Price increases June 25, 2026

[KyL416]

Has nothing to do with DirecTV raising the monthly prices twice a year, specially since those services only has increases once a year.

Premiums are not the only programming cost that has gone up in the months since the previous increase was announced in early September. They struck new deals with AMC Networks, Hallmark, RFD/Cowboy, Urban One, Sony and others and had multiple retrans disputes that have since been resolved. They expanded the diginets (which are not free to providers) to Entertainment, and added Lionsgate's MovieSphere Gold and Scripps's Ion Mystery. Networks still charge extra for HD distribution, and over the past few networks multiple networks were upgraded to HD on the streaming side, and were also upgraded on satellite. They also signed deals for all of the team specific MLB channels and multiple NBA and NHL team channels, most of which have deals that require Choice or higher. And considering how last minute those deals were, it wasn't as simple as paying the MLB teams the same rate they would have been paying FanDuel and others. Scripps also started charging more for their former Ion stations that converted to "The Spot" and picked up local NHL rights.

 

[Bruce]

Premiums are not the only programming cost that has gone up in the months since the previous increase was announced in early September. They struck new deals with AMC Networks, Hallmark, RFD/Cowboy, Urban One, Sony and others and had multiple retrans disputes that have since been resolved. They expanded the diginets (which are not free to providers) to Entertainment, and added Lionsgate's MovieSphere Gold and Scripps's Ion Mystery. Networks still charge extra for HD distribution, and over the past few networks multiple networks were upgraded to HD on the streaming side, and were also upgraded on satellite. They also signed deals for all of the team specific MLB channels and multiple NBA and NHL team channels, most of which have deals that require Choice or higher. And considering how last minute those deals were, it wasn't as simple as paying the MLB teams the same rate they would have been paying FanDuel and others. Scripps also started charging more for their former Ion stations that converted to "The Spot" and picked up local NHL rights.

All Live TV Services, including YTTV ( just had a Disney dispute last October), have increased programming costs, all, yet they are not having two price increases a year.

YTTV, which is now profitable at even their low price, only averages a increase every two years.

What is even worse, you are receiving less and less new programming ( especially scripted) for those price increases.

 

[b4pjoe]

A $20 differential sounds like the difference in RSN pricing.

The price of Ultimate for me $173.99 plus a $13.99 RSN fee.

 

[Jimbo]

The price of Ultimate for me $173.99 plus a $13.99 RSN fee.

I'm glad I got out when I did, I had the same package as you ... I even waited a few years to long really.

 

[Ronnie-]

Its been several years since I had dish or Directv, but it is mind boggling to me what the prices have gone to in that time.

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