Matt is The Streamable's News Editor and resident Ohio State fan. You can find him covering everything from breaking news to streaming comparisons to sporting events. Matt is extremely well-rounded, having worked for the Big Ten Conference, BroadwayWorld, True Crime Obsessed, and Land-Grant Holy Land before joining TS. He cut the cord in 2014, streams with a Fire TV, and his favorite titles include "The Bear," "The Great British Bake Off," "Mrs. Davis," and anything on the Hallmark Channel.
The world of live TV streaming is evolving. After years of distributors being locked into rigid channel plans like their cable and satellite predecessors, thanks to a handful of industry developments, some of those programming shackles have been loosened, and DIRECTV STREAM is the first service to take advantage of this new reality. On Tuesday, the streamer announced that it was making a new sports-focused channel bundle available called MySports. The plan will have 40 sports and broadcast channels and will be available in 24 markets across the country.
After a contentious carriage dispute with Disney last year, DIRECTV won the right to offer the House of Mouse's channels in smaller, genre-specific packages. At the time, DIRECTV indicated that it would be looking to launch more tailored channel offerings in the sports, general entertainment, and kids spaces. With MySports now available, the distributor is looking to make other genre-specific options available in the first half of this year.
At launch, the MySports package will include 40 sports and broadcast channels and will be available in 24 major metro areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and more. From there, MySports will expand into additional markets as DIRECTV is able to add more local affiliates to the package.
"The introduction of MySports from DIRECTV delivers consumers greater choice, flexibility, and control to select the type of content they want to watch at the right value," DIRECTV CEO Bill Morrow said. "This is the first of several genre-based options we plan to launch over the coming months on our path towards a brighter TV future for consumers."
This announcement comes less than a week after Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they would not be moving forward with their Venu Sports joint venture despite the fact that Disney's acquisition of Fubo seemed to clear the legal path for that to happen.
The JV was intended to bring together all of the channels owned by the three companies that broadcast sports; all of those cable channels and many of the local affiliates are all included in MySports. Fubo also won the right to launch its own skinny-bundle sports streaming service via its deal with Disney, but the streamer currently does not have a carriage agreement with WBD, so it is unclear if TBS, TNT, and truTV will be included.
As the company confirmed to me last week, DIRECTV plans to launch similar general entertainment and kids' programming channel packages in the first half of 2025.
The new MySports channel lineup will cost $70 per month, which is still not inexpensive, but it is $17 cheaper than DIRECTV's base Entertainment plan. And given that sports channels are the most expensive on cable, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the savings are relatively limited with this type of package.
However, any customer who signs up for MySports before Feb. 28, 2025 can receive MySports for just $50 per month for their first three months of service. That is a $20 monthly savings, for a full $60 off over the three-month period. After the three months is over, the service will auto-renew at the $70 rate.
Like with all DIRECTV STREAM plans, customers can receive a five-day free trial to MySports and can cancel at any time.
As DIRECTV gets MySports up and running, there will be a bit of fluidity as to what channels are included int he package. At launch, all local stations owned and operated by ABC, Fox, and NBC will be available, which more coming soon, presumably when DIRECTV completes negotiations with additional channel owners.
There will be 20 major cable channels available on the plan initially with more being added to in the near future. Additional ly, ESPN+ will be available to MySports subscribers in the near future at no extra cost. Finally, in addition to the broadcast and cable networks, MySports will also feature a number of MyFree DIRECTV ad-supported sports channels.
MySports will make watching your favorite teams and the biggest events easier with game-time notifications so you never miss a kickoff, tip, or opening faceoff. Additionally, the plan will come with an unlimited cloud DVR at no extra cost.
Subscribers will be able to stream MySports through the DIRECTV app on major smart and connected TVs including Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV, as well as on mobile devices.