Q. I know you say that we still have our Discovery channels after Discovery Plus started. But I know that some shows aren’t available on Discovery anymore because they put them on Discovery Plus. That’s not fair. We pay good money to Comcast for those channels and we should get all the shows we got before. They are also doing new shows with our favorite stars from Discovery and we can’t watch them unless we pay for Discovery Plus! How can they do this to us? — Stella, Dunkirk, Maryland.
Stella, Discovery+, which launched January 4, is a new streaming service that offers programming from Discovery-owned channels such as HGTV, the Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, and the Discovery Channel itself. The cost is $4.99 a month with ads and $6.99 for an ad-free edition.
Since it launched, I have received several e-mails from readers saying that Discovery is removing certain shows that were previously available on the Discovery channels and putting them on Discovery+. Similar comments can be found on pay TV community forums and social media sites. The upset viewers say Discovery is trying to force them to add Discovery+ to their already significant monthly pay TV bill to continue watching those shows.
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“Why is ‘exclusive original’ programming available ONLY on the Discovery + stream service?” one Comcast subscriber wrote on the Xfinity community forum. “I pay for Discovery channel. You’re shutting us out and asking us to pay more and get episodes we already have been following for years. You are unfair, Discovery+. Especially during this time when people are watching their income tightly. Shame on you.”
“All new episodes of their shows are going to be Discovery+ exclusives. They will no longer air new original content on their channels,” added another cable TV subscriber in the forum.
“We r losing our shows to Discovery+ I already pay $300 a month, y would I want to pay more for a program that I am already watching and paying for. I think I pay plenty enough,” added another Comcast subscriber.
“Yes, I first noticed this when they put an old series Restaurant: Impossible on Discovery+ exclusively. This, and all those other shows were not announced as Discovery+ exclusives until the last minute when the app was launched. Discovery says that they consider cable subscribers an important source of revenue, but it doesn’t look like it,” said one more cable subscriber in that forum.
Discovery officials have acknowledged that they are launching new shows on Discovery+ that feature personalities and topics found on Discovery-owned networks. But are they removing existing shows and/or episodes from the channels and making them Discovery+ exclusives to entice people to subscribe?
If so, I could understand why pay TV subscribers would cry foul; they’ve been paying to get those shows in their cable and satellite subscriptions.
During my search in viewer forums, and in the e-mails I’ve received, I couldn’t find much evidence of specific shows being mentioned as being removed from the Discovery live channel lineup, or its On Demand catalog. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened so I asked Discovery’s communications department if Discovery+ is taking shows or episodes away from Discovery.
Oddly, a Discovery spokesperson seemed to dodge the question:
“We are experimenting with some show premieres on Discovery+ during a brief window during the service’s launch,” Discovery’s Cara Brugnoli said yesterday via e-mail. “That said, we remain committed to serving our pay-TV fans with the shows and talent they love and value. The vast majority of Discovery content premieres on linear, with current seasons largely exclusive to our traditional pay-TV offering.”
That didn’t exactly answer my question so I responded immediately via e-mail:
“But are some shows no longer available on Discovery channels because they have been moved to Discovery+?”
She did not respond. I asked her again via e-mail this morning. She has not responded as of 3 p.m. ET today.
They would seem to confirm that, at least, new episodes of long-running Discovery channel shows are playing first on Discovery+. It’s still unclear if past episodes, or entire seasons, have been removed from the pay TV Discovery and added to Discovery+.
The TV Answer Man will continue to investigate whether shows are being removed and will report back here if we get more information, or a new response from Cara Brugnoli.
Until then, Stella, happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
it’s not just Discovery but also Travel Channel already they premiered Kindred Spirits and Expedition Bigfoot on cable then said want to see the rest of the season? then you gotta pay us $5 a month they can go to hell
Totally agree! I plan on cutting the cord soon and Discovery + as much as I love the shows on the Discovery Networks, Discovery+ will not be making the cut for streaming services of choice. This is not the way to retain customers who have watched your networks for years and years and made your shows successes.
