T-Mobile is launching new skinny bundles of live TV and streaming services to compete with expensive cable subscriptions.
The carrier has already been moving into the TV market with the acquisition of Layer3 and the subsequent launch of TVision Home last year. However, that was closer to traditional cable, with a price tag starting at $100 a month and availability limited to select markets. (T-Mobile also offers free Netflix with some family plans.)
The new TVision lineup is more affordable and more broadly available. The cheapest option is TVision Vibe, which includes more than 30 channels of live and on-demand content including AMC, BET, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark, HGTV, MTV and TLC, and which costs $10 a month.
A bit more costly, but with live news and sports, is TVision Live. It starts at $40 a month and offers a different lineup of 30-plus channels — ABC, FOX, NBC, Turner, ESPN and more, with $50-a-month (TVision Live+) and $600a-month (TVision Live Zone) plans that introduce more channels to the bundle. (In contrast, YouTube TV costs $65 a month and Hulu + Live TV costs $55 a month.) And if you sign up for Live+ or Live Zone between November 1 and December 31, you’ll get a free year of Apple TV+ as well.
Lastly, you’ll also be purchase individual services like Starz, Showtime and Epix through TVision Channels.
The new TVision services are available on Android and Apple mobile and TV devices, as well as Amazon Fire TV. Plus, T-Mobile is launching a new $50 HDMI streaming device called the TVision Hub.
“With TVision, you can cut the cord, cut the cost and cut the crap,” said Dow Draper, T-Mobile’s executive vice president of emerging products, in a statement.
