$16-a-month streaming service Philo launches on Apple TV

Seven months in the making, the sports-free, entertainment-focused ‘skinny bundle’ streaming service Philo launched on Apple TV Tuesday with the release of its app for fourth- and fifth-generation Apple TV models.

Features of the service include 40 channels, an unlimited 30-day DVR, the ability to watch on up to three different devices, on-demand programs, pause any live channel, start programs from the beginning, and the ability to watch programs that have aired in the past three days.

Starting at $16 a month, Philo has no sports channels, no major television networks, and no local network affiliate channels like its competitors Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV and Sling TV.

Philo is focusing its efforts on ‘cord cutters’ who have abandoned cable and satellite services as well as ‘cover-nevers’ – those people who have never subscribed to pay TV.

Philo includes at no extra charge an unlimited 30-day Cloud DVR, something other streaming services charge extra for.

The Philo 40-channel lineup is as follows…

● A&E

● AMC

● Animal Planet

● AXS TV

● BBC AMERICA

● BBC World News

● BET

● Cheddar

● Cheddar Big News

● CMT

● Comedy Central

● Discovery Channel

● DIY

● Food Network

● FYI

● GSN

● HGTV

● History

● IFC

● Investigation Discovery (ID)

● Lifetime

● Lifetime Movies

● MTV

● MTV2

● Nickelodeon

● Nick Jr.

● OWN

● Paramount

● PeopleTV

● Science

● SundanceTV

● Tastemade

● TeenNick

● TLC

● Travel Channel

● TV Land

● Velocity

● VH1

● Viceland

● We tv

An additional nine channels are available for $4, setting a total of $20 a month:

● American Heroes Channel

● BET Her

● Cooking Channel

● Destination America

● Discovery Family

● Discovery Life

● Logo

● MTV Live

● Nicktoons

The majority of Philo’s channels offer ‘TV Everywhere’ authentication for subscribers at no additional fee. This gives customers the ability to watch on-demand and live programming of those channels, if offered, through their individual apps. The list of ‘TV Everywhere’ supported channels is available at this link.

Tuesday’s launch also included the release of the services Fire TV app, not coincidentally just days before the online retailing giant’s Amazon Prime Day on July 16.

Philo announced last December 22nd it would be coming to Apple TV “soon.”

“Expanding our platform support is at the top of our priorities list,” Philo CEO Andrew McCollum commented at the time. “We are a small team and we really wanted to get the product in people’s hands so we had to prioritize for the (original November) launch.”

In April of this year, Philo announced it had targeted “late summer” for its Apple TV app release.

In interviews with various news organizations, McCollum declined to disclose how many subscribers Philo has.

Philo also announced it is getting an additional $40 million in investment funding, led by partners AMC Networks, Discovery and Viacom. Those three major programmers along with A+E and Scripps provided the initial investment of $25 million to help launch the service back in November of 2017. The funding brings Philo to more than $90 million raised to date. The company mainly plans to use the cash infusion for marketing, according to McCollum.

Philo has a seven-day free trial that requires only a phone number to sign up.