Philo is a dwell TV streaming service borne from determined instances. Its primary community backers—Discovery, Viacom, and AMC—must various levels discovered themselves forged out of different streaming bundles, largely as a result of they don’t carry any sports activities programming. Rather than sit idly by, they’ve banded collectively to launch their very own bundle, with no sports activities however a low price ticket.
At $20 per 30 days, Philo is likely one of the most cost-effective bundles of cable channels you may get over the web as we speak. If you’re into the truth TV fare that a lot of Philo’s channels concentrate on, it may very well be the solely streaming service you want, however it additionally pairs nicely with other streaming services or with over-the-air broadcasts from an antenna.
Philo: What you get
Philo’s fundamental $20-per-month package deal provides greater than 40 channels, together with AMC, HGTV, History, Discovery, and Nickelodeon. Another $4 per 30 days will get you a dozen extra channels, together with Cooking Channel, Nicktoons, and Discovery Family.
Updated August 12, 2019 to mirror the latest adjustments to Philio’s providing and its subscription worth.Our bottom-line rating of 4 stars has not modified since our final replace.
Equally notable are the channels Philo doesn’t carry. In common, if a community owns any sports activities programming in any way, Philo doesn’t provide any of that community’s channels. That guidelines out all 4 main broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox—together with any non-sports channels owned by the identical corporations, such because the Disney channel and NBC’s Bravo. Turner networks, reminiscent of TNT and TBS, are absent as properly. The greater networks simply don’t wish to uncouple their costly sports activities channels from their cheaper non-sports ones, and Philo errs on the aspect of not making prospects pay for sports activities channels they don’t need.
What’s left is a comparatively cheap bundle pushed largely by actuality and documentary-style TV reveals, with a touch of scripted programming and flicks from the likes of AMC and Comedy Central. Subscribers get three streams at a time that work wherever inside the United States, and since sports activities are absent, there are not any arcane guidelines for when and the place you’re allowed to observe explicit applications.
Philo makes ad-skipping simple for DVR reveals.
For DVR, Philo opted for limitless storage with a 30-day time restrict and no restrictions on ad-skipping for these recorded applications. You may replay something that’s aired up to now few days on most channels. This won’t be superb should you have a tendency to observe recordings over a protracted time period, however it does can help you save a number of reveals with out having to handle cupboard space. (Some dwell TV companies, reminiscent of Hulu with Live TV and Sling TV, make the other trade-off, offering restricted cupboard space as a substitute of limiting how lengthy recorded reveals could be saved.)
Philo retains it easy
Philo’s apps have at all times been clear and easy, with a small variety of menus for looking well-liked applications, dwell TV, and favorites. You gained’t get misplaced in labyrinthine menu methods or surprise the place your DVR applications went, although I do want Philo went a little bit additional in surfacing new applications that is perhaps of curiosity. As it stands, the house display screen provides solely generic suggestions (hope you want Ex on the Beach), and there’s no option to filter the catalog for issues like films or particular genres.
The Philo interface is easy, however may use higher suggestions.
Although Philo was solely obtainable on Roku gamers, iOS units, and the net at launch, app assist has since expanded to Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV units. Those apps have additionally steadily improved with new options, reminiscent of a cable-style grid information on all TV units and assist for as much as 10 person profiles, every with their very own recordings and viewing histories. (Kids-specific profiles aren’t supported, although, so a person who’s favorites embrace Paw Patrol and Top Wing may even see suggestions for reveals like The Perfect Murder.)
Philo now provides a grid information on all TV units.
One different notable enchancment since launch: Philo helps TV Everywhere authentication, so you possibly can log into particular person apps for many networks. This could be helpful for watching on platforms that Philo doesn’t assist (reminiscent of Xbox One and Chromecast), benefiting from platform-specific options (reminiscent of Apple’s TV app) or getting a extra kid-centric expertise in apps like Nick Jr.
Still, some nitpicks stay. Channel browsing stays a trouble, as Philo doesn’t provide a mini information when you’re watching dwell TV, and it stops playback everytime you return to the grid information. Video body charges additionally high out at 30 frames per second, even for channels that supply smoother 60-frames-per-second playback on cable. Although 60 fps assist is mostly extra essential for sports activities programming, it’s develop into a evident omission for Philo as different dwell TV companies have improved their body charges on the identical channels.
Is Philo value it?
Philo isn’t the one dwell TV streaming service providing cable channels for reasonable. The closest different is AT&T Watch, which incorporates almost 40 channels for $15 per 30 days (or free with AT&T’s “Unlimited &More” wi-fi plans). While AT&T Watch provides some Turner-owned channels, together with CNN and TNT, it has fewer channels general, and it doesn’t embrace DVR service like Philo does.
Philo: An inexpensive option to binge-watch “Triple-D” and the like.
A pair different notable enhancements since launch: Philo helps TV Everywhere authentication, so you possibly can log into particular person apps for many networks, and it’s added deeper integrations with streaming gamers. You now can launch Philo reveals immediately from Apple’s TV app, or tune to dwell channels from the house display screen on Amazon Fire TV and Android TV units.
Beyond these two choices, dwell TV streaming turns into much more costly. Sling TV’s base Orange and Blue packages each begin at $25 per 30 days now, and DVR service prices $5 per 30 days additional. From there, the worth of dwell TV jumps to $45 per 30 days for Hulu with Live TV or PlayStation Vue, after which to $50 per 30 days for YouTube TV and DirecTV Now. FuboTV is even pricier at $55 and up per 30 days.
Philo, by comparability, is providing a protracted checklist of channels for lower than half the worth of almost all these choices. It’s dwelling proof that non-sports followers are paying an excessive amount of for TV, and if sufficient of them get fed up and swap to Philo’s service, perhaps these different networks will begin to really feel their very own type of desperation.
Philo channel checklist:
- A&E
- AMC
- American Heroes
- Animal Planet
- Aspire
- AXS TV
- BBC America
- BBC World News
- BET
- BET Her
- Cheddar
- CMT
- Comedy Central
- Cooking Channel
- Destination America
- Discovery
- Discovery Family
- Discovery Life
- DIY Network
- Family Channel
- Food Network
- FYI
- GSN
- Hallmark Channel
- Hallmark Drama
- Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
- HGTV
- History
- IFC
- Investigation Discovery
- Life
- Lifetime
- Lifetime Movie Network
- Logo
- MotorTrend
- MTV
- MTV Classic
- MTV Live
- MTV2
- Nick Jr.
- Nickelodeon
- NickToons
- OWN
- Paramount Network
- People TV
- Revolt
- Science
- Sundance TV
- TeenNick
- TLC
- Travel Channel
- TV Land
- UPtv
- VH1
- Viceland
- We TV