T-Mobile Adds Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision, and WWE Network as Binge On Partners

[MacRumors]

T-Mobile today announced the support of four new partners to its free video streaming service Binge On, including Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision NOW, and WWE Network. The new streaming partners join more than 40 services already supporting Binge On, which lets customers watch video content without using data from their T-Mobile cellular plan.

The company also released a few details about the status of Binge On in the three months since its launch, saying that customers using the service are watching "more than twice the video" they were before Binge On. The service is one of the latest programs in T-Mobile's "Un-carrier" marketing campaign, which CEO John Legere says "has literally changed the way millions of people are watching video."

"Binge On is our most disruptive Un-carrier move yet. It has literally changed the way millions of people are watching video - they're watching more, more than twice as much as before, and most importantly, they're watching without worrying about bigger bills or surprise overages!" said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. "Binge On is the Un-carrier solution to satisfy Americans' growing appetite for mobile video - and the facts are telling us that customers love it!"

T-Mobile conducted a survey of its customers as well, focusing on users' understanding and opinions regarding Binge On. 92 percent of T-Mobile customers surveyed said they plan to watch more video using the service, while 93 percent claimed that they're okay with all video being "optimized to DVD quality," referencing Binge On's baseline 480p video resolution.

After the FCC began scrutinizing similar programs last year, T-Mobile's program became the center of some drama between the cellular carrier and YouTube, which claimed the service throttled its content even though it wasn't a partner with Binge On. After an independent test confirmed such throttling claims, John Legere responded to all of the comments made against the service, reiterating T-Mobile's continued enthusiastic support of Binge On.

Article Link: T-Mobile Adds Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision, and WWE Network as Binge On Partners

 

[rictus007]

AT&T I'm still waiting your move!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

My wife always burns through our data plan watching videos on Buzz Feed and Facebook. Any chance of them becoming partners in this?

 

[vertsix]

Proud to be a T-Mo customer, but I really want YouTube added on this list.

 

[BeSweeet]

AT&T I'm still waiting your move!

Their move was bringing back unlimited data [for eligible customers].

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

YES! Amazon video!! Now what about Amazon music???
[doublepost=1453994291][/doublepost]

My wife always burns through our data plan watching videos on Buzz Feed and Facebook. Any chance of them becoming partners in this?

Proud to be a T-Mo customer, but I really want YouTube added on this list.

Yes Facebook and Youtube would be great, although I'm not surprised they're dragging their legs. I'm guessing facebook will come around, not sure about Google.

 

[ross1998]

Another reason people might be using 2x more video is because of the free unlimited data till March, I've burned through 20 gigs instead of 10 last month because of the unlimited.

 

[jacjustjac]

Two days ago I turned off "Binge On" for my whole family. Since Binge-On was introduced, all I've heard were complaints about how slow it was to watch video on T-Mobile's LTE. In my experience, "480p quality" means it simply throttles the bandwidth when playing all video content. For most videos, including YouTube, the video server senses the slow speed and switches to a lower quality stream, often 480p. But some videos are only encoded at a high bitrate, which leads to constant pausing and buffering. It's infuriating at times. I pay for 10GB of 50mbps LTE, and IMHO it's best used for watching and scrubbing through video. Binge-On effectively takes that away.

As a side note, I think the reason Binge-On exists is to reduce the load on T-Mobile's network during peak hours, when videos probably use 95% of their network bandwidth. It's a great idea, but I hope they don't extend their throttling to Music Freedom, the main reason I switched from Verizon!

 

[gogogut]

Two days ago I turned off "Binge On" for my whole family. Since Binge-On was introduced, all I've heard were complaints about how slow it was to watch video on T-Mobile's LTE. In my experience, "480p quality" means it simply throttles the bandwidth when playing all video content. For most videos, including YouTube, the video server senses the slow speed and switches to a lower quality stream, often 480p. But some videos are only encoded at a high bitrate, which leads to constant pausing and buffering. It's infuriating at times. I pay for 10GB of 50mbps LTE, and IMHO it's best used for watching and scrubbing through video. Binge-On effectively takes that away.

As a side note, I think the reason Binge-On exists is to reduce the load on T-Mobile's network during peak hours, when videos probably use 95% of their network bandwidth. It's a great idea, but I hope they don't extend their throttling to Music Freedom, the main reason I switched from Verizon!

jacjustjac, can you say more about your switch from Verizon? I am considering making the switch when the contract on my iPhone 5S expires in 2 months. I live in Washington, DC and hear that Tmobile is strong here. I want to be able to stream audio, especially when driving. The video streaming would be a nice bonus everyone in a while, but not a big selling point for me. Thanks!

 

[12vElectronics]

I really can't wait to switch to T Mobile.

