Discovery, and its suite of channels and shows, has launched its new streaming service, Discovery+, on Amazon Fire TVs and other streaming devices. The new service provides a-la-carte access to Discovery’s networks including Food Network, HGTV, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, DIY, Magnolia, OWN, A&E, Lifetime, History, and Discovery. All of the content is available with ads for $4.99 per month or ad-free for $6.99 per month.
The new Discovery+ app is already available in the Amazon appstore and it is compatible with every single Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, and Fire TV Edition model that has ever been released. The app offers a 7-day free trial of the new service, but does not offer any free content, since you can’t browse the app without first logging in.
Discovery has said that the streaming service will also be available as a Prime Video Channel in the future. Assuming the upcoming Prime Video Channel subscription gives access to the stand-alone Discovery+ app, subscribing that way would probably be ideal for Fire TV owners for the same reasons that subscriber to HBO through Prime Video Channels is ideal.
I was looking forward to this after realizing they offered 99% of the content I was watching through Philo for $20 monthly. Early this morning (1/4/21) I installed the app on my Fire Cube. Upon launch, I was offered a free 7 day trial requiring my email address, choice of password and Amazon password. Obviously this will be billed through Amazon, which I prefer. There’s no “live” TV, which is not an issue for me. Content can be located using a number of methods. I quickly added favorite shows to “my list”. I found everything with only two exceptions. The catalog is staggering in size. For example, there are episodes of ID programs that haven’t aired in years. On the other hand, new episodes of current shows are there also Original content is available too. To sum up, I found everything advertised in the build up to be accurate. My lineup for the foreseeable future is: Peacock (unfortunately only on Roku), CBS All Access (a 12 month discount via Amazon), Discovery+ (with minimal commercials) and an indoor antenna. My total monthly bill is around $15 and I have everything I want!
Peacock works great on Fire TV? My go to network these days, been using it for months, just side load it. Elias keeps a well documented article with links.
Looks like they will be bringing a version of LIVE TV channels to the service by the end of the month. I don’t know if this will be the actual LIVE feeds of the cable channels or more of a curated playlist of channels similar to what PEACOCK offers.
WHAT ARE DISCOVERY+ CHANNELS?
This new feature is coming to discovery+ by January 29. You’ll be able to tune in 24/7 to non-stop streams featuring your favorite shows, like 90 Day Fiance, House Hunters, Chopped, Fixer Upper and more.
I guess this + might be worth looking into. I would like to see the NBC app with it’s live national feeds folded into Peacock, not sure what they are waiting for. Peacock has a free with commercials tier anyway, I suspect the major cable companies are behind the scenes still trying to maintain their icy grip on everything.
Unfortunately, the more I read up on this the more it looks like actual LIVE TV feeds will remain part of a cable subscription model. Discovery+ Channels sounds like it will be playlist streams of past seasons of shows. Current seasons of existing Discovery shows will remain in a Discovery cable networks windows before they arrive on discovery+ streaming. They still want to protect that cable fee model, just as NBC wants to by not making LIVE TV feeds available on PEACOCK.
Here in the UK, the Discovery+ live channels are indeed the actual live tv channels you get on satellite/cable/OTA. I can’t see why they wouldn’t do this in the US (around the world) too.
I think we may still need a service like PHILO for LIVE TV and current seasons of Discovery shows. At launch it may seem that everything is available, but I believe that post-covid when new seasons of shows run on a Discovery cable channel they will not be available on discovery+ streaming for next-day viewing or even next-week viewing. I believe they intend to follow the model of a series past full season will become available on discovery+ just before a new season arrives on the Discovery cable network. There will be new exclusive discovery+ content on the streaming service, but I think current seasons of existing shows may take awhile to become available on discovery+.
Every Network launching a (+) these days.
I think the (+) ends up becoming a (-) for viewers of the regular channel version, even if you are paying for it through cable.
I do hope the PRIME VIDEO CHANNELS subscription option does allow you to link to standalone discovery+ app as you can with CBS AA. There are a number of BBC Planet series that are available in 4K UHD on FTV4K discovery+ app, but I suspect that we will lose 4K UHD content when using the PRIME VIDEO CHANNEL access. It would be really nice if Amazon worked with their streaming partners (CBS AA, EPIX, Showtime, discovery+) and made 4K UHD content that is available via standalone apps available via PRIME VIDEO CHANNEL subscription.
Hi, does anyone know if it’s possible to use APK Editor Studio to modify the Discovery Plus APK so that it can work outside of the US?
Either by renaming it so that it looks like a sideloaded app?
This annoys me slightly, we in the UK have had Discovery+ since Nov 2020 (I know, we actually got it first for once, haha). However, we don’t have a Fire TV app (or I don’t on my device) and we don’t have it for Samsung smart TVs either, how can they launch in US at a later date and offer thise devices and not here in the UK? We get it on Sky (satellite), Apple TV, iOS, Android, Web or Cast it to TV.
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