Wallet-friendly virtual MVPD Philo inked a deal with New York Post Media Group and Page Six to be the streaming home of the 2026 Virtual Reali-Tea Awards, Page Six’s fan-voted reality TV awards show.
It marks Philo’s first exclusively licensed awards show and Philo CMO Nii Mantse Addy shared with StreamTV Insiders how the deal comes as the virtual pay TV provider looks to both cater to and become a destination for reality TV fans, offer content with social ties that deepens engagement and is part of cultural conversation, and to bolster awareness of its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) tier.
Born out of a podcast and previously available on Page Six’s website, the second annual awards show celebrates fan-favorite and iconic personalities and pop culture moments. This year’s ceremony is hosted and executive produced by Virtual Reali-Tea stars Danny Murphy and Evan Real. It will be filmed live October 6 at the Edison Ballroom in New York and premieres exclusively on Philo Oct. 9 – available both on paid plans and notably, the provider’s fully free tier.
It also marks Philo’s second foray into original programming with social tie-ins, following its earlier work on original unscripted series Boss Moves with Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Rasheeda Frost.
Philo’s free tier offers more than 170 ad-supported channels and 30-day cloud DVR alongside thousands of on-demand movies and shows, while paid plans include more than 70 top cable channel starting at $25 per month.
Philo sees awards engagement, seeks to serve reality TV fans
It’s worth noting that some large, long-running awards shows, like the Emmy’s as the most recent example, have seen their linear viewership decline in recent years. But Philo continues to see engagement and is strategically going after awards- and reality TV-focused programming that the provider believes has a strong fit for its audience.
It’s also about tapping into creator and social tie-ins for content that drives group and appointment viewing and cultural conversation from fans.
“While some long-running award shows have seen declining ratings, we’ve seen record engagement with award shows on our cable networks,” Addy told us, while explaining the benefits.
“These events drive strong first-pay and free-trial engagement, showing that fans value the experience, the fanfare, and the conversation around them.”
Addy noted that much of the trade press discussion around appointment viewing is often around sports, which is held up as one of the few types of programming able to draw large, simultaneous audiences. With a value proposition all about low-cost and entertainment-focused programming, Philo doesn’t offer sports. Still, Addy said the vMVPD sees a similar dynamic happening around must-see reality TV and pop culture-focused award shows.
“Both can bring fans together around shared viewing and the discourse ecosystem that surrounds them,” he said.
Reality TV a top performer for Philo
The deal with Page Six also fits into Philo’s content strategy because reality TV is one of the vMVPD’s top audience genre affinities.
Per Addy, more than 40% of Philo’s audience engages with reality TV and it has seen reality shows with strong fandoms “drive reliable engagement and growth on the platform.”
Some examples of popular reality shows on the service include Mama June, the 90 Day Fiancé franchise, Love After Lockup, Jersey Shore Family Reunion, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and 1000-Pound Sisters, among others.
Content strategy via Influencers 2.0
As for the VRT Awards specifically, tapping into the attention and creator economy is also part of the appeal for Philo as the program derives from a popular reality TV-discussion podcast and has communities around the podcast hosts and casts of the shows.
“This was a natural space for us to invest early because it directly speaks to Philo’s strong customer affinity for reality programming,” Addy said.
It also marks Philo’s second foray into original programming, following the show Boss Moves that Philo developed two seasons of through an existing relationship (including on social) with show star Rasheeda Frost.
Per Addy, the biggest takeaway from that effort “was the value of creating programming with influential creators for audiences where we have deep insight into what resonates, allowing us to give them more of the content they love.”
The CMO said Boss Moves generated strong engagement and benefited by a broader halo impact of driving awareness and cultural relevance – including when Nelly and Ashanti announced their relationship on the second season, which generated media attention and helped put Philo into broader pop-culture conversations.
“That experience reinforced how we think about original programming today: the opportunity is to develop audience-led creator-tied programming that serves a clear fandom, feels authentic, and can create a broader conversation around Philo,” he explained.
Internally, Philo refers to this as influencer 2.0 and the vMVPD continues to see particular value in reality and pop-culture programming, “where strong communities and social conversation can extend the impact beyond viewing itself.”
Placing sustainable bets
Still, while Philo intends to build up the amount of licensed AVOD content on its platform, the marketing chief noted it does not mean it plans to grow a large slate of exclusive original content nor invest in blockbuster original series, as it doesn’t align with the business.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t placing bets, including with content like Page Six’s fan-voted awards show – but Philo is doing so opportunistically and without making overly large financial outlays.
