Connect with us

New Movie Tech

The cheapest internet TV service yet is here, but it’s missing one big thing

Charmaine Blake

Published

1 year ago

on

 

Big cable bundles require people who don’t want to watch sports to shell out big bucks for channels they never watch.

That’s always been one of the big critiques of cable bundles. Non-sports fans basically subsidize the cost of sports packages. 

Not anymore. On Tuesday, Philo launched its much-anticipated non-sports TV package, offering classic linear television over the internet with a select group of channels. 

SEE ALSO: Netflix is raising its prices, again

The lineup includes some of the major cable channels including AMC, A&E, HGTV, Lifetime, MTV, Comedy Central, and many more—35 in all. And nope, no ESPN. 

The package runs $16 per month, and offers live TV as well as on-demand content.

Philo is still missing plenty. There’s no local broadcast channels, no Fox-based channels (think Fox News and FX), or Turner channels (CNN, TNT, TBS, etc.). 

Philo started out offering internet TV on college campuses, growing to more than 50 universities. Now, it’s gunning for cord cutters in an increasingly crowded online TV market that now includes (deep breath): SlingTV, DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, FuboTV, Hulu, Playstation Vue, and probably others that this reporter can’t remember at the moment. 

Philo’s advantage is that it’s the cheapest option yet. At $16, it comes in below even SlingTV’s $20 plan, thought it offers fewer channels.

“Our goal at Philo is to build a television service that people love as much as they love their favorite shows. 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,” said Andrew McCollum, Philo CEO. “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 full list of channels:

  1. AMC

  2. A&E

  3. HGTV

  4. Spike

  5. TeenNick

  6. Nick

  7. Lifetime

  8. Lifetime movies Network

  9. MTV

  10. MTV2

  11. CMT

  12. Viceland

  13. Comedy Central

  14. Animal Planet

  15. BET

  16. Sundance TV

  17. Travel Channel

  18. TLC

  19. BBC America

  20. BBC World News

  21. Food Network

  22. Discovery

  23. AxsTV

  24. GSN

  25. VH1

  26. History

  27. TVLand

  28. WE

  29. OWN

  30. IFC

  31. ID

  32. Science Channel

  33. velocity

  34. Cheddar

  35. F4YI Network

WATCH: This Bluetooth thermometer will alert your iPhone when the turkey’s done

Read more: http://mashable.com/2017/11/14/sports-free-internet-tv-philo/

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

New Movie Tech

Netflix has the best movie selection, study shows

Published

3 weeks ago

on

January 30, 2019

By

“If you can only afford one streaming service, maybe this study will help you decide.

Based on the Rotten Tomato scores of all movies available on each of the big streaming services, it looks like Netflix has the best selection of movies, according to a study from Streaming Observer.

Compared to Amazon Prime, Hulu, and HBO Now, Netflix has the most movies that are “certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, which means they have a steady score of 75% or higher and have been reviewed by a significant amount of critics and Rotten Tomatoes users. Of Netflix’s 3,839 movies, more than 15% are certified fresh.

Hulu has the closest number of movies at 2,336 but only 9.6% are certified fresh. HBO Now with 815 movies is sitting at 4.7% certified fresh. Amazon Prime has the most options at 17,461 but quantity does not equal quality for the online retail giant because only 1.3% of its movies are certified fresh.

All this basically comes down to the fact that Netflix has more higher quality movies than anyone else — 596, to be exact, which is roughly 360 more than both Hulu and Amazon Prime.

The data used by Streaming Observer is from Jan. 20, so it’s always possible that this could change. Movies are coming and going from streaming services all the time, and when new streaming services like Disney’s anticipated service come along, it’ll be quite a disruption for these sites.

Plus, this is all subjective and doesn’t take television shows into account. It’s really all about what you’re interested in watching. Not everyone wants to watch the best movies all the time. Sometimes you just want to watch King of the Hill, and you can only get that on Hulu.”

Read more: https://mashable.com/article/netflix-best-movies/

Continue Reading

New Movie Tech

Hulu drops price after Netflix raises rates

Published

3 weeks ago

on

January 29, 2019

By

Hulu isn’t done taunting Netflix just yet.

Image: Chesnot/Getty Images

Just as Netflix’s prices go up, Hulu’s are going down.

“Hulu has announced today that its reducing the price of its ad-supported subscription plan to $5.99 per month. The current price for Hulu’s lowest-tiered plan is $7.99 per month.. The company’s “no ads” plan will remain priced at $11.99 per month.

This move comes just a week after the streaming service’s biggest competitor, Netflix, unveiled its largest price increase ever. The price of Netflix’s most popular plan is now $13 per month.

However, the move to undercut Netflix’s prices isn’t the first time Hulu’s taken a swipe at its competitor this month. Last week, amid Netflix’s big promotion for the upcoming release of its anticipated Fyre Festival documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, Hulu dropped a surprise. It released its own Fyre Festival documentary, Fyre Fraud, before Netflix’s film.

SEE ALSO: Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary is even more disturbing than we had imagined

In its pricing announcement, Hulu also unveiled a price increase for its Hulu + Live TV plan. That plan will be going from $39.99 to $44.99 per month.

Hulu Live TV brings channels like……………………………………………………………………”

Read more: https://mashable.com/article/hulu-price-drop-599/

Continue Reading

New Movie Tech

Viacom buys the free video streaming service Pluto.tv for $340 million

Charmaine Blake

Published

4 weeks ago

on

January 28, 2019

By

“Viacom is bucking the trend of launching new premium subscription-based entertainment offerings with its bid to acquire Pluto TV for $340 million in cash.

It’s a way to distribute the company’s once mighty-with-millennial properties like Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, MTV and BET to an audience that doesn’t pay for cable and boost the audience and reach for its recent acquisitions Awesomeness and Whosay.

Launched in 2013, Pluto TV has built a catalog of titles by licensing movies and television shows from studios as well as content from YouTube and other short-form digital media distributors. The company now offers more than 100 channels from 130 content partners that it distributes to roughly 12 million monthly active users — 7.5 million who access it through connected televisions.

“Today marks an important step forward in Viacom’s evolution, as we work to move both our company and the industry forward. Pluto TV’s unique and market-leading product, combined with Viacom’s brands, content, advanced advertising capabilities and global scale, creates a great opportunity for consumers, partners and Viacom,” said Bob Bakish, Viacom president and chief executive, in a statement. “As the video marketplace continues to segment, we see an opportunity to support the ecosystem in creating products at a broad range of price points, including free. To that end, we see significant white space in the ad-supported streaming market and are excited to work with the talented Pluto TV team, and a broad range of Viacom partners, to accelerate its growth in the U.S. and all over the world.”

Pluto Tv will operate as an independent subsidiary of Viacom and its chief executive and co-founder, Tom Ryan, will continue to serve as CEO of the independent entity………………………………………………….”

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/viacom-buys-the-free-video-streaming-service-pluto-tv-for-340-million/

Continue Reading

Trending