IMO, the value of Philo is that it includes several channels that other services stick on higher tiers like BBC News, Science, and Sundance — plus the Viacoms which are increasingly tricky to get — for just $16. If Spectrum hadn’t just lured me back with a deal, a pairing of Philo + Hulu Live would be pretty much perfect for me. Reply
I attempted to give it a try and ran into the phone requirement for sign up. I called their tech support for a way around that. They said they could not do it at this time. I said thanks but NO THANKS. Until they get rid of that BS I’m not interested. Reply
These used a phone number login to prevent one person using the service multiple times for free. Reply
They are using scam techniques right out of the box. Use your credit card info and dump your phone number in a “Spam Warehouse”. I started getting calls from every scam and spammer on earth! Plus I cancelled after 48 hours but they charged 120.00 on my card anyway!! It took me 4 months to force them to return my money. Scamming bunch of crooks with nothing to offer so they try to steal it!!! Reply
WoW 😳 I hope philo is not doing this to their customers. I have noticed every since I signed up with them I have receiving recorded scam calls like crazy and I can’t rest for them. Also, blocking them does no good this is truly harassment and bad business if it keeps happening I may have to cancel, I never had these type of problems with sling TV. Reply
I went to amazon online and ordered a robo call blocker and it is amazing when a call comes in I just push the big red button and it stops the call and if I block someone I do know I can unblock them so far I have 40 blocked calls and my phone has stopped ringing all day and night and it was not expensive well worth buying I LOVE IT!! Reply
I have had Philo for at least a week and I am very happy with it. I get the channels I want without all that extra junk like news and sports. If you are holding out because of the phone number, don’t. They haven’t called or text me as of yet. I will be keeping Philo for as long as it is around, or until they ruin it by adding sports. Reply
I signed up on Monday the fourth after a breakup with PSV. After entering my favorites it has been viewing as usual plus a bonus of saving $25 per month. I use TiVo OTA for locals and Philo for the rest. The UI is more than adequate. I can quickly find what I want. The stream quality here in Hawaii is exceptional. No drops, buffering or downgrades. I hope that does not change after it catches on. For now this is a great fit. A discounted HBO add-on would be icing. Reply
I began subscribing to Philo because I was sick and tired of supporting the ever expanding sports industry and networks that push political ideologies that are an affront to my personal beliefs. The cheap package contains most of the channels I have always watched, and I supplement that with Netflix and Amazon. So far I am very happy with the service. I don’t care about the cost. Reply
I have just tried Philo and I am very impressed with the quality of this streaming service on my Roku. The DVR is a great plus also. The only con for me is the lack of a news channel like CNN or MSNBC. If this bundle also included the Hallmark Channel and TBS this would be a definite winner. Reply
Was an early adapter with DirecTV Now. Had over a 100 channels for $35 a month. Buffering, freezing, sometimes just loose everything, black screen… very frustrating. Finally just dropped it. I’m very happy with Philo. The nicest DVR system, unlimited storage space. Shows over 30 days old are deleted. And best of all no buffering, freezing, etc. Reply
I’ve tried many streaming services. I love PlayStation Vue, but it was expensive. Philo has most of the stuff I watch and the rest I use Hulu, Netflix, and I’m even an Amazon Prime Member. Don’t miss Comcast, sports, or news at all. But I do have an antenna if I need to see some news. Reply
I’m about to sign up for Philo. I just loaded it to my Roku Express app list. I basically just wanted a way to watch Investigation Discovery, my longtime favorite cable channel, which Philo carries. Philo also appeals to me because I DON’T need sports. So to find a live TV service with a line-up where I don’t have to go through countless sports channels and countless news channels and countless other total crap channels, makes Philo a PERFECT fit for me. Reply
I love Philo. ID, Lifetime & Lifetime Movies and the Nickelodeon channels for the grandkids are my favorite. I supplement with the basic traditional Hulu subscription for $7.99 a month. Get news from free Roku channels like CBSN 24/7 news streaming, free Roku movie channel and an abundance of other free channels for me and grandkids on Roku. Philo was all I needed. Love it! Reply
