Mass Media & Technology

Discovery+ without prime sub

loading apps (February 2021)

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MI
mish
I have just bought my second firestick. The first is away in my family holiday home and quite suitable for our needs. But at home I have just bought one to acquire more specialist channels for long winter lockdown nights.

I signed-up for Discovery+ expecting to be charged 49.99 for a year. But have found that it only comes via Amazon Prime - for which I did not have a sub - but do now! (Disconnected it as soon as I realised).

I don't want Prime, so how can I access Discovery+ possibly using my VPN and avoid paying an unnecessary sub for Prime? I am sure there are plenty of you tech minded folk out there who have achieved this. I don't mind paying for another app which may allow this, but also make other connections, like the old Mobdro used to.TIA
m
TVF
TV Forum Team
This topic has been moved from TV Home Forum
AJ
AJ
Sounds like you've bought the Discovery+ Prime channel rather than the standalone service.

Head to https://www.discoveryplus.co.uk/ and you can sign up there, then you can download and sign in to the Discovery+ app on your Fire Stick (details here: https://www.discoveryplus.co.uk/how-to-watch)
MI
mish
Thanks AJ. I have signed-up direct using a different email addy and password, yet it still shows extra payments are required for a lot of series, like Os Gold Hunters etc. So I have now written direct to Discovery customer services, an address which so far has been hidden !
AJ
AJ
Yep, sounds like you're still browsing Prime. Boot up the Discovery+ app itself, sign in with your new credentials and you should be good to go.
MI
mish
Thanks AJ. I had success, but here is the sequence in full !

Since making my query I started to reflect on how I first bought the Discovery subscription. I also had in mind the recent controversy about Amazon charging a Prime subscription to unsuspecting customers who had not read the small print of their terms and conditions, which apparently can run to multiple pages.

So I am as guilty as anyone of being lazy and clicking icons and links rather than typing URL addresses. Remembering that to get the Discovery subscription, I clicked a link on the 'home' page which shows when the Firestick is first used.

I then found the Discovery subscription address and typed it directly into my PC and not via the Firestick. So I reached the registration page which is identical to that I first used via the Firestick link. I registered a different email address and password to that I used previously via Amazon.

All seemed to work well but when I clicked on a Discovery programme icon on the Firestick opening screen, it listed the programmes, but once again had a price tag to view each episode. This is what made me write my query.

In fact I had made the correct application to Discovery and the icon I had clicked was a residual link from my previous Amazon connection. Diving into the new Discovery files I had downloaded I found it all works well – with no threatened charges!

I found a link for Discovery customer services and asked them about my previous subscription. They would naturally not commit themselves to any criticism of Amazon, but suggested I contacted Amazon to ensure that there were no other charges against my account following my cancellation of the new charge from Prime.

There were no other charges against my Amazon account. I now only pay Discovery for the subscription and all works very well – lesson learned!

I hope that this information might be of use to anyone else who falls into the same trap!

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