Sorry cord cutters, Sling TV just raised its prices

Just a few years ago, the prospect of cancelling cable and getting a cheaper streaming alternative seemed so smart and convenient. Now, Sling TV is the latest streaming services to prove that time makes fools of us all.

Sling announced on Monday that all three of its service tiers would get a $5 price increase. That means the Blue and Orange options, which have fairly small channel selections to begin with, now start at $30 per month. The combined plan that gets you every basic Blue and Orange channel is now $45 per month. Those are just base prices, as Sling also offers add-on packages to each service tier.

The news isn’t all bad, though. Every Sling customer regardless of service tier now gets 10 hours of cloud-based DVR, while the basic Blue package got three new channels in FOX News, Headline News, and MSNBC. The Big Ten Network will also launch on Sling before fall 2020, so you can catch every 13-7 game between Iowa and Michigan State.

With the price increase, Sling is still cheaper than YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV, two services that also got price hikes in 2019. This is sure to disappoint some customers regardless, though, as one of the selling points of Sling was that it was significantly (rather than marginally) more affordable than the competition.

Since plenty of cable providers offer some kind of basic package in the $50 to $70 per month range, these streaming alternatives are starting to look like worse and worse values over time. Maybe this was always inevitable; anything that seems like an unreal deal usually goes the way of MoviePass eventually. But at this point, maybe think about getting cable.