Philo has announced that beginning May 6 it will stop selling its $16-per-month channel package to new subscribers, leaving only the $20-per-month option.
Current subscribers or new subscribers who sign up before May 6 won’t see any change in their service at that point. Philo’s $16/month package provides 45 channels including A&E, AMC, HGTV and Nickelodeon. The company’s $20/month packages includes all channels in the base service tier plus 13 more including Nicktoons and Revolt.
Philo CEO Andrew McCollum wrote a short note explaining the change and said that his service didn’t want to raise prices like so many other virtual MVPDs and streaming TV services have recently.
“Still, when we looked at all of the costs of operating Philo—which increase over time—consolidating into a single $20 package was the best way for us to maintain the same offering we have today without raising prices for everyone, or having to cut back in places we strive to excel, like our customer support,” McCollum wrote.
RELATED: Deeper Dive—The co-viewing house that Philo built
Indeed, many vMVPDs have increased prices recently. Earlier this month YouTube TV raised its monthly price from $39.99 to $49.99. Last month, fuboTV said it was raising the price of its base packages by $10 to $54.99 per month for new subscribers. In January, Hulu announced a $5 price increase for its live TV product, taking it from $39.99 per month to $44.99. That change coincided with the company lowering the cost of its ad-supported streaming tier to $5.99 per month.
Earlier this month, DirecTV Now did some significant tinkering with its pricing by introducing two new service tiers that both include HBO. The company now sells DirecTV Now Plus (priced at $50/month) and Max (priced at $70/month).
The pricing change for Philo comes after last week when the company announced several advertising sales and technology partnerships.
Philo will work with Comcast’s FreeWheel for ad management, serving and decisioning and companies including Premion, Roku, SpotX, Telaria, FreeWheel, Xandr and Verizon Media to sell its live and video-on-demand ad inventory.