Q. Discovery Plus is definitely taking our shows from the Discovery and Travel channels and using them to build a new audience on something that cost more money. I am not going to do it, but even if I wanted to, we don’t get a good Internet connection on the farm where I live so we couldn’t subscribe to Discovery Plus no matter. Isn’t this unfair and against the law in some way? — Lynn, Mora, New Mexico.
Lynn, as you note, Discovery has decided to offer new episodes of several popular Discovery-branded shows as Discovery+ exclusives. The move is designed to attract new subscribers to the streaming service, but ‘old’ subscribers to Discovery-owned channels on cable and satellite are crying foul, saying the company is forcing them to pay more money to continue watching their favorites.
Since Discovery+ launched on January 4, the service has been the exclusive home of new episodes of several shows that have built strong followings on channels such as Discovery, HGTV, the Travel Channel, the Food Network and TLC. The shows that now air their new episodes on the streaming service includes Property Brothers: Forever Home, Ghost Adventures, and Paranormal: Caught On Camera, among several others.
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Several Discovery fans have posted messages in our readers forum suggesting that viewers should simply subscribe to Discovery+ if they want to watch those shows so badly. (Discovery officials won’t say if they will ever be available on the Discovery-owned channels found on cable and satellite.) Discovery+’s plans start at $4.99 a month, and you can get an ad-free version for $6.99 a month.
“My wife and I subscribed to Discovery plus the first day it was offered. It was the best decision we ever made. No commercials ($2 more per month) but worth every penny. It is the way of the future,” wrote ‘Mark Timmerman.’
“That’s why you cancel your cable TV service and go internet only,” added ‘Jacob McElyea.’ “The whole point of streaming services is to get people off of traditional cable tv services and move them to streaming services to save money. Now you have more choices to choose from to get your favorite content. A lot of content is free through YouTube, The Roku Channel and others.”
But others, such as Lynn, say they do not have that option because there are no viable Internet options in their areas.
“We are unable to obtain cable in our area so we have DISH satellite service for TV. We can only get DSL through our phone company for Internet access, Centurylink. The fastest speed they can provide to us is “up to 4 mbps” which is reality is usually between 2.6 and 3.2 mbps download and .76 mbps upload. We are not on fiber optic cables in our area nor will we get it anytime soon. So I’m boycotting Discovery+ and all the channels they moved and hope in the future they’ll change things,” ‘Theresa O’Dell’ writes in our reader forum.
“What about those that don’t have good access to internet? I read that you use 1 or 2 GB per hour streaming. I get 10gb hotspot a month for 65 dollars. What I get a good 3hr of shows before I use it all. And it’s crappy on top of that. This discovery plus b’s is a lot more than 5 dollars a month for some of us,” adds ‘Sean Paul.’
Lynn, Theresa and Sean are not alone in their lament. The FCC last year estimated that 21 million rural Americans still lack access to high-speed Internet, although some believe the number is higher.
For rural residents who have been die-hard Discovery fans, the loss of new episodes of favorite shows hits especially hard.
“What a slap in the face to people who have watched your channels before it was so “trendy” to do so,” ‘Notsohappy’ writes in the TV Answer Man forum,. “They have taken more than my “tv shows” away from me. In times of such uncertainty they have taken away my source sanity… the only shows I look forward to. Thanks for not having your loyal customers backs during these hard times. You have forever changed my view on the people at DISCOVERY CHANNEL”
“I think this is so wrong, I am disabled on a fixed income. So now in addition to paying ever increasing cable cost I need a newer TV or a streaming stick and increased internet speed . I live in a more rural area and my internet already sucks,” adds ‘Susan J.’
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— Phillip Swann
Even got those of us who do have access, it’s truly unfair when we already pay high fees to own cable or satellite. Discovery should be ashamed at what they are doing to the loyal followers of these programs. I guess greed outweighs doing what is right. First the nation becomes divided by Twitter and politics, then we get hit with a pandemic, then we’re told we have to close businesses, some permanently, never to reopen, hundreds of thousands of people die across the globe, people can’t say goodbye to their loved ones one last time, we can’t have proper funerals, we have to wear a mask everywhere we go, which is unnatural and uncomfortable, we barely socialize anymore, people are in lockdown with nowhere to go, AND YOU’RE TELLING ME I HAVE TO PAY EVEN MORE IF I WANT TO WATCH ANY OF MY FAVORITE PROGRAMS ON DISCOVERY+ just because you want more money?!! I say screw you and anybody else who is taking advantage during what has been some of the most trying times in any of our lifetimes.
How dare you Discovery and for shame. I guess rural folks just don’t matter in your books. And same to all the people participating on all the different Discovery channels i.e., Guy Fieri, Joe Kenda, Drew and Jonathan Scott. And many, many others. You each sold out for the big bucks and forgot about us little guys. I’m disgusted by Discovery.
