Philo

Philo is an American over-the-top streaming television company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It sells entertainment-focused live TV packages without local broadcast stations or sports networks. Its Essential plan costs $25 per month and includes 70+ live pay TV channels (200+ counting free channels), a library of more than 75,000 on-demand movies and shows, and unlimited cloud DVR with recordings retained for one year. A Bundle+ plan at $33 per month adds an expanded on-demand library, the AMC+ catalog, All Reality, and access to the HBO Max Basic with Ads plan and discovery+. Both plans allow up to three simultaneous streams, up to 10 profiles, and month-to-month cancellation with no contract; new Essential subscribers get a 7-day free trial.

The service is delivered without any set-top hardware and runs on web browsers, iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Roku, Fire TV, Samsung TV, VIZIO TV, LG TV, Apple TV, Android TV, and Chromecast via Android. Philo also operates a free, ad-supported tier of 120+ free channels that requires no account or credit card, with DVR recordings retained for 30 days, and sells premium add-ons including HBO Max Standard ad-free ($13/mo), discovery+ ad-free ($8/mo), Movies & More ($3/mo), AMC+ ad-free ($4/mo), MGM+ ($8/mo), ALLBLK ($7/mo), Hallmark+ ($8/mo) and STARZ ($12/mo).

Philo is named after Philo T. Farnsworth, an early television engineer whose original San Francisco laboratory was near the company's headquarters. Its consumer service launched in 2017 with a 35-channel bundle and has since grown to over a hundred channels and more than a million subscribers.

Founding story

The company was founded in 2010 at Harvard University as Tivli by Tuan Ho and Nicholas Krasney. It began as a dorm-room experiment that used aluminium foil as a makeshift antenna to pick up Boston-area television signals and deliver them wirelessly to laptops through an improvised server, with the initial goal of providing streaming TV to Harvard students living on campus. When the service launched in 2011, roughly a quarter of Harvard's resident population registered within the first few weeks. The company took its later name from Philo T. Farnsworth, a pioneering engineer of television.

Business model

Philo operates a direct-to-consumer subscription video business, licensing linear cable networks and on-demand libraries from programmers and reselling them as low-priced monthly bundles. Several programmers — AMC Networks, A+E Networks, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount — are both content suppliers and equity investors. The company complements subscriptions with a standalone free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channel service and with advertising, including a pause-ad format and an inventory partnership with Dish.

Recurring monthly subscription fees ($25 Essential, $33 Bundle+, no contract), paid premium add-on channels and services billed monthly, transactional rental and purchase of titles via the acquired Row8 storefront, and advertising against its free ad-supported channels and streams.

Traction

Philo reported 1.3 million subscribers and 20% year-over-year subscriber growth in 2024, along with $450 million in annual revenue disclosed for the first time in February 2025 and an expectation of reaching its first profit that year. Earlier, the company had 750,000 subscribers in 2020 after a year of stated 300% growth. Its free lineup has expanded to more than 150 free channels.

Latest developments

In February 2025 Philo disclosed financials for the first time, acquired transactional video outlet Row8 (terms undisclosed, integration planned by 2026) and hired former Tubi product executive Edward King as Chief Product Officer. In September 2025 it added ad-supported HBO Max and discovery+ access to its core offering, followed by a $33 Bundle+ package and, in March 2026, a $25 Essential tier with a reinstated free trial. Other recent moves include adding Lionsgate, QVC and HSN channels, twelve free Warner Bros. Discovery channels, the launch of pause ads, a personalization partnership with Reelgood, the addition of AMC's All Reality to Bundle+, and the appointment of Tom Tidgwell as CFO with Laura Dechant moving to COO. Wikipedia lists Mike Keyserling as CEO.