Why you can trust our reporting
For years, we’ve covered the trend of pay television providers raising prices on customers in order to address higher distribution fees charged by broadcasters and cable network owners. Usually, those companies warn customers ahead of time (in some cases, they’re legally required to provide advance notification). For this story, we reviewed notices sent to customers of DIRECTV’s streaming genre packages warning of a price increase scheduled for mid-June, and included background information on price adjustments based on our prior reporting. Our information on the MySports price adjustment and channel package shuffle was based in part on a newsletter called Cord Cutter Weekly, authored by tech journalist Jared Newman.
DIRECTV is raising the price of some if its smaller, genre-based packages, according to notices sent to customers and obtained by The Desk.
Starting June 25, the cost of DIRECTV’s entertainment-filled streaming package, called MyEntertainment, will rise from $35 per month to $43 per month, while the prices of its other genre-based packages are also increasing:
- MyKids: $21 per month (was $20 per month)
- MyNews: $45 per month (was $40 per month)
- MiEspañol: $38 per month (was $35 per month)
- MySports Extra add-on: $14 per month (was $13 per month)
- MyCinema add-on: $11 per month (was $10 per month)
The channel line-ups in all packages are not changing, and the MyEntertainment plan will continue to include access to the ad-supported tiers of Disney Plus, Hulu and HBO Max. MyKids will continue to include access to the ad-supported tier of Disney Plus, and MiEspañol will still offer the ad-supported Vix Plus plan.
The price adjustments come after DIRECTV recently reduced the cost of its MySports plan from $70 per month to $65 per month by eliminating news channels like Fox News and MS Now from that package. Customers who purchased MySports before the channel line-up change were allowed to keep the plan — it is now called “MySports Original” for those subscribers — but the price of the plan increased from $70 per month to $80 per month.
DIRECTV says customers can learn more about the price adjustments for their specific plan by logging into this page with their account information.
First introduced last year, the new streaming packages were designed to give DIRECTV customers more choice in the channel bundles they wanted to pay for, without subscribing to channels they may not watch or otherwise want. The MySports package debuted first, offering access to sports-inclusive channels like ESPN, NFL Network, MLB Network, TNT and TBS in addition to a customer’s local ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC stations and affiliates (except in markets where Nexstar owns the local NBC affiliate, in which case DIRECTV offers a national feed of NBC programming).
The MySports plan also includes access to ESPN Unlimited, the streaming plan baked within the ESPN app that unlocks access to the full slate of ESPN cable channels over streaming in addition to online-only programming from ESPN Plus. Typically, the ESPN Unlimited plan is $30 per month without a dedicated pay TV subscription.
Three other plans — MyEntertainment, MyNews and MyKids — launched a short time later, offering access to entertainment and knowledge channels for as little as $20 per month.
Like other pay TV services, DIRECTV is required to pay broadcasters and cable network programmers for the privilege of reselling access to their channels. Those fees have steadily increased over the past decade as channel owners seek to address a downturn in advertising revenue by raising distribution fees on pay TV platforms, which pass those costs along to customers.
May pay TV contracts are set to expire within the next two years, with DIRECTV already starting to engage in negotiations with some broadcasters and cable network owners over new distribution contracts. Typically, those negotiations include a demand from programmers for more money, though DIRECTV and others have been able to squeeze out more-favorable arrangements in recent years, including the bundling of network-owned streaming apps like ESPN Unlimited, Disney Plus, HBO Max and others.
