-Demand.”

As far as DVR goes, Sling TV is just getting started. They have a DVR beta program starting sometime this month. According to blog.sling.com, Sling TV subscribers can request an invitation to the beta on sling.com/dvr.

Availability

According to playstation.com, PlayStation Vue is available PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, iOS, and Android.

According to sling.com, Sling TV is available for Apple TV, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Xbox One, Android TV, Android, and Windows.

Conclusion

I personally think PlayStation Vue is far superior to Sling TV. That’s not just because I’m a major PlayStation fan, but also because of the overall value and features of it.
There is a third service that launched recently that I didn’t include in my comparison. That service is DIRECTV NOW. According to directvnow.com, it is available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Google Cast, iOS, Android, Internet Explorer 11+ (on Windows 8 or higher), Chrome 50+, and Safari 8+. In DIRECTV NOW’s stage of development, it’s too early for it to be compared to services like PlayStation Vue and Sling TV.