DirecTV Stream Entertainment Subscribers Need To Opt-In To Keep A&E, History, Lifetime, TCM, TruTV And Vice

DirecTV Stream subscribers signed up to the Entertainment package will need to opt-in to keep A&E, History, Lifetime, TCM, truTV and Vice. Failure to opt-in will seemingly result in these channels being automatically removed from a subscriber’s plan.

Earlier this month, Streaming Better reported how A&E (channel 265), History (channel 269), Lifetime (channel 252) and Vice (channel 271) had been removed from the Entertainment package. This only affected new new subscribers at the time, with existing subscribers retaining access to the channels so long as they didn’t make any major changes to their package.

While that is still technically the case, DirecTV has started notifying customers that these channels are being removed from certain packages. The notification includes the option for subscribers to choose between “Keep channels” (at no additional cost) and “No thanks.” The latter of which seemingly gives permission for DirecTV to remove the channels from the customer’s package.

According to the notification, these channels are scheduled to be removed from Entertainment on April 18, 2024. As far as we understand, the notification is only visible when logging in to an account via the DirecTV Stream website, so we would recommend logging in and checking for the pop-up notification before the April 18 deadline.

When we first reported on the removal of these channels, neither TCM (channel 256) nor truTV (channel 246) were listed as channels that were being removed. Furthermore, the DirecTV Stream website continues to advertise these channels as included with Entertainment.

However, and considering the others have already been removed from Entertainment for new subscribers, the inclusion of TCM and truTV in the notification seems to suggest these channels are also likely to be removed from the Entertainment tier for new subscribers as well.

Providing that is the case, we would expect the channels to be removed within the next few weeks, and no later than April 18, when existing customers who fail to opt-in are expected to lose access to them.