T-Mobile again expanded its free streaming program Binge On this morning, with the addition of Apple Music and fifteen other providers, including video services like ABC, Fox Now, FXNOW, Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Disney XD, NAT GEO TV, DISH Anywhere, and others. This brings the total number of video providers now participating in Binge On to over 100 since the service’s launch just eight months ago, notes the company.
Binge On, which is part of T-Mobile’s “UnCarrier” marketing campaign, lets customers stream music and video without tapping into their mobile data. To date, T-Mobile customers have streamed over 765 million hours of video data-free, which the carrier says contributes to longer watch times, more frequent viewing, and, for participating providers, the ability to sell more subscriptions.
According to a T-Mobile-led study, it claims that 85 percent of Binge On providers expect customers to increase their viewing times and 80 percent will watch more often. Forty-five percent of those with paid subscriptions expect to increase sales. (Keep in mind, of course, these are “expectations” – not hard data.)
However, the program itself has come a long way over the past several months. T-Mobile has worked out some of the kinks with regard to the complaints larger video providers had, as with Google and YouTube. Earlier this year, YouTube and Google Play Movies & TV finally joined the program after T-Mobile addressed Google’s criticism of its program, which said that T-Mobile was unfairly throttling video without user consent.
The carrier has since made it easier for end users to turn Binge On’s service on or off, and video service providers can now opt out of having their streams modified by T-Mobile. They can also choose to participate in the program, but manage their video streams themselves, giving the video provider more control.
As a result of the free streaming, T-Mobile said at the beginning of the year that customers were watching more than twice as much as before – a figure it reconfirmed in March. Customers are also able to watch for longer – or, as T-Mobile says today, “hundreds of millions of extra hours” – because their high-speed data lasts up to three times longer when they stream via Binge On.
The full line-up of new services added today include:
- ABC
- Apple Music
- Big Ten Network
- CEEK VR
- DISH Anywhere
- Disney Channel
- Disney Jr.
- Disney XD
- D-PAN.TV
- DramaFever
- FOX NOW
- FXNOW
- NAT GEO TV
- Shalom World
- Sioeye
- Tubi TV