I am not a fan of sports, and I am done with cable. I don’t even have Roku, and am happy watching any cable at all on my tablet for the mere $16, but I guess I’m just low maintenance like that! Reply
Love Philo and its price is so reasonable. Dropped Sling as it did not have my Discovery Channel which Philo does along with History and HGTV, DIY, etc. More than I have time to watch. Would like National Geographic, but can get most of them on Hulu. Reply
It don’t stay on the program that you are watching. You can’t get the same program back when it ✂ off. Reply
Don’t care about most TV sports and don’t need the two political teem cheerleading crap. Philo has AXS and Velocity. Anything else is bells and whistles. Reply
You do! The Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries are all included in both of Philo’s bundles. Reply
We gave up cable years ago and use an antenna for local channels. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon have been terrific. Tried Sling TV for several months and really enjoyed Hallmark channels. Sling started raising prices and charging for DVR. Felt they were letting their price creap like cable. A month ago I decided to give Philo a try. It’s just the right fit. Don’t miss the sports or the news propagandists. Philo is perfect. Reply
Much better than Hulu’s live tv and much better price. Many channels and they aren’t commercial crazy like Hulu’s Live TV. I am very impressed with Philo! After trying Hulu and Sling, the choice was hands-down Philo!! Reply
I had a 7 day free trial Wich when I didn’t understand why the movies wouldn’t play why I couldn’t rewatch a movie right away.. or at all..or why the fantastic5 stopped in the middle of the movie.so they explained then revoked access to everything unless I d give them my credit card numbers Wich was absolutely not required to receive the free trial bc I was allready started it so I got 2 days of 7 and they keep heckling me in my messages to enjoy the rest if my free trial Wich they revoked access to..very rude..it’s ok to start the free trial if I don’t have a credit card but no I can’t have access suddenly bc I’m not understanding why I can’t rewatch the movie or finish watching a movie or have access to advertised movies.way to avenge yourselves.wow..id assume that’s disrespectful and unprofessional and even if I had money oozing I don’t like this company bc they were rude and disrespectful Reply
I’ve had philo for over a year …it was great at first BUT now there are so many advertisements…I was just watching a movie and only about 30 min into it there were already 5 advertisements and the last one ended and I didn’t even get back into the movie within 2 mins yep another advertisements… I understand some but come on when your paying for it …your not paying to watch commercials…there are many FREE sites and the reason they are free is because they have so many advertisements…I think it’s about time to switch …pay hard earned money to watch advertisements or free sites with advertisements …it’s a no brainer ..Free tv here I come… Reply
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean I should be forced to watch them regardless of whether I “pay” for them or not. I realize companies need to have a good (aka large) source of income and if their streaming package is cheap, that money has to come from somewhere. But when I’m forced to watch more commercial time than show time, that’s when I’ll look around to find better offers with DVR service where I can skip the commercials. Philo used to be better and have lots of shows on DVR service instead of VOD but now they’ve started turning the majority of their shows into VOD. You’ll watch 3 minutes of show then 5 minutes of commercials even on old shows (we used to like to watch Renovation Realities). I am starting to look around for another option. I did like Philo because I don’t want the sports and don’t want to pay for them (I cancelled with DirecTv because they decided we needed to pay a $6 Regional Sports Network charge each month). Reply
Hey Cordcutting…Do you have any information or a possible upcoming review of a new and VERY skinny streaming network ( as in 12 channels ) by a company called Frndly ? I found the listing while surfing on my ROKU app menu. This service supposedly starts at $5.99 with an unlimited cloud DVR and ALL 3 Hallmark channels. If you have any ”hands-on” with Frndly, please let me have your opinion of how this fairly new service is doing. Thanks…. Richard Reply
The fact that anyone would like this service, speaks to how dumb we are as a society. You can’t get much greedier than these guys. It’s a classic example of double dipping that unfortunately has become far too common. It’s become so much the norm to see an advertisement on a service you are paying for, that most people don’t even realize they are paying twice (never mind fishing). But what makes Philo the absolute worse offenders is the amount of commercials they air. We’re talking 2 1/2 mins for even 5 mins of programming! Quite egregious in my opinion and yet some peoplestill pay to watch it (sigh) Reply
