Editor’s note: Our reviews reflect our experiences and opinions with a product at the time of our testing. We don’t change the substance of our reviews unless we re-review the product in a new testing period. However, we do strive to note when specific elements of our reviews go out of date.
This post has been updated with new branding information, and other important changes are noted in the text.
Philo is a cord-cutting live TV streaming service. It is in direct competition with Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now, and Sling TV, which all also offer cable channel package replacement systems. Philo and its competitors run over the internet but in all other aspects, they behave like cable TV companies.
Cord cutters who are annoyed about all of the installation fees and upfront charges levied by cable TV providers will be glad to know that Philo doesn’t impose any of those hidden charges. As this TV streaming service operates over the internet, all of the Philo channels can be received on the devices that the average household already has.
Philo overview
The Philo TV service has one of the smallest membership bases of all the live TV streaming services in the USA. All live streaming systems have smaller numbers of customers than the on-demand content category of streaming services. The big online entertainment outfits, such as HBO Max, Disney+, and Netflix offer access to a video library, not the live TV channels that most people still get from cable TV systems.
Philo aims from a young, tech-savvy market. This is a good demographic because established households already have cable TV channel packages. However, someone young, moving into a first home is a better target market because they haven’t yet established purchasing habits and are more likely to try something new.
Philo currently has just 50,000 subscribers. The company started off providing cable TV channels over satellite and wifi to students living on campus. Now, however, the service is available to all of the American public. Market analysts expect the customer base of Philo to expand rapidly, particularly as it is a lot cheaper than all of its live TV streaming rivals.
Philo channels
Philo has one base TV channel package and offers two add-on bundles, each of which includes three channels. In order to keep costs low, Philo has left out the big four networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, which means it has no local channels. It also offers almost no sports channels – sports networks like ESPN are expensive. However, it is very rich in music channels, which should interest a youth audience. Here are some of the channels currently included in Philo.
Philo entertainment channels
- A&E
- AMC
- Animal Planet
- AXS TV
- BBC America
- BET
- CMT
- Comedy Central
- Cooking Channel
- Destination America
- Discovery Channel
- DIY Network
- Food Network
- Hallmark Channel
- HGTV
- History Channel
- IFC
- Investigation Discovery
- Lifetime
- MTV
- MTV 2
- MTV Live
- MTV Classic
- Paramount Network
- Sundance TV
- TLC
- Travel Channel
- TV Land
- VH1
- WE TV
Philo news channels
- BBC World News
- Cheddar News
- CNBC
- CNN
- Fox News
- HLN
- MSNBC
- Newsy
Philo sports channels
- MotorTrend
Philo children’s TV channels
- Nickelodeon
- Nicktoons
- TeenNick
Philo add-on packages
- Epix
- Starz
On-demand content
Philo stores all of the TV shows and movies for 72 hours after they are shown in the live TV schedule. This creates a temporary on-demand library.
Philo UX
The Philo interface includes two main pages. These are a home page and a TV guide. The TV guide is a little different from the layout usually expected because rather than displaying channels in a list, each is shown as a video box in a grid. Clicking on a channel’s video box get a details screen and access to a full-screen player showing the selected channel live.
Simultaneous streams
Each account with the Philo TV service is allowed three simultaneous streams. That means that three devices can access Philo on the same account and stream video at the same time. The receiving TV app can be installed on many devices. However, only three can be actively receiving a video stream at any one time.
Profiles
The Philo user interface allows for up to ten profiles to be created. The concepts of profiles and simultaneous streams can sometimes be confusing. A profile creates a home page for a viewer. So, that person can mark favorite channels and set reminders for TV shows to watch on catchup. However, those ten people wouldn’t be able to log into the Philo system and stream video all at the same time.
The simultaneous stream limit means that only the first three viewers with a profile that log into the system will be able to stream video.
While the existence of profile enables users to store their favorite shows and make watch lists, it doesn’t enable the account owner to tailor access. Philo doesn’t include any parental control measures in its profile settings and it doesn’t provide any preset profiles for children or teens.
Video downloads
As it is a live TV system, Philo doesn’t expect its users will try to download content, so that option isn’t available. However, each account gets access to a cloud DVR system that has unlimited DVR storage. Although there is no limit on DVR storage space, there is a limit on storage time. Each stored video ages out after 30 days. A peculiarity of the Philo DVR system is that it isn’t able to record and store individual episodes of a TV show. Instead, it will record the entire series.
A nice feature of the DVR system in Philo is that no matter how much of a show has elapsed if the user starts the DVR record during the live airing of a show, the DVR system will record and store it right from the beginning, not from the point that the show was at when the user started to record.
In addition to the user-controlled DVR system, Philo runs an automatic mass DVR for the entire live TV service. All TV shows and movies get recorded and stored for 72 hours so that they can be accessed as a catchup service. By this method, Philo provides on-demand content as well as a live TV streaming service.
Philo quality
Philo streams its videos in a 720p format. This is what is typically known as high definition (HD). The 720p format assumes dimensions of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels for the screen area. However, most video players can be resized. The video area has an aspect ratio of 16:9. AT&T TV Now, Hulu, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and fuboTV all also use the 720p HD format.
Philo transmits videos at 30 frames per second (FPS) this is one of the slowest frame rates in the business. Most of the other live TV streaming services use a frame rate of 60 FPS.
Philo platforms
Philo is streamed over the internet. There is no other way to receive the TV streaming service, so every customer of Philo must have active internet service with at least 5 Mbps in download speed. The video streams can then be received on a number of device types. Here is a list of them:
Smart TVs
- None
Streaming devices
- Roku
- Apple TV
- Android TV box
- Amazon Fire TV Stick
- Amazon Fire TV Cube
Computers and mobile devices
- Web browser (to philo.com)
- Google Chromecast
- Philo TV app for iOS (iPhones and iPads)
Philo price
Philo has just one base package, which costs $20 per month. It is far cheaper than its rivals in the Live TV streaming sector. For example, the nearest in price to Philo is Sling TV, which charges $30 per month for its Sling Blue and Sling Orange package. A combination of both packages, called Sling Orange + Blue costs $45 per month. YouTube TV is more expensive at $49.99 per month and market leader, Hulu + Live TV costs $54.95 per month.
New users to Philo can get a 7-day free trial. In order to access this offer, new subscribers need to enter a cell phone number or an email address. Whichever the user chooses to use, it has to be real, because the Philo system will text or email the given number or address to verify it and the free trial won’t be active unless the identifier is confirmed.
The reason Philo uses this method is that it wanted to avoid taking the credit card of the new member. Many people are wary of taking up a free trial that requires a credit card. Many people who don’t want to pay forget to cancel the account before the end of the free trial and they end up being trolled over intro a paying account and get charged for a month. That doesn’t happen with Philo – it can’t because they don’t have your credit card details.
Philo reviews from customers
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) measures customer opinion in the United States on a range of goods and services. One of its regular studies is the ACSI Telecommunications Report, which is published every year. The most recent edition of this report covers 2018 to 2019. One of the market sectors covered by this report is that of video streaming services.
The ACSI methodology accumulates customer opinion into a score out of 100, creating a percentage. Philo doesn’t score highly in that review. In fact, the ACSI lumps the streaming service in with “All Others.” The average score for 2018 of all streaming services was 75 and in 2019 it was 76. The All Others category got a satisfaction rating of 71 in 2018 and 72 in 2019. By comparison, the top scorer in both years was Netflix with 78 in 2018 and 79 in 2019.
