The Movies Extra Pack add-on is a quick and easy way to add more movies, including new releases and family favorites, to an existing DirecTV Stream plan. As this is an add-on, there is an additional monthly cost on top of the price of the subscription. Whether or not it is worth adding Movies Extra Pack will largely come down to the channels a household wants access to, and the plan they are already signed up to.
DirecTV Stream offers four main plans for consumers to choose from, with the main difference being the number of channels. In this sense, DirecTV Stream does offer different options to suit the channel and budget needs of different homes, which isn’t something that all live TV services offer. Still, there are some channels that are not included with any of the plans, and this is where add-ons can prove useful.
The Movies Extra Pack is one such add-on. Priced at $4.99 per month, Movies Extra Pack unlocks access to an additional eight channels. DirecTV Stream doesn’t focus too much on the add-on when signing up, so some subscribers may not realize it is even available. However, it can be easily added to an existing subscription by logging in to the DirecTV Stream website and heading to the Account section. From there, it is just a matter of clicking on Manage Subscription and then selecting Movies Extra Plan. The subscriber will also need to review their decision and confirm the selection before the change is made.
Once Movies Extra Pack is added to any of the DirecTV Stream base packages, subscribers get access to the following eight channels:
- Hallmark Drama
- Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
- HDNet Movies
- MGM HD
- Sony Movies
- Smithsonian Channel
- Crime + Investigation
- MTV Live
Do you need the extra channels?
Whether it is worth paying another $5 per month for access to Movies Extra Pack will depend on how much a household wants access to the extra channels, and determining this is not so straightforward.
The reason for this is that some subscribers may already have access to some of the channels provided by the add-on.
As mentioned, DirecTV Stream has four base plans for consumers to choose from – Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate and Premium. With fewer channels overall and a lower monthly subscription price, Entertainment is the most basic. Likewise, with significantly more channels and a much higher subscription cost, Premier is the most premium.
Choice and Ultimate are middle-ground options which also vary in the number of channels and the price. While the natural assumption would be that any of the more expensive plans would include all of the channels available with a lower-priced plan, that’s not always the case.
For example, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is included with the cheapest Entertainment package and the most expensive Premier plan. However, it is not available with either the Choice or Ultimate plans. If already paying for Entertainment, and only really interested in Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, there might not be any need to add the Movies Extra Pack add-on.
To be fair, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is really the exception here, but the point is the same. It is always worth double-checking to make sure the channels included with the add-on are wanted, and unavailable with the current plan before signing up.
Movies Extra Pack add-on: summary
The Movies Extra Pack add-on adds an additional eight channels to any of DirecTV Stream’s base plans for an additional $4.99 per month. The exact number of channels will depend on the plan, as some subscribers may find that some of them are already included with their existing package.
For example, those signed up to the most expensive Premier plan already get access to three of the eight channels unlocked by Movies Extra Pack.
If only really interested in access to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, then subscribers to either the Choice or Ultimate plans may actually want to consider downgrading to Entertainment. Even though Entertainment is cheaper, and comes with fewer channels overall, it does include Hallmark Movies & Mysteries at no additional cost.
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