The fact that anyone would like this service, speaks to how dumb we are as a society. You can’t get much greedier than these guys. It’s a classic example of double dipping that unfortunately has become far too common. It’s become so much the norm to see an advertisement on a service you are paying for, that most people don’t even realize they are paying twice (never mind fishing). But what makes Philo the absolute worse offenders is the amount of commercials they air. We’re talking 2 1/2 mins of commercials (I timed it) for every 5 mins of programming! Quite egregious in my opinion and yet some peoplestill pay to watch it (sigh) Reply
I have a smart TV, yet Philo doesn’t show up as an option to watch. So I need to buy something to have it show up? Help, I’m tech illiterate… Reply
Hi Brad, thanks for reading! You’ll need the Philo app to watch Philo. The app is available for some platforms, but not all. Depending on what smart TV you have, you may not be able to get it. Look for it in your smart TV’s app store — if it’s not there, you could try getting a Roku or a different streaming device to hook up to your TV. Reply
You state…”With live TV and on-demand content alike, Philo snaps into 1080p HD quality quickly…yet on their website it says 720p for live shows…big difference. Reply
I have had Philo for several months On our AppleTV units and have enjoyed it. However it has been unusable for the last week with a message the show is taking too long to load. All other apps are streaming fine. Got Philo for Hallmark channels for my father. Now they have their own app so maybe time to drop Philo? They do have a few channels not easily replaced but if it doesn’t work anymore… Reply
If you get that msg on Apple TV double click the key on your remote with the square on it. The one across from menu, when you double click it you can close all the apps you have open. Close Philo and then go back to it. That solves it. I have Apple and Roku and that only happens when I use Apple. Reply
AMC Premiere is a separate service. Philo will give you access to the regular live channel version of AMC (with commercials). To get AMC Premiere, you’ll have to sign up directly (not through Philo). Hope this helps! Reply
It’s very doubtful you can watch without commercials! Philo has started making the majority of their shows VOD which means you’re forced to watch commercials if you want to see the show. I HATE VOD/Commercials – HATE them! When Philo was new that was a big selling point for me. I could record/save the shows, watch them at my leisure and not have to watch commercials. The way Philo is set up I can record them but I’m still forced to watch commercials. It’s like they want me to go back to satellite tv! Reply
I have been using Philo, Prime, Hulu and Locast. I pay about 45.00 total and use for free Pluto and Tubi. Philo has been pretty good, I use it often and have never been billed more than the 20.00. It’s worth the price. Reply
It’s not bad – but if you love commercials, you will love Philo. Their new philosophy is that if 1 commercial is good, then 5 are great and then we’ll force our customers to watch them and not be able to forward past them. That way we can get the money from our customers and from the advertisers. That works until their customers get aggravated and change services but they haven’t gotten that far yet. Reply
I enjoy philo it’s a great price all the channels I enjoy but would love to have the fox news I have a the ruku but all they offer is fake news i hope philo will had the fox news Reply
Philo sux terribly. I’m know they need to pay for things but it is unbelievably ridiculous having to watch literally TEN adds At every commercial break. Watching The First 48 , a show just under an hour there are SIX commercial breaks, with TEN ADDS each one. THATS 60 COMMERCIALS IN ONE HOUR. ITS NOT WORTH THE MONEY .Anyone that says they like this app, is working for Philo or has been paid for that review. Reply
Philo is garbage have the shows I like to watch are blocked by owner or some BS I’m going back to sling Reply
Philo is garbage have the shows I like to watch are blocked by owner or some BS I’m going back to sling Reply
