Philovs
fuboTV
fuboTV: If sports coverage, including regional sports networks, is a requirement
Philo
Cheap entertainment-only live TV streaming with no sports and no local broadcast channels
As of 1 September 2026, Philo starts at $33/month. The lowest-price live TV bundle among the mainstream cord-cutting services, at $33 a month, because it deliberately excludes sports and local broadcast affiliates, both of which carry the highest retransmission and carriage fees. Softwr lists it under Entertainment. Philo is made by Philo Inc., available on Web, iOS, Android, Roku.
Overview
What Philo does
Philo streams around 70 channels of entertainment, lifestyle, reality and general cable content, including networks like AMC, Comedy Central, Discovery, MTV and Paramount Network, with unlimited cloud DVR storage included at every plan. It runs on the usual streaming device platforms and phones. The defining fact against fuboTV and DirecTV Stream is what Philo leaves out on purpose: no ESPN, no regional sports networks, and no local ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC affiliates. Those are the most expensive channels for any streamer to carry, since sports rights and local broadcast retransmission fees drive most of the cost difference between live TV bundles. By excluding them entirely, Philo keeps its price a fraction of competitors that include them, rather than offering a discount tier of the same channels. Buyers are households that already get local channels over an antenna or do not care about them, and specifically do not want or need sports, who just want general entertainment and reality cable channels for less. The trade-off is absolute: anyone who wants live local news, NFL, NBA or any other sports coverage has to look elsewhere, because Philo will not add it at any price, unlike fuboTV or DirecTV Stream where sports coverage is a paid tier or add-on rather than a missing category.
What people use it for
- A household that gets local news over an antenna and does not need it duplicated in a streaming bundle
- Someone who wants reality, lifestyle and general cable channels and has no interest in sports at all
- A budget cord-cutter comparing the lowest possible monthly cost among mainstream live TV services
- A second household or vacation home subscription where a full sports-inclusive bundle is not worth the cost
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Philo.
- There is no sports coverage of any kind, and no add-on exists to get it, so anyone wanting even occasional live sports needs a different service entirely.
- It carries no local ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC affiliate feeds, so live local news and network prime time require an antenna or another service.
- The channel count, at around 70, is meaningfully smaller than fuboTV or DirecTV Stream, so genre variety outside entertainment and lifestyle is limited.
- News coverage is thin, with no major 24-hour cable news network included on the base lineup in the way some competitors carry CNN or Fox News.
- Because it deliberately stays in one narrow lane, households whose needs change to include sports have to switch providers entirely rather than upgrading a Philo tier.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Philo
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- PhilovsDirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream: If you want local channels and sports alongside general entertainment in one bundle
- PhilovsThe Roku Channel
The Roku Channel: If you want free ad-supported channels and are comfortable with less content than a paid bundle offers
Pricing
What Philo costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Philo
$33 /mo
- Around 70 entertainment and lifestyle channels
- Unlimited cloud DVR
- No sports or local broadcast channels
- No annual contract
Capabilities
Features
Unlimited cloud DVR
No storage cap on recordings, included at no extra cost
Around 70 channels
Entertainment, lifestyle, reality and general cable networks
No contracts
Month-to-month billing with no annual commitment
Multiple simultaneous streams
Several concurrent streams included per account
Low base price
A fraction of the cost of sports-inclusive live TV bundles
On-demand library
Access to on-demand content from included networks
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Philo have any sports channels?
No, it excludes sports entirely, including ESPN and regional sports networks, and there is no add-on to get them.
Does Philo include local channels like ABC or NBC?
No, local broadcast affiliates are not included; you would need an antenna or a different streaming service for those.
Why is Philo so much cheaper than fuboTV?
Because it excludes the two most expensive categories of content to carry, sports rights and local broadcast retransmission fees.
Keep looking
Where to go from Philo
- Philo alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Philo pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Philo badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Entertainment softwareThe full category
- Best Entertainment softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Entertainment software for
Compare Philo with
- DirecTV Stream
- fuboTV
- The Roku Channel
- Hulu
- Pluto TV
- StubHub
- YouTube TV
- Peacock
- DaVinci Resolve
- Starz
- Stitcher
- Tubi
- VLC
- ESPN+
- Paramount+
- StubHub
- YouTube TV
- Showtime
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Philo, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Philo
Philo alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Philo pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Philo
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Philo badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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