Both AT&T and Charter are extending free previews of Showtime and other premium channels to subscribers who are stuck at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Charter said it will provide both Showtime and Epix at no additional charge through Sunday, April 19 to Spectrum TV customers who do not currently receive those channels.
“We hope that by expanding these programming options it will provide even more hours of entertainment for our customers in these challenging times,” said Tom Montemagno, executive vice president of programming acquisition for Charter, in a statement. “The highly-popular original entertainment programming and movies on these networks will be of great interest to a large cross-section of our customers.”
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AT&T is also offering a series of free premium channel previews for all its DirecTV and U-verse video subscribers. It starts with Showtime until March 26, followed by Starz from March 26 to April 2, Epix from April 2 to April 16, and HBO from April 17 to April 20.
AT&T is also making a long list of entertainment and movie channels available for free for its DirecTV and U-verse subscribers who don’t already get the programming. The news channels include BBC World News , CNBC, CNN, CNN International, Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and One America News Network.
The entertainment channels include American Heroes, Aspire, AWE, AXS TV, Comedy.TV, Cooking Channel, Crime & Investigation, Destination America, Discovery Life, DIY Network, Eleven Sports, FM, Fuse, FX Movie Channel, fyi, Great American Country, GSN, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, HDNET MOVIES, IFC, Justice Central, LMN, MGM HD, MTV Live, Nat Geo WILD, OWN, Oxygen, Science Channel, ShortsTV, Smithsonian Channel, Sony Movie Channel, SundanceTV, The Weather Channel, Travel Channel, TV One, UPtv and WGN America.
The kids channels include Discovery Family, Disney Jr., Disney XD, Nick Jr. and Universal Kids.
Streaming services are also offering up free access to channels during the outbreak. Hulu said it will begin offering free ABC News Live access to its Hulu- and Disney-billed on-demand subscribers. Sling TV has been expanding its free streaming service, which now includes access to ABC News Live, Fox News, BUZZR and Cheddar News along with free previews of FX Movie Channel (through April 17); Nat Geo WILD (through April 17); Game Show Network (through April 30); Hallmark, Hallmark Drama and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (through May 13); Sundance TV (through April 17); and CNBC (through April 20).