Prior to announcing they would raising prices on most of its satellite and streaming tiers by January 2022, DIRECTV had attempted to reduce satellite service costs in trimming down networks like the History Channel and three other A&E Networks. However, after some backlash from customers, DirecTV restored the channels.
Over the weekend, DirecTV cut down on “select” networks from the programming bundles of subscribers who weren’t watching them. Viewers could have them restored, but they would have to initiate the switch. An A&E representative told Next TV that legacy DirecTV “Entertainment” tier customers who had History Channel, A&E, Vice, and Lifetime Movies taken from their plan had been put back as of Wednesday morning.
The company said this in a statement, “We recently informed customers who have not actively engaged in History and other select channels that the content will no longer appear in their lineup… Any interested customers who are not seeing it yet want to add it back at no additional cost can visit www.directv.com/channel-opt-in.” Customers were informed in October that the networks would be leaving the service on December 8, unless they visited the opt-in page.
fuboTV also dropped six A&E Networks channels back in July because it didn’t align with their mission of offering “a leading package of premium sports, news and entertainment programming while also balancing value and keeping costs as low as possible for consumers.”
The A&E channels have long resided in the DirecTV’s Entertainment tier, where they have apparently “over-indexed” in viewership performance. Compares to today’s media landscape on basic cable, A&E seemed like a perfect test subject for DirecTV to cut down on the cost of paying for subscribers who weren’t watching, especially since it lacks news and sports.