The Desk recently caught up with McCollum to discuss how media’s mega-mergers will impact Philo and its customers in the near future and whether the service feels it can compete against the subscription offerings of its investor-owners. And three of those companies - Discovery, AMC Networks and ViacomCBS - now offer one or more streaming services of their own that compete with Philo for consumer dollars. Two of those companies have grown in size - Viacom merged with CBS in 2019, and now includes channels in its portfolio that Philo has yet to carry Discovery is expected to merge with AT&T’s WarnerMedia next year, bringing channels like CNN, the Cartoon Network and TBS into the mix with the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. But some factors beyond its control may challenge that mission: Philo’s core programming partners - ViacomCBS, Discovery Communications, A+E Networks and AMC Networks - are also counted as investor-owners of the company. And the service continues to grow.Īndrew McCollum, Philo’s chief executive, says the company works really hard to add programming and features while keeping costs low. But Philo’s 800,000-plus subscribers mostly brushed it aside. Such a move normally draws outrage from customers of other streaming services. Only recently did the cost of programming catch up with Philo: In May, the company said it would raise the cost of its service to $25 a month. The price undercuts most of its closest cable alternative competitors. Instead, it chose to focus on general entertainment, lifestyle and knowledge networks, a move that allowed it to initially offer its service for $20 a month (a cheaper tier at $16 a month with fewer channels was eliminated in 2019 after the company found most customers were willing to pay the extra $4 a month). When it launched in 2017, the company decided not to deal with programmers that bundle entertainment networks with expensive sports and news. Almost every streaming service that has tried to shake up the industry with a streaming product has, inevitably, raised their subscription price as network programmers begin to demand the same carriage deals that drove up the price of cable and satellite in the first place.īut not Philo. It is an outlier in the growing space of online multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPD) - another fancy acronym for “pay television” - that are attempting to offer an alternative to traditional cable and satellite television service with comparable channels at cheaper prices. Philo is one of those online services that, at first glance, seems destined to struggle: At a time when sports and political news programming still draws the most eyeballs on cable and satellite, Philo tries to sell customers on a single, low-cost package of five dozen cable networks, none of which carry live sports or political news. (Photo: Philo/Handout, Graphic: The Desk) Payton made his long-awaited season debut with the Warriors on March 26, providing an instant boost on both ends of the floor throughout the remaining seven regular-season games and Golden State's shortened playoff run.Īfter a disappointing season, Payton and the Warriors will look to reset and re-establish the positive vibes from their championship run.Philo Chief Executive Officer Andrew McCollum is pictured in an undated image. I still was tapped in at the beginning of the year, making sure I'm checking on my guys, seeing how everybody was doing and seeing what was going on with the road wins, home wins." RELATED: Why these Warriors couldn't measure up to '22 champions "It somehow, some way, always leads back to the Bay. "Yeah, my heart's always been here before I was even here and just growing up as a kid," Payton explained. Although he began the season with Portland, Payton maintained his affinity for the Warriors and the Bay Area, keeping up with how his former team was doing while staying in touch with his former teammates.
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