T-Mobile adds 14 video services to Binge On program, CEO defends against throttling claims

By John Callaham
published

T-Mobile is adding even more services to its recently launched Binge On program, which allows its customers to stream video from select services on the carrier's network with no data plan penalty. The new services include A&E, Lifetime, HISTORY, PlayStation Vue, Tennis Channel Anywhere, FuboTV, Kidoodle TV, Curiosity Stream, Fandor, Newsy, ODK Media, Lifetime Movie Club, and FYI.

T-Mobile now has 38 video services that support Binge On, and added that over 50 more services have expressed interest in joining the program. In a separate blog post, T-Mobile CEO John Legere stated:

Customers now have the option to get WAY more video from their data plans PLUS FREE VIDEO from popular sites, AND more power and control over how they use their data. And customers want it! Video usage is huge! Just since launch, customers are watching 12% more video. In fact, we've already seen daily average viewership on one of our top services spike 66% among customers not on unlimited high-speed plans, in other words the ones who benefit from Binge ON the most! AND viewing time increased 23%. It's crazy!

Legere also defended T-Mobile and Binge On from recent reports that claim the service is throttling data for its videos. He stated:

There are people out there saying we're "throttling." They're playing semantics! Binge On does NOT permanently slow down data nor remove customer control. Here's the thing, mobile customers don't always want or need giant heavy data files. So we created adaptive video technology to optimize for mobile screens and stream at a bitrate designed to stretch your data (pssst, Google, that's a GOOD thing). You get the same quality of video as watching a DVD – 480p or higher – but use only 1/3 as much data (or, of course, NO data used when it's a Binge On content provider!). Watch more video, use less data from your service plan. That's an important and valuable benefit!

Source: T-Mobile 1 (opens in new tab), 2 (opens in new tab)

