Don't know if this will change, but I get Motor Trend on Philo, along with a lot of other "good" channels, for about $25 a month. One of the main reasons I got Philo was the Motor Trend channel.
Here is a copy of the email I received from MotorTrend; Hey there, MotorTrend+ premium video content will be moving to a new home on discovery+. As a result, on or shortly after March 25, 2024 you will become a discovery+ (Ad-Free) subscriber. You’ll continue to have access to all of the premium video content available through your MotorTrend+ subscription on discovery+ at no additional cost. This includes your MotorTrend+ favorites in addition to reality content, new shows and a variety of automotive shows like Street Outlaws, Fast N’ Loud, and Diesel Brothers. Your MotorTrend+ subscription and related data will be transferred to discovery+ and you will be subject to discovery+’s Privacy Notice & Visitor Agreement. Your discovery+ subscription will be billed on your following renewal date using the payment method associated with your subscription at your current price of $54.99/year, plus tax. To get started on discovery+, download the discovery+ app on any supported device or on your computer by going to discoveryplus.com. From there, sign in with the same email and password you used to access MotorTrend+. After that, you can stream all of your favorites like Roadkill, Bitchin’ Rides, Texas Metal, live events, and more. You’ll still have access to the MotorTrend app and all the free, world-class MotorTrend editorial coverage, magazines, photography, and events and will continue to be subject to MotorTrend’s Privacy Policy & Terms of Use.
I'll actually be saving money because I currently subscribe to both. The wife likes all the home reno and cooking shows on discovery.
Dan, you are actually losing money because the shows give the wife expensive ideas. It happens at my house too. Money that should be used for car projects.
Used to think thiose home shows were secretly sponsored by Home Depot and Lowes. But after the G/F got me to watch a few, I realized that they're sponsored by Satan.
I guess you have to be a certain young age to even know what that means I guess that has something to do with staring at a cell phone like a zombie?
Oh man, what a relief, I was worried that this was going to be about the Hot rod print magazine going out. thank god it is only about some streaming nonsense. I do not subscribe to it and I do not have cable TV. Turned that off 15 years ago and do not miss that bunch of reality show crap one bit. I can't wait for my new quarterly issues of Hot Rod to come in the mail
I don't feel like I have to defend streaming car content, but there's some stuff on there that is not reality show scripted crap. I've learned a lot through the Engine Masters show. From what I've seen, anything with David Freiburger in it is usually true and not contrived fake drama.
The sad truth is that all the printed periodicals are going the way of the do do bird. What would be cool is if someone could/would reprint any Hot Rod or Popular Hot Rodding etc. magazines I for sure would buy some. Leave modern ads out but reproduce old ads,an issue might cost $20 or $25. I’d do 10 or 12 a year. Anyone have any ideas on this? Dan
I'm confused, I get Motor Trend in my DISH package. Will that continue or will there be an alternative? I watch MT a lot.
The crazy thing about it all is that when the whole shootin' match was bought out again and the new owners killed most all the remaining magazines a couple years ago, I was told from one of the former employees at Hot Rod/Motor Trend, etc. that the reason the new company purchased it all and subsequently killed most of them was that what they really wanted was the rights to Roadkill and it's ad revenue. So, the print was essentially worthless to them but they had to buy it all to get Roadkill. And now it would seem even the video mess they went after in the first place isn't turning out like they planned. It's a crazy mixed up world.
What's cool is that the Motortrend+ app has every HRM ever published online for viewing for subscribers, and they've been adding other titles. It is mentioned in the email that this access will continue. It's really cool to have access to them all.
The Motor Trend TV channel and the Motortrend+ streaming app are two different things. There has been no mention of the channel disappearing.
Gary, what you are getting is regular Motor Trend , the version with commercials. Motor Trend +, you pay an annual fee for and it has no commercials.
Hotrod somewhat does that now and that part probably killed a lot of sales to those who think tech articles on new stuff are more interesting than history. The same new stuff that many here don't find interesting. As far as MT TV goes Dish Network may move it to a different channel for me to hunt down but I spend more time watching You Tube on TV than MT anyhow.
That seems like an erroneous assessment. Roadkill and it's related properties aren't going away, but their streaming service is just transferring to Discovery, who is already a part of this. Seems like it's streamlining systems. Operating only one streaming service versus two and one being very niche makes sense.
I can accept that, and I'm sure that's true. I just find it ironic that they bought something big for a piece of it, seemingly had big plans for it and are changing course to merge it with something else that many of their subscribers are already paying for, essentially cutting their revenue of the individual piece, you know? I get cutting costs, but also in effect cuts revenue, you know? Sounds not unlike the cutting of magazines and moving those subscribers to mags they were already getting...and making only one sub's worth of revenue instead of two. I don't have a dog in the hunt, just an observation from the cheap seats. LOL
I would bet that they did an assessment of email addresses and determined there wasn't a lot of subscriber crossover before making this call. Joining apps reduces overhead and therefore raises margin, as long as you're not losing a bunch of your revenue in the process. If they raise my subscription cost I'll happily drop it.
The motor trend TV channel and the streaming service are handled separately. This isn't the TV channel.
When they killed all but three of their magazines back in 2019, the braintrust figured all those advertising dollars would simply "fold" into the streaming/TV platform. Guess what? They didn't! And they've been going 'round hat in hand since then trying to figure out how to fix their enormous clusterfunk. This latest news doesn't surprise me in the least, nor does the round of layoffs that accompanied it. Couple that with the previous news of Hot Rod going quarterly and I'd be surprised if it lasts past the first quarterly issue. The horse is dead and has been beaten...
The Jalopy Journal
