Philo subscribers have never encountered a price increase. While Philo has increased in price over the years, all live TV services have, Philo’s CEO recently explained how the company has never increased the price for existing subscribers. A point worth being aware of, and a rare instance of a live TV service recognizing the loyalty of subscribers.
The claim was provided by Philo CEO Andrew McCollum during a FAST – The Future of Streaming? fireside chat at CES 2024 earlier this month. As McCollum explained, “anyone who has been a subscriber to Philo, we’ve never raised anyone’s price in the history of the service. So if you signed up on day one, you know, over six years ago, you’re still paying the same price today as you were back then.” During the same fireside chat, McCollum also confirmed Philo now has more than one million subscribers.
With Philo costing just $25 a month, it is one of the cheaper options for streaming live TV over the internet. However, that is only the current price. When Philo first launched back in 2017, the base plan was priced at just $16 a month.
That $16 plan was eventually discontinued. At the time, Philo also offered a $20 package and the discontinuation of the $16 tier resulted in the $20 package becoming the default base plan. This amounted to a price increase for new customers, and back in 2021, the $20 package increased to $25, the current cost of Philo.
As we recently noted, Philo was the only main live TV service to not encounter a price increase in 2023. Technically, Sling TV didn’t increase in price in 2023 either. However, Sling did introduce an ‘ABC fee‘ in a number of locations in March and this was equivalent to a $5 price increase for some Sling Blue subscribers. As Sling TV also increased the price of its plans in November 2022, and Philo and YouTube TV were the only live TV services to not increase in price during that year, Philo is the only live TV service to not encounter any form of a price increase in the past two years.
While impressive in itself, the claim that existing subscribers have never encountered a price increase is even more noteworthy. Basically, those that signed up in the early days are still paying just $16 a month. Considering the service has greatly expanded the channel lineup and features since then, those subscribers are getting a significantly better product at the same 2017 price. It is hard to imagine subscribers of any other live TV streaming service being able to claim they are also paying 2017 prices in 2024.
Although this doesn’t benefit those that have yet to sign up to Philo, it is something to keep in mind. While other live TV streaming services have sometimes delayed increasing the price for existing customers, all have eventually increased the price existing subscribers pay each month.
With Philo’s CEO having now actively highlighted its subscribers have never encountered a price increase, this would seem to be a policy the company plans to continue with for the foreseeable future. For those currently shopping for a live TV package, the possibility of being locked in at the current price is a selling point for Philo.
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