If You Have This Popular TV Provider, Prepare to Lose Access to Fox Channels on Friday

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While television may still provide us with the addictive scripted dramas, up-to-the-minute live news, and guilty pleasure reality shows we all crave, the last decade has transformed how we access our favorite programming. On the one hand, the constantly changing landscape of traditional cable and streaming providers has arguably made it easier to save a little money by only paying for the type of content you’re interested in.

But the splintering of services has also made it harder to stay on top of keeping your favorite shows and channels in some ways, especially as new options pop up and programming shuffles from one place to another. And now, customers of one popular TV provider could be about to lose access to Fox channels by the end of the week. Read on to see if you’re about to get cut off from some of your must-watch shows.

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For viewers, getting the television programming you want is as easy as turning on your set and hopefully finding what you’re looking for as soon as possible. But on the inside, TV operates as a complicated arrangement between the studio and networks that produce the content you crave and the large cable, satellite, and now streaming providers who carry them. And while agreements between the two parties typically carry on unnoticed by the average viewer, hiccups do happen that can leave them in the dark.

Contract disputes between carriers and networks have resulted in numerous channel outages in recent years as the traditional broadcast landscape continues to change. One of the latest examples involves popular provider Verizon, which told its Fios TV customers it was struggling in negotiations with Nexstar Media Group in October. The dispute blacked out 15 different channels—including local CBS, ABC, C.W., NBC, and Fox stations—in twelve major metro markets across the U.S. before the two parties reached an agreement at the end of the month, The Providence Journal reports.

Fox also recently found itself embroiled in a carrier conundrum. Last month, TV provider Altice warned its Optimum cable service customers that it would drop all of the network’s channels due to Fox’s demand for a fee increase before the companies reached a last-minute deal. But now, the popular network finds itself on the outs with yet another company.

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On Nov. 27, Fox began warning DirecTV customers via a scrawl on its channels that they were at risk of losing their “favorite Fox programming” due to an ongoing contract dispute with the TV provider, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Viewers will lose access when the current contract expires at midnight on Dec. 2.

“Fox remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with DirecTV for the continued distribution of our networks,” the company said in a statement released on Nov. 27. “Despite our best efforts for months, we regret that DirecTV continues to demand unprecedented special treatment that represents a wholesale change to our long-standing relationship and is out of step with marketplace terms.”

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The potential move is a major blow to sports fans in particular, as it will deprive customers of access to FIFA World Cup tournament matches, Big Ten College Football Championship games, and NFL coverage on the network, USA Today reports. However, the carrier clarified that any outages would not affect the nationally broadcasted Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network.

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“At this point, any interruption of Fox programming depends solely on Fox alone,” Nick Ammazzalorso , a DirecTV spokesperson, said in a statement released to USA Today . “DirecTV has no intention to remove any Fox content. The best way for everyone to ‘Keep Fox’ is for Fox to keep making it available themselves.”

“Unfortunately, the same old, tired programmer scare tactics of putting customers into the middle of contract renewals tend to die hard,” the statement continued. “Fox invented this tactic back at the turn of the century, and has a long, long history of aggravating consumers to help try to boost their guaranteed rates, while most renewals are typically resolved without any interruptions. Just last month, Fox alerted Altice USA customers, only to settle without removing signals, while the same is true of other recent Fox renewals with Roku and the National Cable Television Cooperative, among others.”

If You Use This Popular Streaming Service, Prepare for Added Fees Next Year

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It wasn’t too long ago that canceling your cable package in favor of a streaming platform was a way to save some serious money. But as new on-demand services have grown in number over time, it’s becoming more difficult to avoid an expensive rebound in your monthly bills. And besides the splintering of services that have spread content over more subscriptions, the platforms themselves are beginning to raise their prices. Now, one popular streaming service has announced that it will add more fees by early next year. Read on to see if your monthly binging budget is about to get thrown out of whack.

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It might not seem like so long ago that streaming services were seen as cutting-edge technology that would shake up how we get our favorite shows and movies. But by now, the industry appears to be well out of its early adopter phase and into a new era of more realistic cost structures.

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Until recently, the company has remained relatively lax in enforcing how many people can share an account . But the streaming service has seen increased competition from major studios releasing their own platforms in recent months, which has changed the playing field amid the company’s own fears of its future financial health, CNet reports.

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While specifics of the new subaccount system weren’t released, Netflix has been testing out sharing fees in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru for roughly six months, CNet reports. Currently, users in those countries are charged for each user listed on their account who does not watch the service from their household.

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Even though the imminent password-sharing fees mark a massive departure from the company’s policy, Netflix will still make it easy for users to settle into the new system. In a press release on Oct. 17, the company also announced a new Profile Transfer feature that “lets people using your account transfer a profile—keeping the personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other settings—when they start their own membership.”

And even if users cannot score a heavily-discounted subaccount from a friend or family member, they’ll soon have another option. On Nov. 3, Netflix will officially launch its first ad-supported tier that will drop the price of a subscription to $7 a month, Engadget reports. The new plan will be available in 12 countries, including U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Spain.