The HISTORY Vault, Lifetime Movie Club, and A&E Crime Central bundle brings three A+E streaming services under one monthly payment.
You get history shows and true crime series. You also have Lifetime movies, all these for $9.99 a month.
The price is good, but is it worth subscribing to?
1. The bundle saves you $6.98 each month
The bundle costs $9.99 per month, plus any tax charged in your state. There is no annual bundle plan.
Buying all three monthly plans on their own costs:
- HISTORY Vault: $5.99
- A&E Crime Central: $5.99
- Lifetime Movie Club: $4.99
The total would be $16.97. The three-service bundle, therefore, saves you $6.98 each month. That is $83.76 over a full year.
It even makes more sense than buying the three annual plans. Those plans cost a total of $169.97 per year. Paying $9.99 for the bundle over 12 months costs $119.88. The math shows you are saving $50.09.
The bundle also makes sense if you only want two services. Any two plans would cost at least $10.98. Paying $9.99 gives you the third service for less money.
If you are a first-time subscriber, you will receive a seven-day free trial.
2. Each service offers a different type of library
This is not three versions of the same service. Each app covers a separate type of program.
HISTORY Vault has thousands of documentaries and HISTORY series. Its library covers wars, ancient civilizations, inventions, American history, famous people, and unexplained events.
A&E Crime Central is built for true crime lovers. It offers you more than 2,000 episodes from series. Examples are The First 48, Cold Case Files, I Survived, 60 Days In, and After the First 48.
Lifetime Movie Club carries hundreds of Lifetime movies. Here, you get thrillers, family dramas, romance, crime stories, and older television movies.
3. You do not get the live A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime, or LMN channels
The word “bundle” could make this sound like a small live-TV plan. It is not.
All three services are on-demand libraries.
This is essential if you want new episodes soon after they air. New seasons normally arrive a few months after their television run.
If you want the live channels and their current schedules, you should get a cable service or live-TV streamer. Our Frndly TV review covers one low-cost option with A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime, and LMN.
4. One login does not give you one combined app
You use one email address and password for the whole bundle, but there is no special bundle app.
You must install and open each service separately:
- HISTORY Vault for history programs
- A&E Crime Central for true crime
- Lifetime Movie Club for Lifetime movies
There is no shared home screen. If you do not know which app carries a title, you need to search each one.
Also, the bundle is only available in the United States and its territories.
5. You must subscribe directly to get the bundle
The $9.99 bundle is not offered through Amazon Prime Video Channels, Apple TV Channels, The Roku Channel, Google Play, Vizio, Verizon +Play, or other partner services.
You need to subscribe directly through one of the three service websites. After joining, the same login works in all three standalone apps.
This creates a problem if you already pay for one of the services through Amazon, Roku, Apple, or another company. That subscription cannot be joined to the direct bundle. You would need to cancel it through the company billing you, wait for access to end, and then start the bundle directly. Otherwise, you could be charged twice.