Confirmed: Long-Time DIRECTV STREAM Customers Will Not Lose ‘Early Adopter’ Discounts, Despite Rate-Increase Emails
The streaming landscape is one of constantly changing seas. From content bouncing between services to costs climbing ever upward, it is never a surprise when customers are confused by any bit of information that they get from a service regarding their subscriptions. This week, word began to trickle out that some longtime subscribers to the live TV streaming service DIRECTV STREAM were losing the discounts that they had enjoyed for years. However, a DIRECTV spokesperson has confirmed to The Streamable that this is not the case.
The impacted customers had originally come to the service before its most recent name change, either when it was known as AT&T TV NOW or DIRECTV NOW. At the time, they signed up for the Go Big package which, depending on when they subscribed, came with a much lower price tag than what is currently available from the live TV streaming service. The plan previously cost as little as $35 per month, but as more channels and technologies were added, grew to $79.99 monthly.
In fact, two years ago, the price for the Go Big plan increased to $104.99 per month, but “early adopters” received a $25 per month credit to keep the cost under $80. Despite the fairly high cost, the benefit was that the package included practically every premium cable channel, including HBO Max, SHOWTIME, STARZ, Reelz, Cinemax, and more. However, that subscription option has since been retired, replaced by the Premier package, which runs $154.99 per month.
Despite that fact, those aforementioned early adopters were allowed to keep their packages as DIRECTV kept their pricing and channel lineups locked in. But, this week, some legacy subscribers received emails from the streamer that informed them that their prices would be increasing to $114.99 per month, essentially eliminating the long-established discounts. For those customers who had locked in the very early $35 per month rate to the now-discontinued plan, that would represent a monthly increase of $80 monthly.
However, when reached for comment by The Streamable a DIRECTV spokesperson confirmed that as long as customers did not make any changes to their plans — which had always been the case with these plans — nothing would change in terms of their monthly bills.
“As long as customers aren’t making changes to their existing DIRECTV or mobility services, they will continue to keep their discounts,” the spokesperson said.
According to DIRECTV, the communication informing customers that their bills would be increasing was sent in error. The mistake has since been fixed on the service’s side and any subscribers who were impacted are able to maintain their discount and any monies that were errantly billed will be refunded.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live TV streaming service, which is essentially the streaming version of the DIRECTV service. All packages include local channels and at least 31 of the top 35 cable channels. New subscribers can get a free Gemini streaming device from the company, in which case the service is called “DIRECTV via Internet.”