Philo, the streaming service long described by this publication as wallet-friendly, is going after more of its customers’ dollars.
Starting this week, Philo is charging customers $33 per month for access to dozens of entertainment, lifestyle and knowledge channels from Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), AMC Networks, A+E Global Media and Paramount Global. Existing customers of Philo’s current core offering will also be affected by the price increase, but customers of Philo’s legacy core subscription — which increased to $25 per month in August — will be able to maintain their current plan without a cost increase.
Whenever Philo raises the price of its service, it tries to increase the value by adding something new. This time around, Philo says it will incorporate the ad-supported plans of streaming apps Discovery Plus and HBO Max as part of a customer’s service.
By adding Discovery Plus and HBO Max into Philo’s core subscription offering, the company hopes to justify the higher cost by pointing to the availability of more content — something Philo did the last time it raised prices, when it incorporated the ad-supported version of AMC Plus last year.
This time around, customers who want to take advantage of the inclusion of Discovery Plus and HBO Max will have to activate each complementary subscription separately through the Discovery Plus and HBO Max apps, rather than accessing content within the Philo app — a stark departure from the way Philo typically integrates content into its service.
The price hikes and introduction of differentiated content offerings comes at a time when Philo is laser-focused on generating its first profit by next year. The company recently upped the price some long-time customers were paying for the service— a move justified by executives as necessary because Philo was losing money on those subscribers — and has expanded its offering of ad-supported streaming channels that are available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike.
But Philo also faces strong competition from streaming pay TV competitors that have been able to launch differentiated offerings at various — and, sometimes, lower — price points over the past few years. DirecTV now offers dozens of entertainment and news channels for $35 per month through its MyEntertainment streaming package, which also includes complementary access to Disney Plus, Hulu and HBO Max. Sling TV recently introduced a “Sling Select” package that offers Fox News, FX, NFL Network and Fox Sports 1 (FS1), for just $20 per month.
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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said all Philo customers will be affected by the price increase announced on Tuesday. A Philo spokesperson later clarified that customers of a legacy plan that costs $25 per month will not be affected by the increase, though they also won’t have access to AMC Plus, HBO Max or Discovery Plus until they upgrade their subscription.
