Philo is adding premium content onto their platform. A user on Reddit first noticed there was Starz and Epix content on the Popular section of the homepage available via upgrade. Philo CEO Andrew McCollum then later confirmed the new upgrades were just beginning to roll out and that the company would fix a few minor kinks with the new content, including the fact that users see content they can’t watch without a subscription on their homepage.
“Yeah, this is just starting to roll out. We are still working on addressing some of the visibility issues. The goal is to only have content appear that has an existing or upcoming airing on a channel you do subscribe to,” McCollum stated.
“I agree that we don’t want to be constantly showing lots of content that requires an upgrade to watch, though occasionally there may be movies that you could watch immediately by upgrading.”
Philo is offering content from Starz, Starz Encore and Starz Kids & Family for $9 per month. However, if users sign up for the upgrade before July 6, they get the add-on for a reduced price of $5 per month for the first three months.
If you want to sign-up directly from STARZ though, they are running a limited time promotion to get 6 months for just $24.99 ($4.16 a month).
The Epix package also comes with Epix Hits and Epix 2 and is going for $6 per month. Users who sign up now are also eligible for a discount and will pay $3 per month for the first three months. Both packages come with seven-day free trial.
Earlier this year, Philo launched an ad campaign to create awareness for the live streaming service. The ad touted its $20 per month price point. The campaign, titled “Philo is TV. For Everyone,” highlighted the service’s offerings from “about five dozen networks from Discovery, ViacomCBS, AMC Networks and others.”
The ad, which rolled out on digital and linear platforms in either 15, 30 or 60-second slots, was aimed primarily at the New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta markets. After launching in January, the campaign was expected to continue “at least through the first half of 2020,” Deadline noted.