 

[ctrlfreak]

T-Mobile today announced the support of four new partners to its free video streaming service Binge On, including Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision NOW, and WWE Network. The new streaming partners join more than 40 services already supporting Binge On, which lets customers watch video content without using data from their T-Mobile cellular plan.

The company also released a few details about the status of Binge On in the three months since its launch, saying that customers using the service are watching "more than twice the video" they were before Binge On. The service is one of the latest programs in T-Mobile's "Un-carrier" marketing campaign, which CEO John Legere says "has literally changed the way millions of people are watching video."

T-Mobile conducted a survey of its customers as well, focusing on users' understanding and opinions regarding Binge On. 92 percent of T-Mobile customers surveyed said they plan to watch more video using the service, while 93 percent claimed that they're okay with all video being "optimized to DVD quality," referencing Binge On's baseline 480p video resolution.

After the FCC began scrutinizing similar programs last year, T-Mobile's program became the center of some drama between the cellular carrier and YouTube, which claimed the service throttled its content even though it wasn't a partner with Binge On. After an independent test confirmed such throttling claims, John Legere responded to all of the comments made against the service, reiterating T-Mobile's continued enthusiastic support of Binge On.

Article Link: T-Mobile Adds Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision, and WWE Network as Binge On Partners

Does this mean since Amazon Video has been added, Twitch will also be added?

 

[Hastings101]

Do people really "binge" on something like Fox News, CNN, etc.

"Just a second babe, I'm finishing up a six hour marathon of Bill O'Reilly."

 

[avanpelt]

Their move was bringing back unlimited data [for eligible customers].

I fully expect that they'll extend the unlimited plan to their entire customer base sometime this year -- perhaps at a higher cost than it is being offered currently to U-verse/DirecTV subscribers, though. We'll see.

Even though I can get the new unlimited plan now, I have no use for it because I use less than 5 GB of data per month and having personal hotspot available is a must for me.

 

[XTheLancerX]

I really can't wait to switch to T Mobile.

Can't wait either, just need them to bring usable service to the huge dark spot in the northeast. Who knows how long that'll take. The 700mhz a block spectrum is owned by buffalo cavalier in western New York and a good portion of northern PA.

 

[naeS1Sean]

I just don't trust T Mobile for some reason. I don't know why.

 

[69Mustang]

Do people really "binge" on something like Fox News, CNN, etc.

"Just a second babe, I'm finishing up a six hour marathon of Bill O'Reilly."

/Watches six hours of O'Reilly

/Kisses wife on forehead

/Steps in shower with toaster.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

I just turned it off last week. I would rather get full speed HD video. I have 49 GB in my data stash, so I don't think I'll get hurt...

 

[joueboy]

It's confirmed that Binge-On makes your video buffer like crazy no matter how fast is your data speed, if the video you're watching is not from supported partners. It's really annoying T-Mobile did this although they still charge you for data usage. I don't know why and how this is happening. I assume they do a realtime encoding to save data especially if it's an HD video.

 

[CPx]

It usually will only buffer if you've manually forced the quality to HD. If the app you're using automatically picks quality, then it will just serve you the SD stream and it won't buffer. That's not to say it never has a bobble as it tries to pick the correct quality. But buffering hasn't been an issue for me unless I was trying to force HD (like say in the Protube app).

 

[vixster1901]

As anyone turned off home internet and use T-MO as primary internet source for the home?

 

[JackieInCo]

I turned off Binge On. I don't watch videos enough to leave it on so high quality videos will not use a lot of data against my 10GB, plus data stash every month. I have too much data as it is to ever use it.

 

[ephemeralreason]

I really can't wait to switch to T Mobile.

jacjustjac, can you say more about your switch from Verizon? I am considering making the switch when the contract on my iPhone 5S expires in 2 months. I live in Washington, DC and hear that Tmobile is strong here. I want to be able to stream audio, especially when driving. The video streaming would be a nice bonus everyone in a while, but not a big selling point for me. Thanks![/QUOT

I'm in Allentown PA and have excellent TMobile service on my iPad - can't wait to switch from Verizon when the new 4 inch iPhone arrives.

 

[rictus007]

Their move was bringing back unlimited data [for eligible customers].

It's not actually unlimited if throttling speed is one of the available options.... I guess is a start.

 

[BeSweeet]

It's not actually unlimited if throttling speed is one of the available options.... I guess is a start.

You're assuming that you'll automatically be throttled, which is incorrect. In any case, it's still unlimited data.

 

[Taz Mangus]

As anyone turned off home internet and use T-MO as primary internet source for the home?

I guess you could do something like that if you don't need any computers and other devices such as an AppleTV, at home, to access the Internet. Otherwise you would need to setup a hot spot from your mobile device and as far as I know that has a data cap associated with it. My ISP has no data cap. I would really love to reduce my monthly bill by $80 by doing something like consolidating cell and home internet.