Travel Channel is owned by Discovery. Shows from all of their channels are moving to Discovery+
Every time I watched one of my paranormal shows this past week there was a bug in the lower right of the screen saying “Such and such program is moving exclusively to Discovery+”. You can’t get more blatant than that. Shows I’ve seen that are moving include:
Ghost Adventures
Kindred Spirits
Ghost Nation
Paranormal Caught on Camera
Mountain Monsters
I have cut the cord and am really happy with the service. But I have the opposite problem. I thought this service was primarily for cord cutters and would have the current season of my favorite Food Network show “The Kitchen “. But it doesn’t….but not having it will NOT make me go back. Saving too much money…..
If you ask me descovory+ is destroying tv every time you turn around there is another show they are streaming exclusively on D+ and I do not use the internet for entertainment I don’t think it was ment for that but greedy money hungry executives couldn’t keep they’re hands out of the till think about it thousands of channels already available on television free music all day long on the radio not to mention the millions of achers of world to explore and see how much more entertained can you be get information and shop on line but leave tv on tv where it belongs descovory should be ashamed for trying to use our favorite shows as leverage to elicit more revenue are they not rich enough what about those of us who are already stretched to the limit do we deserve not to get the little bit of pleasure we get from watching our favorite shows we wait all week to watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DON’T BE THAT NETWORK DESCOVERY!!!
Just realized IDGO got rid of most of one of my favorite shows, Evil Lives Here. It appears that seasons 1-7 are now gone, and only season 8 is still there. Disappointing, we are paying for this already through our cable provider and we are not yet ready to cut the cord.
Same problem here. Have been streaming Home Town on watch.HGTV with my cable subscription and now that Discovery + has launched, I can’t watch any of the previous seasons. NOT HAPPY.
Same seems to go for the HGTV app. Literally yesterday there were MANY more (maybe dozens more) shows than are available when I just checked the app today. Guess I’m not going to be able to finish binge-watching “Mediterranean Life” or any of the Holmes-related ones… So frustrating. There wasn’t even a warning! Greedy jerks. I’d appreciate it if you could look into it from this angle too.
Rotten.
Will the new episodes eventually premiere on the original Discovery? Why didn’t they just keep their old platform and ask for a dollar a month? More people would have agreed to that vs. the expenses they put on themselves with the new platform (that is no way near Netflix) and then alienate everyone of their followers in the process.
The expense they have for most of their reality shows has to be minimal, especially compared to Netflix original content/movies, and they still want to compare themselves. The people of the show practically film themselves and they probably pay the producers rock bottom as well.
I will not budge, no matter how much I enjoy the shows. If we start paying them this money, there will be no stop to this behavior and they will continue to raise the price with other networks following their example.
Boycott and stop the greed.
I enjoy the new new shows on Investigation Discovery and they may disappear soon also. Too bad since their new streaming device will never compare to Netflix which I do watch. The Discovery family is part of what I pay for each month so too bad, might have to read more mysteries to make up for the eventual loss or maybe they will find that they made a financial blunder.
Me anf my family have been watching mountain monsters since they came out and now we cant watch them bc they moved all new shows to discovery plus and its upsetting bc we pay so much for our bills and now they want us to pay to watch our shows we watched for years its not right
Discovery is moving most all of their various channels new episodes “exclusively” to their discovery plus platform, including The Dead Files, Expedition Bigfoot, Kindred Spirits, Ghost Adventures from their Travel Channel. Also shows from ID Channel. A&E, Science Channel, etc. For us folks that live in rural areas like myself, we can’t even get streaming platforms to work due to only having satellite internet. We have Directv and like lots of people, pay to have these channels and now discovery is sticking it to us. It’s not right. You’re the only site I’ve seen talking about it. Thank you!
This has made me soooo angry. ID is what I watch the most and now I have to see pop up announcements like “see new eps of The Murder Tapes on discovery+”….so I check and there are NO eps of the show upcoming on ID. I pay A LOT for cable so I see this as the worst kind of greed, and I will no longer watch any Discovery channels. Hello, netflix crime shows!!!!