What is Philo? Today Roku announced that Philo is now available on selected models. Philo is a cable replacement service aimed at the younger generation which has been flying under the radar as it has built out viewers in a style reminiscent of Facebook in its early years. The service has been spreading via college campuses in order to reach the generation of Americans that seem the least likely to jump in with a cable bundle. As colleges have begun to drop cable in the dorm rooms the service has become a replacement for those who want the programming.
Philo programming primarily consists of networks owned by 4 major MVPD’s Viacom, AMC Networks, Discovery, and A&E Networks. Missing from the packages are popular sports and news channels. This may be how the service can stay so inexpensive. It offers 2 programming packages one for $16.00 and one for $20.00 with 37 and 46 channels respectively.
Roku is the first set-top and smart TV platform to hose Philo, which has until now only been available via IOS, Android and web apps. The channel though is not available on every Roku model. The list of compatible units includes:
Roku Ultra (4660x, 4640x), Roku Streaming Stick+ (3810x), Roku Streaming Stick (3800x, 3600x), Roku Express (3900x, 3700x), Roku Express+ (3910x, 3710x), Roku Premiere+, Roku Premiere, Roku 4, Roku 3, Roku 2 (4210x). Philo expects to add support for more Roku devices in the future.