I just spent over 40 minutes on chat with Philo. I told them they have false advertising about having a free trial with no credit card required. I spoke to two different people bc the first one disconnected that chat. One of the excuses I got was that if you are signing up on their website, using a computer, that they want to know you are not a bot. I told them it was b.s. bc they could use a captcha, and besides that you still have to enter the verification code that they send you. My biggest problem is that it is not stated on the website that the cc info is required when you try to sign up, it just doesn’t let you do it. I have spent many hours over a couple of weeks trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. They didn’t care. I told them that if they did not honor what was advertised then how was I to expect any of their customer service to be any better? They didn’t care. I told them I was going to report them to the BBB for false advertising, and that I was going to shop elsewhere. They didn’t care. Fortunately my time on the chat was not totally wasted bc now I know that they don’t care how they are perceived, and I know that they do not care about customer service. If they did, they would have apologized for my trouble and signed me up directly from that chat. Reply
The cost, service, and variety are well worth the $20. Sadly it becomes all worthless when you can’t understand or follow anything on their ridiculous excuse for a Guide. It makes the decision to unsubscribe very easy. Too bad, I thought I had a winner. Reply
Seriously? To all the complainers.. You get many channels for $20. They say over 60 channels. Never took the time to count, but it is a lot of channels for the cost. It’s gone up to $25, still great cost. You can FF commercials, but ONLY the shows you’ve saved and recorded (DVR). The guide isn’t the greatest, but come on… You can figure it out and easily SAVE the channels you like. There are a lot of commercials, but bypass them in DVR mode. Philo is great bang for the buck!! Reply
Blah, blah, blah…blah, blah, blah! Go fund someone else and pay a lot more money for lots of channels that are just fill in fluff…..channels that you pay for and never, ever watch!!! Reply
If you’re a postpaid T-Mobile subscriber, you may be able to get another $10/month discount on Philo for as long as you remain with T-Mobile (https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/tv-discount#heading3). I was pretty skeptical that this would work, but can confirm that it does. With this added discount, we save $50/month over the Youtube TV subscription we previously had. We also bought a $40 roof antenna for our house, and now receive our local network affiliates (plus about 100 other channels) over the air, which mitigates the lack of local news AND improves the picture quality of these stations compared to Youtube TV. If you value the convenience of not having to switch between different smart TV apps to reach your content, then this setup may not be your choice. But we couldn’t be happier. Reply
i have philo i like at first when stated march 2019 could watch any show up 30 days on drv and upgrade my plan keep on there a year .last nite went watch one shows recorder on spet it was gone line up on my tv set put see on my computer and that why went year service so worry be out line up that why went got ruko watch my tv not computer ,i call said ruko up grade there service witch not true just sucks use computer watch show witch do not want to do so might cut them off with different service pay 25 dollars keep show on for year saw on amazon philo has very low rate see why now. Reply
i post some thing yesterday did not see today i guess not allow tell the truth well try one program yesterday have shows were cut off i paid 25 dollars month keep for year.i could not see on tv witch went brought a ruko for so see on tv.so went look for them my computer they were there some show watch on my computer did not want to do that why brought ruko.i call them said ruko was upgrade witch were not. very disapponited when philo . very happy witch got first in 2019 now not so much.was great first get they keep changing how see your show i just would leave was before Reply
$25 seems like a good deal BUT for every 10-12 minutes of show you watch, they literally play 7-8 minutes of commercials! I’ve never seen any kind of provider play so much!!! I’m 3 days into my free trial and may not even finish it because they show waaaay too many commercials! Reply
You have to remember, this is a live TV streaming service. All the shows are live and designed to fit into a specific time frame. The NETWORK inserts the commercials, not the streaming service. They show no more commercials than any other live TV service. An hour long live show on Philo is the same as any hour long live show on any other cable, satellite, or live streaming app. Reply
Horrible Service! I dealt with Ike in customer service. They held my credit card ransom after canceling my free trial before the full period. I tried to explain to Ike in their customer service that it’s illegal to refuse to remove a credit card from a service. (I owed nothing BTW). He was rude and horrible. This is not how you succeed in Silicon Valley Ike. Reply