Streaming TV service Philo has forged a partnership Best Buy to offer special discount subscriptions to customers of the electronics retailer.
This week, Best Buy began offering customers month-long trials of Philo with an in-store or online purchase of select electronics hardware. Eligible hardware purchases include:
- Current-generation streaming devices made by Apple, Amazon, Roku and Google;
- Select Antennas Direct, Dynex, Insignia, Mohu, Terk, RCA and RocketFish antennas;
- Smart TVs made by Hisense, Insignia, Toshiba, Westinghouse, Sony and TCL; and
- Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Pro X tablets.
Best Buy customers will receive a special code on their receipts when purchasing eligible devices in store or on Best Buy’s website when purchasing online that will entitle them to a free, 30-day trial of the streaming service. The offer does not extend to “open box” products sold in stores and online and is available only for new subscribers.
In addition to the 30-day free trial, new subscribers can sign up for Philo directly through Best Buy’s website without a separate hardware purchase. Those Philo activations will include a special 50 percent off discount for the first month of service.
This type of discount is not unusual for Best Buy — it offers similar deals to customers for Apple Music, Tidal, Pandora and SiriusXM — but it is the first time the retailer has offered a discount on a streaming television service through a direct partnership with a media company.
It is also new territory for Philo: The company has offered lengthy free trials and discounted subscriptions through partnership with Roku in the past, but it hasn’t reached retail customers buying devices or services in brick-and-mortar stores until today.
“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Best Buy, and it opens the door to a whole new segment of customers to embrace the future of TV,” Andrew McCollum, Philo’s chief executive, said in a statement emailed to reporters on Thursday.
McCollum said cutting the cord can still be a complex task for ordinary consumers, but Best Buy has “a long history of helping customers navigate the best tech and entertainment products all in one place.”
Philo offers more than 60 pay TV networks from a handful of programmers, including ViacomCBS, Discovery, A+E Networks, AMC Networks, E.W. Scripps and Altice, for $20 a month. Four of those programmers are also investors in the company. Last month, the service passed 750,000 paying subscribers.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously listed Bloomberg, LP as a content partner on Philo. A streaming version of Bloomberg’s channel is available on Pluto TV, not Philo.
