People love to throw around superlatives in the media. Can’t miss sale, “Best deals for Prime week”, etc. But sometimes a deal pops up that is truly noteworthy, and Philo just dropped one. The inexpensive streaming service is expanding its lineup to include HBO Max and Discovery+. The services are owned by Warner Bros Discovery and add a metric ton of on-demand content to an already robust streaming service.
The move raises the price of the “Core” service to $33.00 up from $28.00. Core is the starting point for Philo. I assume there will be some people who blanch at the idea of an increase in price of less than the price of a 6-inch sub at Subway, but unlike the price hikes for virtually every other streaming service, this comes with more stuff, not just a higher bill.
What do those services offer?
HBO Max is everything HBO has always been. It brings the vast majority of HBO’s original series, a huge selection of movies from multiple studios, including Turner, Warner Bros and more. When we say on-demand, we mean that a few minutes after a live show starts, users can watch on demand. The difference between having the live HBO channel and HBO Max is that you can decide when you check things out.
This means Philo now offers sports
In an interesting twist, adding HBO Max means that Philo now provides access to sports. A big reason Philo has remained inexpensive is because it does not provide ESPN, Fox Sports, or the major cable news channels. Those channels bump up the cost of any TV package which is why those that push sports cost more than twice as much as Philo.
What is Discovery+?
Discovery+ is by far the biggest library of reality/unscripted TV in streaming. Name a major true crime show, it’s probably available; thousands of episodes of popular cooking shows, home improvement shows, docu-series, and so on are available through the service. It is a library of programming from all of the assorted Discovery channels, HGTV, The Food Network, and all of the offshoots in between.
Why it’s a good deal
$5.00 for access to all of that content is a fraction of the cost of adding those services on their own. Basic HBO Max with commercials costs $9.99, while Discovery+ costs $5.99. So, Philo customers, I advise that you take the win. This is a major addition to an already solid service.
