T-Mobile to Shut Down Their Live TV Streaming Service TVision, Partners with Philo and YouTube TV

Less than six months after launching, T-Mobile TVision is shutting down on April 29th. The change of plans came after disputes with multiple channel partners, and the the bankruptcy of their tech partner MobiTV.

In its place, they will be partnering with YouTube TV and Philo, offering $10 off per month of each of those services. T-Mobile subscribers can get YouTube TV for $54.99 a month, while they can get Philo for $10 a month. Existing TVision subscribers will get the discount so long as the remain with T-Mobile, while all other T-Mobile customers will get $10 off for 12 months.

Existing TVision LIVE subscribers will also get a free month of YouTube TV, along with three months of YouTube Premium. TVision VIBE customers will get a free month of Philo.

Current TVision subscribers will see the discounts available starting today, while all other T-Mobile and Sprint customers will be eligible starting on April 6th.

The company will continue to offer their 4K Android TV streaming device TVision HUB, which is available for $50 — the same price as Roku Streaming Stick+, Fire Stick 4K, and Chromecast with Google TV.

When it first launched, TVision caught a lot of flack from content partners by packaging the service in two plans: TVision VIBE ($10) and TVision Live ($40+).

TVision VIBE featured 30+ of the most watched entertainment channels including those from ViacomCBS (MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, etc) and Discovery (HGTV, Food Network, etc.), as well as Hallmark and AMC — for $10 a month.

TVision Live, which started at $40, was aimed at users who want live news and sports. It featured a multitude of channels like ESPN, NBCSN, FS1, Bravo, and USA, as well as local affiliates from NBC, ABC, and Fox.

Soon after launch, we reported that Discovery, ViacomCBS, and NBCU had all filed complaints to T-Mobile over the two plans.

In order to appease the partners, they included TVision VIBE channels on TVision Live plans starting in November.

T-Mobile launched TVision Live by acquiring the contracts of PlayStation Vue. They separately had made agreements with ViacomCBS and Discovery to launch TVision VIBE.

The team was run by the former head of PlayStation Vue, who left the company earlier this year to join Telus.

In a blog post, T-Mobile said:

This shift may surprise some given last year’s TVision streaming services launch. But innovation seldom follows a straight line. Since launching the TVision initiative, we’ve learned a lot about the TV industry, about streaming products, and of course, about TV customers. We also saw trends that made us take a fresh look at how to best do in video what we always do: put customers first.

With our TV software provider encountering some financial challenges and with our broader, strategic partnerships with Google and Philo, we saw an opportunity to deliver unique value to our customers and strengthen the TVision initiative with the best partners. This industry is incredibly fragmented, with new streaming services launching all the time, and we’ve concluded that we can add even more value to consumers’ TV choices by partnering with the best services out there, negotiating incredible streaming media deals for T-Mobile customers, and helping our customers navigate the increasingly complex streaming world.