“In areas like reality, which have a different economic profile, we can invest in a more sustainable way that aligns with our principles,” Addy commented.
So in addition to fitting into the culture tie-in content strategy, what doe Philo hope to drive with an exclusive stream of the Virtual Reali-Tea Awards next month, including for free?
Three main aims with exclusive Virtual Reali-Tea Awards
Asked about the main goals for Philo of acquiring the VRT Awards exclusively, Addy laid out three key areas.
The first is to drive awareness of Philo as a brand among hardcore reality TV viewers, particularly the large and highly engaged New York Post Page Six audience.
“Page Six has significant reach and credibility in the reality TV space, and we believe the audience will have strong overlap with Philo’s content offering.”
The publisher also noted Philo distribution as a way to help grow the VRT Awards program.
“Reality TV is a huge part of the Page Six universe, and the Virtual Reali-Tea Awards have quickly become a standout extension of the brand,” said Sean Giancola, publisher and CEO of New York Post Media Group, in a statement. “Philo is a natural partner to help us take the VRT Awards to the next level, reach even more fans and celebrate the people and moments everyone is talking about.”
The move to make it free
Second is to raise awareness of Philo’s free ad-supported tier. Philo is among streamers offering a fully free tier of service in addition to paid plans – as seen by others in the space like sports-focused vMVPD Fubo and now also under consideration by major SVODs like Disney+ and Netflix.
Philo sees its FAST tier as a front porch for people to discover Philo for the first time, engage with its product, features and content, and potentially upgrade to paid plans, as well as a back porch retention tool to keep viewers engaged when seasons or subscriptions pause while still driving advertising revenue.
The decision to put the VRT Awards in front of a paywall was in part about the opportunity to introduce Philo to new customers, including viewers that regularly watch FAST and the Virtual Reali-Tea audience – the latter which Addy said is highly engaged with New York Post and Page Six websites and podcasts – in an organic way and one that had a low barrier of entry.
“The free tier lets them see the depth and breadth of our reality TV offerings and experience Philo as a front porch to our broader service,” he explained.
FAST is a business model in its own right
While the hope is that some viewers ultimately convert to paid plans, the CMO noted it’s not only a conversion funnel, “it is also a meaningful retention strategy that helps preserve the customer relationship and reduce the cost of reacquisition.”
While the majority of Philo’s revenue still comes from subscriptions, Addy said its FAST tier “generates meaningful ad revenue and usage” Without disclosing specifics, he shared that the overall revenue share from the FAST tier “continues to grow as the audience scales” and it is an “increasingly valuable contributor to the overall business.”
As such, “we take the free tier seriously as an independent business model in its own right,” he noted – while also playing a key role in the unified Philo experience ecosystem.
The privately-held company doesn’t regularly publicly report financials but in February 2025 disclosed revenue for the first time, reporting $450 million in revenue for 2024 – at which time the service had 1.3 million paid subscribers.
Philo declined to share an update on its number of paid subscribers or disclose how many users are on the free tier, but Addy said its FAST audience “has nearly doubled over the past year and engagement has followed suit.”
And with the FAST space increasingly crowded and competitive, having the Virtual Reali-Tea Awards exclusively gives Philo a chance to have something unique to attract new users with and try out the free product, which includes 30-day DVR.
“This is an opportunity both to build awareness and to create a direct relationship with free viewers,” Addy said of having the exclusive content on both free and paid tiers. “Philo has a unique product ecosystem that allows our customers to move freely between tiers based on the content that resonates with them."
More content for fans to engage with, informing future live events
Finally, the third main aim with the exclusively licensed awards show is that Philo wants to give existing viewers more reality TV content to engage with while also gaining learnings to inform future content moves.
“This acquisition reflects Philo’s longstanding philosophy: understand what our customers are already engaging with, then super-serve them with more of the content they love,” Addy said. “Reality is one of our strongest audience affinities, so the Virtual Reali-Tea Awards are a way to deepen that connection and create a shared viewing and conversation moment.”
At the same time, the Page Six deal gives Philo a chance to get a better understanding how exclusively licensed, event-based content performs on the service.
“We’ll look at the performance of the event to inform how we approach additional live events and refine those opportunities in the future based on audience response, customer fit, and the ability to create meaningful engagement,” Addy explained.
Ahead of the live event next month, last year’s 2025 Virtual Reali-Tea Awards program is currently available and streaming on Philo.
Article updated to add Philo CMO Nii Mantse Addy's full name on first reference. Also updated to correct the number of free streaming channels offered by Philo to 170+, as a prior version stated 150+.