Well said! Compared to all the horrible things happening in the world today, this is small potatoes; however, hard working customers are being asked to pay for a service to access programming they previously watched via their usual cable/satellite/etc package. By limiting access to those programs, the network is providing less value to the standard customer, and should therefore lower their usual package rate. Yeah, right- like that would *ever* happen.
I so agree with you! I am about to just not have any channels but my local channels. Discovery especially is a greedy company. I guess that shows us what they all are becoming. I think that they should be ashamed of themselves. I live in Alaska and with COVID most of us are stuck in our homes. Now what they are showing on the television ID channels are all reruns. I’m thinking all the companies will soon make us pay per channel.
I totally agree with everything you said. I have only recently been able to get decent Internet service or I would not be able to watch any of the shows that have helped to sustain me during all that is going on in the world. It is especially hard for people who have disabilities and their only choice is to watch tv or stare at the wall. I am still figuring out how the streaming works but if I didn’t have unlimited internet I would be totally in trouble. I started seriously checking out streaming and watching Discovery+ in January and used over 260g of data for the month. That puts me in a high volume category making my service to slow downs. Since so many of the shows we like are on Discovery+ I can’t imagine how high the usage will be if we watched everything on Discovery+ that we normally watch on cable. I am hoping to figure out that I am doing something wrong and normal usage won’t be that high. Like many other people have said I agree that it is more than the money issue which is major but there are a lot of people with no access to internet service or with slow service that makes it impossible to have access to Discovery+ or any other streaming service.
It’s really bad on ID you hardly can find a new episode of anything on that channel anymore. Use to be a new episode at least 5 days a week now you get maybe 2. Where did they all go. I’m not paying twice to watch what I watched before. I hope nobody pays for discovery+ make them put the show back where they belong. Quite double charging people. Greedy Bast@&$%
We agree with all of you. We will Not pay extra. This is absolutely ridiculous. Greed is correct. What a Stupid time to pull this garbage. Actually the show that we have been waiting so long for their return is Chip and Joanne. With them joining this garbage I guess we will part with you for good. Very sad. We will miss you. Goodbye to all of you abandoning us. Amazing. We pay for a lot of channels with directv. Very little are good to me. My husband has more choices. Most are junk to me. To have my clean interesting shows taken is betrayal.
The people who run Discovery are so sleazy. I watched Travel a lot for many years, but I have moved on already. It seems strange that they left so many of their channels to rot. Travel is by far the biggest channel to do this to because it has over 30 million more households than the others.
Hopefully my cable company will come up with a plan to remove Discovery and all of its networks so I don’t have to pay for them anymore. Discovery programming isn’t worthy 5 pennies, let a lone 5 dollars. There are a lot of trash reality shows and home “improvement” shows that I do not want to have to look at.
I too live in the country and have no access to internet and therefore no streaming. I am in the process of cancelling my satellite service all because of the stealing of the discovery shows that are now only available on discovery+. I love my country living with clean air, wildlife and beautiful sunrises and sunsets and would never give it up and move to a city for streaming ability of your shows. I will enjoy my beautiful Montana home every day (plus be richer with no satellite or discovery+ bill!) and will pity you for your greed along with the greed of all the shows that are now only available on discover+! Thank you for making me realize what is important and it is definitely not discovery’s shows!
I agree with everything you all said above. I’m not in the country, I have a smart TVs with fast internet. But I am disabled, I have no income and at 46 years old my mom pays my bills. I have been comfortable with my satellite set up which I have had since 2012 (with rearranging packages and services). I absolutely loved the Discovery Network and stuck to a few main channels. But I watch other things like news channels and I just saw an ad for “Paramount+” which was why I did this search and found this. I am far from tech savvy, I call myself a tech-tard. One of the things about Discovery+ is they aren’t compatible with LG TVs! My TVs are both LG a really big brand, so why would they do that? I can’t spend an extra $5 a month to watch shows I used to watch in the cable package that hasn’t changed on my phone. Wth? And after seeing the Paramount+ (which includes MTV, a channel I absolutely love, but the rest of the channels I would not watch for any reason let alone pay for). I don’t even know how to make the switch from cable TV to all these streaming networks and Apple this and stream that or whatever. I have absolutely no clue how to do it. I’m supposed to then have 15 different charges instead of it all being in one place? I am SO confused and way beyond pissed that my shows are disappearing that were being advertised to come back this season. They don’t care that we have lost so much these past few years, especially 2020, that we can’t afford the stress of this or the financial burden. And of course they’ll gradually pique our interest and raise the monthly price after a season or two. They only care what they can profit off our misfortune of being stuck at home needing an outlet that isn’t heroin or crack.
Pure avarice. Bad enough the number of commercials. People need to take back the night by boycotting discovery plus.
I agree,,I use to have a good opinion of Josh Gates,Ghost adverntures,kindred spirits,etc,,,but now,,all those host of those shows,,are part of the greedy un=ethical media core..Ghost Adventures,Josh Gates,Amy whats her name,dead files,,all u guys are just greedy little creeps.Stabbing your loyal viewers FOR YEARS in the back for $$$$..shows your true colors,,,maryw