Which feature should Philo add? Live sports access
Which feature should Philo add? Live sports access
Philo offers a great way to watch a mix of popular cable entertainment channels, but there’s really no way to watch a big selection of sports with a subscription.
Philo has a great selection of features that make the streamer well worth watching. Let’s start with the streamer’s channel lineup; Philo offers popular cable networks like AMC, Discovery, History, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, and more, and it has on-demand access to AMC+ content, as well as included subscriptions to HBO Max and discovery+ for a price of $33 per month.
How does Philo achieve this low price? The streamer specifically excludes cable sports channels, as well as local broadcast networks, from its Core package. These channels are quite expensive for distributors like Philo to carry, and companies have to pass the cost of carrying those channels onto the consumer if they expect to turn a profit. As a consequence, there’s no real way for Philo customers to access live sports if they want to pay more to do so, and that’s one feature I’d add to the streamer if I could.
To be sure, I wouldn’t ask Philo to put top sports channels like ESPN and FS1 into its Core package for all customers. That would take away what makes the service unique and would make Philo as expensive as any other live TV streaming platform. The power of choice with Philo is important, even though I want it to have sports options available.
What I’d propose to Philo is allowing customers to sign up for the bundle of the new ESPN Unlimited streaming service and Fox One, which has all the content from Fox’s broadcast and cable networks. This bundle costs $40 per month, and will unlock all the live sports from Fox and ESPN channels without asking the viewer to pay for any other channels.
The combined price of Philo’s core package with the Fox One and ESPN bundle would total out at $73 per month — a higher price than Philo by itself to be sure, but still considerably cheaper than DIRECTV Signature channel plans, Hulu + Live TV, or even YouTube TV. Plus, viewers would still get AMC+, discovery+, and HBO Max with their subscription.
It takes two to tango, as they say, and both Disney and Fox would have to sign off on Philo becoming a distribution partner for the bundle of their two services. Disney has been notoriously difficult to negotiate with regarding ESPN; in years past, the company would insist on ESPN’s being available in a distributor’s lowest-priced channel packages if it was going to agree to any carriage deals with that distributor.
But now that ESPN is available on a direct-to-consumer basis, perhaps Disney’s philosophy will show some wiggle room. Fox isn’t afraid to distribute its service through third parties, as Fox One is available through Prime Video Subscriptions and other platforms.
I don’t think it’s as necessary for Philo to make a real effort to give viewers the option to watch local broadcast channels that also carry major live sports. Audiences can access these channels for free with the one-time purchase of an over-the-air antenna, and there’s no reason for Philo to pay to add them and their endless affiliates across the United States.
But cable sports options are a different matter, especially now that two of the biggest cable sports networks are available on a direct-to-consumer basis. Philo is a great streaming service with a long list of desirable features, but I think it could benefit greatly by adding the ESPN and Fox One bundle to the inventory of add-ons customers can use to supplement their Philo subscription.
Philo
Philo is a live TV streaming service designed for entertainment lovers, offering flexible ways to watch without the high price of traditional TV bundles. The service now features two paid plans — Essential and Bundle+ — alongside its existing free streaming offering, giving customers a range of options depending on how much live and premium content they want.