DIRECTV Stream has joined its sister services, U-verse, and DIRECTV, in announcing new price increases effective January 22, 2023.

The multi-channel, live streaming service has announced at its web site that it will raise its Choice plan from $89.99 a month to $99.99 a month on January 22, 2023.

The price hike has more significance than your average pay TV increase because DIRECTV Stream provides more regional sports channels than any other live streaming service. Unlike Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu Live and FuboTV, DIRECTV Stream carries the 19 Bally Sports RSNs as well as particularly tough-to-find local sports channels such as MASN, Altitude and SportsNet LA, among others.

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But Choice is the cheapest DIRECTV Stream package that offers regional sports channels which means cord-cutting sports fans will have to pay almost $100 a month to watch their favorite teams on the streamer.

DIRECTV Stream’s Entertainment plan, which does not include regional sports channels, will increase from $69.99 a month to $74.99 a month.

DIRECTV Stream also says its Ultimate and Premier packages will rise by $5 a month to $109.99 a month and $154.99 a month respectively. (Both Ultimate and Premier also carry the regional sports channels.)

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The streaming service also announced price increases for some of its ‘grandfathered’ packages which were available when it was known a few years ago as DIRECTV Now:

$4 a month increase
OPTIMO MAS

$5 a month increase
ENTERTAINMENT (not the Entertainment package available to new customers.)
LIVE A LITTLE

$8 a month increase
JUST RIGHT
CHOICE (not the Choice plan available to new customers.)
XTRA

$10 a month increase
GO BIG
GOTTA HAVE IT
PLUS (MIDAS)
PLUS w/o HBO (MIDAS)
MAX (MIDAS)
ULTIMATE

Like U-verse, DIRECTV Stream blames the increases on the escalating cost of programming and the rise in the nation’s inflation rate.

“As is the case across pay TV providers, we’re adjusting the price of our video packages to keep pace with the rising costs of programming. In addition, we continue to experience higher-than-normal inflation across our suppliers,” the streamer says at its web site.

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@tvanswerman