Easy opening packaging article made from heat-shrinkable film exhibiting directional tear

592803 Disclosed is a heat-shrinkable packaging article (10) suitable for packaging a variety of products, particularly food. The article (10) has a heat-shrinkable multilayer film (11) having an inside seal layer heat sealed to itself at a heat seal. The article has a skirt (19) or header outward of the heat seal, the skirt (19) or header comprising an article edge and a plurality of pairs of tear initiators each having a first tear initiator (20) and a second tear initiator (21). Each pair of tear initiators has one tear initiator in each side (17, 18) of the article, and each pair is at a location for generating a manually-initiated, manually-propagated first tear in the first side (17) of the article, and a manually-initiated and manually-propagated second tear in the second side (18) of the article. Each tear is capable of being propagated in the machine direction through the heat seal and down the length of the article, or across the article, with each tear being capable of being manually propagated in the machine direction through and to an opposite article edge. The package can be opened with tearing from one or more of the pairs of tear initiators allowing a portion of the package to be removed from the packaged product so that an uncovered portion of the product can be separated from a remainder of the product, leaving a remainder of the package around at least a portion of the remainder of the product. At least one layer of the multilayer film contains at least one incompatible polymer blend.