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The Live Streaming Broadcast TV Service FilmOn Now Requires A Subscription

The Live Streaming Broadcast TV Service FilmOn Now Requires A Subscription

December 30, 2010
In early November, we brought you news that a company began providing a handful of TV channels in a native live streaming format for our iDevices. This service, FilmOn, was being offered completely free to iDevice users for over a month. However, in the past couple weeks, FilmOn is now looking to make customers pay a renewable subscription fee. FilmOn offers a number of channels from ION Television, FOX, ABC, NBC, the CW Network (CBS and Warner Bros.), their own creations, and more. For those who fancy it, there's even adult content from Playboy and others. All of this content is available via FilmOn.com on your desktop or mobile device, without the need for an app. Indeed, many of these broadcasters now offer free online content through their website or apps like the ABC Player, which is still only designed to work on the iPad. Let's also not forget that not every single network offers iOS friendly access, or even having them all quickly available in one place. As mentioned in AppAdvice Daily Podcast Appisode #230, FilmOn even had a legal entanglement with some of the top broadcasting stations. We all know this carries recurring expenses to FilmOn, plus the broadcasting networks wanting their cut. In which case, it was certain that this would either end or require payment at some point. That point has come. Users are still able to preview channels at no guest and with guest access, but full service will require one of the new monthly or yearly plans. For those wondering, your preview period resets when re-visiting the site or quitting and re-launching the FilmOn HDi Player app. There are two main packages, Pure and Monster, which are available separately to the United States, United Kingdom, and World regions. The Pure package is available for $9.95 per month or $99.00 per year and includes unlimited player downloads (if necessary), live television channels in high-definition, and movie channels in high-definition. The Monster package includes all of that along with the adult content for either $19.95 per month or $195.00 per year. Both annual subscriptions save two months worth of service costs. Last but not least, it appears that negotiations are ongoing with ABC, NBC, and FOX. While these channels were previously available, current attempts to view them will result in a brief looping video noting that content is "Coming Soon!" Put simply, if you're interested in those particular channels, you may want to hold off. To those out there who use live streaming broadcast television apps, websites, and other iDevice friendly access, what is your opinion on this? If anyone has signed-up, we'd like to hear about your experience, whether it was great, fine, terrible, or otherwise. [Thanks to the tip by Vikram]

Mentioned apps

Free
ABC Player
ABC Player
ABC Digital

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