As Philo Refreshes Its Brand, the Little Streamer That Could Continues to Adapt
The entire TV industry is in a state of flux, but skinny bundle streamer Philo is embracing the tumult and making changes of its own.
There is no doubt that the only true constant in the television and streaming industries these days is change. From linear networks shedding viewers at alarming rates to once walled-garden streaming services embracing every opportunity to bundle and merge, the surging levels of tumult across the entire entertainment landscape are requiring players large and small to be flexible as they adjust to new ever-shifting realities. One of the smaller streaming services that has proven especially adept at navigating streaming waters populated by multi-billion dollar conglomerates is the live TV streaming skinny bundle Philo. The service is set to launch a series of changes over the coming weeks that will upgrade the platform’s user experience and refresh the company’s brand, but those are far from the only changes at the service.
Last week, Philo announced that it would be unveiling a new logo on Wednesday, Sept. 4 along with “other tweaks,” including a new font and colors, updated profile icons, and more. These changes will be part of a series of updates rolling out in the coming weeks that are geared at improving the look and performance of the platform. Philo has yet to provide details about the changes beyond the brand refresh, however, it has promised that a forthcoming campaign will provide more details on what’s to come.
“Our upcoming brand campaign will shed more light on this evolution,” Philo said, “detailing the brand narrative that inspired the changes and honors what you can expect from Philo moving forward.”
While the full scope of Philo’s evolution is still shrouded in a bit of corporate mystery, the low-cost streamer is promising that the changes will not change the most important aspects of watching your favorite entertainment-focused channels on the service and will only serve to make it better.
“We just want to assure our customers that the rebrand will not affect the quality of service or price,” a Philo spokesperson told The Streamable. “This update is focused on enhancing the visual and functional aspects of our service to bring you an even better viewing experience.”
Welcome to the new era of Philo! But don’t worry, we’re not changing all the things you love about our streaming service, just its look and feel. pic.twitter.com/nzYayVhOai
— Philo (@philoTV) September 4, 2024
These branding and functionality upgrades are not the only aspects of Philo’s service that are changing. Over the summer, the streamer raised its price for only the second time since launch, but added in a free subscription to premium TV streaming service AMC+. While the price for new customers rose from $25 to $28 per month, AMC+ runs $4.99 per month, so consumers will still save $2 over subscribing to them separately.
“It’s truly a win all the way around,” Philo’s COO and head of content Mike Keyserling told me last month. “For customers, they’ll get a better value. They’ll get the premium new content that sometimes is going more toward the DTC (direct-to-consumer) services versus linear. They’ll get the deeper content libraries. They get everything all in one UI (user interface), which is huge.”
While the benefits are obvious for subscribers, Keyserling also sees the partnership between the two smaller services as working to Philo’s advantage as well. Despite the name of the platform, AMC+ has a lot more than just the prestige dramas of the AMC cable network. In addition, the service carries horror content from Shudder, independent films and TV from IFC and Sundance Now, British programs from Acorn TV and BBC America, and lifestyle and entertainment shows from WE tv.
“They kind of check a lot of the boxes,” Keyserling said. “A lot of the reality [programming] on the WE tv side of the house does incredibly well on Philo, as well as all of the prestige dramas under like the AMC brand. Plus, then we get a whole slew of new content with Shudder and some of their more niche services … Philo is a general entertainment service, so it checks a bunch of boxes from the premium nature of originals to the nice deep library, it’s very complimentary to content that’s popular on Philo.”
All of Philo’s changes are coming at a time when everyone in the industry is struggling to keep viewers. Linear networks and their cable, satellite, and streaming distributors are seeing rapid erosion of their userbases, but Philo’s philosophy of providing entertainment channels without the costly additions of broadcast networks, live sports, and cable news seems to be working. The skinny bundle has used this low-cost approach to build its subscriber total to over 1 million customers as of January, and Keyserling believes that Philo still resonates with consumers who enjoy the linear TV experience but don’t want to pay monthly minimums north of $75.
“We’re continuing to see year-over-year growth,” he said. “There continues to be an audience that is looking for the linear package at a reasonable price … We’re pretty much constantly engaged in conversations around different types of content that we can bring to the product. And if we can do it in a way that we feel adds value [and] doesn’t blow up the cost and value proposition to our subscribers, then that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
One of the things that Philo is actively doing to improve its customers’ value proposition is to add free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to its service. The service currently has 89 FAST channels and will continue to add more. These channels are available for both paid subscribers and non-Philo customers. From a business perspective, they provide the streamer with additional revenue whether the viewers are a part of the traditional Philo offering or not.
But adding FAST channels and launching partnerships with premium streamers isn’t the end of where Keyserling sees the industry moving. He believes that there needs to be a more collaborative relationship between channel-owning content providers and distributors like Philo.
“We think that [the future of TV] is going to require programmers and distributors to be more innovative in the offerings,” he said. “I think it’s up to people like Philo and distributors to work with programmers to continue to offer something that’s of value.”
In the wake of Fubo’s injunction stopping the launch of the streaming joint venture Venu Sports, it seems that there is an increased appetite for more specialized streaming packages that provide customers the flexibility to piece together lineups that only include channels they want to watch. This idea is at the center of DIRECTV and Disney’s ongoing carriage dispute that pulled ABC, ESPN, Freeform, and other Disney-owned channels off of DIRECTV's satellite and streaming platforms over the weekend.
While there is still a long way to go in Fubo’s antitrust suit against the companies behind Venu Sports — Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery — this legal development seems to at least open up distributors’ ability to eventually offer different channel packages that have been unavailable to them before.
“It would give us more flexibility to also branch into areas that we’re not currently in today,” Keyserling said. “We’re not anti-sports, it’s just that we couldn’t [afford them] when we were building the service.”
Whether or not sports are in Philo’s future or not, one thing that seems assured is that the company is not going to give up on its mission to deliver TV viewers a streaming product that meets their entertainment needs at as low of a cost as possible. And, as the industry continues to shift, that will likely mean even more changes ahead for the little streamer that could.
“There’s definitely more deal-making in the space,” Keyserling said. “And I foresee us continuing to be one of the players that is doing that.”
Philo
Philo is a live TV streaming service designed for entertainment lovers which includes 60+ channels for $28 per month. It’s an especially attractive option for fans of live TV who don’t watch sports. Your subscription includes ad-supported AMC+. Anyone can sign up for Philo’s free service, which offers 80+ channels.