from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

Mon, Oct 19th 2026 01:05pm - Karl Bode

Last year, Sling TV unveiled a rare bit of innovation in an increasingly enshittified streaming video market. They began offering what they called “mini-subscriptions,” allowing users to subscribe to live streaming TV for the day, weekend, or a full week for prices starting at around $5. It was a nice option for folks who don’t want, or can’t afford, increasingly costly monthly subscriptions.

But alas, the “day pass” idea immediately resulted in a lawsuit by Disney and Warner Brothers, which stated the more convenient viewing options violated existing license agreements. While a federal judge ruled against Disney in the company’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the new option, the lawsuits seem to have had their intended impacts all the same.

Sling TV announced that it’s shuttering the option for lower-cost day streaming passes:

“Sling was built to give our customers the ultimate control over their entertainment, and Sling Passes delivered on that promise for millions,” Sling TV says in a statement on its website. “Though Sling Passes are no longer available, we look forward to continuing to innovate and showing our customers new ways to experience the content they love.”

It’s an unfortunate end to a rare bit of actual industry creativity.

Now that streaming subscriber growth has slowed, we’ve noted repeatedly how the streaming TV sector is falling into all of the bad habits that ultimately doomed traditional cable TV.

That has involved chasing pointless “growth for growth’s sake” megamergers, imposing bottomless price hikes and new annoying restrictions on customers, undermining labor, and cutting corners on product quality in a bid to give Wall Street that sweet, impossible, unlimited, quarterly growth it demands.

Streaming TV prices hikes in particular are coming so fast and furious, they’re outpacing many of the ridiculous traditional cable TV price hikes we saw during the cord cutting revolution.

This refusal to listen to consumers and truly innovate will result in the same backlash we saw then; namely more users simply flocking to free alternatives or piracy. A trend media giants will blame on absolutely everything (generational entitlement! VPNs! China!) but themselves.

Filed Under: day pass, enshittification, innovation, prices, streaming, tv, video
Companies: disney, sling, sling tv, warner bros.