Philo announced on Tuesday the launch of an all-new live TV streaming platform. The service will exclude sports and focus more on lifestyle and entertainment. By leaving such content behind, Philo will keep customer costs low, offering streaming abilities for just $16 per month or $20 for an additional nine channels.
Designed for cord-cutters who don’t wish to watch and pay for sports, Philo offers channels such as AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, MTV and Spike (offers MMA), among others.
“Our goal at Philo is to build a television service that people love as much as they love their favorite shows,” Philo CEO Andrew McCollum said in a statement. “We’re constantly looking for ways we can improve the experience because at the end of the day, we’re also building Philo for ourselves. We started delivering streaming television at universities six years ago, and we’ve taken all of the unique insight we gained about this new generation of TV watchers in order to build a unique product and content package at an incredible value.”
The plan is to continue rolling out Philo on college campuses — the company hopes to reach roughly 70 schools by year’s end. “College was a great place to get started,” McCollum told TechCrunch. “It allowed us to reach the right demographic. Young people are really driving the change in TV, so creating a TV service that appealed to them, and worked for them, was the right place to be.”
With this younger demographic in mind, Philo has plans of integrating a social aspect into the service. It would allow users to connect with friends and stream shows at the same time.
The service can be viewed from anywhere in the U.S. using a TV, computer, tablet or phone. Users also have the option of adding more channels for an additional cost of $4 per month.