John Callaham
John Callaham
57 Comments
  • Candy Crush Jelly Saga in store.... :)
  • Elephants are pink.
  • Tacos are delicious.
  • It's not on 8.1, thankfully. I hate that series.
  • Bob likes pie.
  • I like tacos and pie.
  • Bacon is AWESOME. That is all.
  • This thread is gold.
  • Midas touched it.
  • 480p...pssst.. my screen has 1440p
  • Disable Binge On. Simple.
  • I have a 6" phone. With 1080p. Having 5,5 inch with 4k that isnt supported by anything but the z5 premium camera yet only scales up to 4k mate. What i am teying to say is, 720p on a small screen like 6" or even 480 is still decent, because the pixel dont get stretched that much as when you're on a 20" screen.
    So your comment is pointless buddy, because it makes no difference what screen you have.
  • Pssst...Your phone isn't scaling at 100%, so your effective resolution isn't anywhere near 1440p...
  • Exactly ;) also nothing supports that resolution yet on the mobile market :[
  • Just because UI elements don't render at 1440p resolution doesn't mean the screen can't properly display such high resolution content. UI elements and media are different. You can definitely get some use form those extra pixels of the content supports the higher resolution (And your eyesight is good enough to actually appreciate the difference).
  • Sorry for nagging. But no normal human eyes can differentiate a 720p and 1440p on a 5" device at a distance of 2 feet. The only thing a 1440p device does on a phone is drain the battery. If you are speaking about a tablet or a desktop, I agree. But the point will be moot here as the throttling happens only on smaller screens.
  • I still think binge on violates net neutrality.
  • When you're in europe you don't have net neutrality anymore since last year to begin with.
  • You can opt out. The music streaming violates net neutrality because there is no option.
  • No. Net neutrality is about content providers paying for higher priority service. This may still seem unfair but music streaming from pandora isn't being prioritized over a non participating service. Binge on is much more gray. It's not prioritizing, but it's slowing down. However, it's slowing it all equally. Honestly, I feel like it's fine if the customer can choose to throttle content. Making services free could be unfair, but it doesn't violate net neutrality. Priority is still neutral.
  • Or course this violates net neutrality. Why doesn't the FCC (or the relevant authority in the US) put an end to this nonsense?
  • Because they said it doesn't, even though it does. I've already decided to use iheartradio over nprone because one counts against data the other doesn't even though I'm listening to the same stream. So my app choice was made for me, essentially creating the bias people want to eliminate... But FCC needs complaints to act, they're a very reactive organization... Which is good for government in my opinion.
  • Could you explain net neutrality to me please? I don't know exactly what it is and I don't see why its a big deal. It's their business, they should be able to run it as they see fit within reason.
  • Peering agreements could be argued to be against net neutrality if you are a good debater. The reason T-Mobile gets away with it is because of these points. 1. It's free to providers and consumers.
    2. No preferred treatment so long as you can meet the technical aspects. T-Mobile even launched the service with a Verizon video service being supported.
    3. It's totally optional. If you don't like the terms turn it off and pump your tiny fists into the air screaming viva net neutrality. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • Comcast throttled net flix back in 2013, netflix had to pay more to comcast.  Back to normal and netflix complained they had to do it Tmobile is allowing services to not count towards data, they dont have to pay extra for it nor does the consumer.  Pretty big difference..Comcast asking the provider to pay $$$ while tmobile isn't asking anybody to pay extra.    That is the difference between the two in the net neutrality debate in this scenario. 
  • The main problem here is that T-Mobile was throttling all video data if you opted for Binge On, not just Binge On participant video data. So the complaints against T-Mobile are valid and are easily Net Neutrality violations. Also, 480P looks like garbage on anything outside of a mobile device. So if I continuum it up with my display dock and only get 480P to my 65" TV I am rather disappointed.
  • Not really sure why... If you have bingeon and you are watching throttled netflix, hbo that doesnt count towards data, but at the same time, throttling every other video service that isn't enrolled in binge on, to me, they are treating them equally...i dont see this as a NN issue.  If you turn off bingeone like i did, everything goes back to normal in my experience.    The issue is that they shouldn't be throttling anything non binge services which really isn't a NN problem to me, it is more deception on tmobile because they enver told us that not only are bingeone services being throttled, but also all other video services.    In the end, nobody is paying extra so there wont become a NN issue anytime soon.  Its not like they are giving priority for bingeon services and throttling non binge one... 
  • >Its not like they are giving priority for bingeon services and throttling non binge on That's exaclty what they are doing.  They are zero-rating binge on services to incentivize the user to give those services priority and they are throttling non binge on video.
  • Yet they don't get any kick back money for it, and they put almost all major popular services. This is just a business running it as they want to. There is nothing wrong with that. If they want to give priority just because they want to they should be able to.
  • Giving priority and making something not count towards data are entirely different concepts and not covered the way you think by net neutrality. Net neutrality should be careful about scope creep. Data is being treated the same and no one is being charged extra for special treatment. I think this is making it better for consumers. If I want to choose to throttle a high data service, fine. If tmobile is incentivizing a company to allow that to happen, that's good. That's like saying voting with your wallet is unfair.
  • It takes time to investigate, sadly isn't an over-night ordeal.
  • Frankly enough, if net neutrality is ruining progress and the ability to upgrade to better services, then no. I don't want it. Otherwise, this same "neutrality" is like the socialism of data. Everyone's only as good as the weakest link, and that's neither fair nor progressive. So, yeah. Rock on, T-Mobile. Save us some data and money, and if people don't think you're fair, they can use another plan or network. That's the glory of our system, people have choices.
  • No, they don't have choices - especially in residential internet. A purely "free market" exists only in the mind and certain third world countries.
  • Well... we do. Switch to AT&T or Verizon. If you support another company, then you won't support T-Mobile. It's really not that difficult.
  • Where do you live? I have several choices.....
  • Agreed wholeheartedly.
  • THANK YOU! You nailed it.
  • Yes Rock on T-Mobile for doing me a 'favor' that I have not asked for and throttle  *ahem* I mean 'optomize' my video for me by default.   Yeah did you forget that they enabled 'Binge On' for everyone without asking? Also do you know how their 'optomization' works?  They throttle the connection to video providers and its up to the video provider to make that pipe work. There is NO optimization going on on TMobile's side.  So either the provider will optomize the video properly for smooth playback, or else you'll end up getting nothing but 'please wait buffering' messages. So yeah, great solution.
  • Well the worst part about NN is it's effect on consumers. You most likely pay for internet from a provider that also has tv service. Since Netflix and similar services encourage cord cutting and/or subscription reduction, the cable companies are upset since tv is their biggest money maker. Since they also provide ur internet, they throttle all Netflix (or similar service) streams and the quality degrades. Nothing u can do about it until the companies come to a resolution or the FCC intervenes. Now ur stuck paying for Netflix and watching sub par video and u don't wanna cancel the service because it's great and not Netflix's fault and can't cancel ur internet because u need it. See the problem with having no NN now?
  • Yeah, but that's different than what tmobile is doing. Plus I dint think it's a net neutrality deal anyway. Also, if a site doesn't check your speed and play video so it an be handled correctly, it's a crap site anyway. Streaming should adapt to your bandwidth. Netflix did this from the get go way before tmobile asked. Cause its a better experience for streaming. If it's higher quality video, it should know how long to buffer. Don't use crappy streaming services.
  • Unfortunately, this does not apply to prepaid plans which are less than$60 per month, or do a representative told me when it was first introduced.
  • I haven't used it it so I can't verify, but on my account page for the prepaid account ($40/month plan) the Binge On control is visible and turned on. I would assume that means it's active?
  • Probably. It is not visible on mine
  • This guy is soooo creepy to me. And, as others have said, this is direct violation to net neutrality.
  • Turn turn it off.
  • No, it isn't. Net neutrality is about packet priority. And it's a consumer choice and it treats all video the same. It's only iffy in that non video traffic is faster than video. But that isn't why people are complaining.
  • I turned this off, i understand throttling the services you are allowing to not count towards data, but shouldn't be throttling the services that do count towards your data.  Youtbue and other video services had issues ever since binge and i figured tmobile was throttling, so once the article came out "confirmig" the throttling, i turned it off and it is back to normal.  With all tha Tmobile has done that has been good for the consumer, this could be the first misstep of many to come.  You can't defend throttling non bingeon services. 
  • T-mobile has a history of being misleading in the offerings. They seem to have a love affair with using asterisks.
  • They're like cats that way, always shoving their asterisks in your face... =\
  • But.....but....John, if the data is already free through BingeOn, how are data savings helping us in any way? That statement doesn't even make sense.
  • He's talking about the non binge content, and he's actually right. If you're a content provider like google, you want more eyeballs longer, that's how they make that 99% advertising revenue number. So if an unaware consumer gets their video at 1080 and chews through their data allotment, they stop watching. If content is transcoded to 480 they can watch more than double the amount of content with the same amount of data. Ultimately most peoples' eyes can't tell the difference between 480 and higher (if the device even supports it) on the small screens. It really is a win win for the average consumers and content providers.
  • My Lumia 820 is working very well with windows 10 build 10586.36 though a bit slow. Anybody with similar experience
  • "and stream at a bitrate designed to stretch your mobile data consumption" In other words: Throttling. And he said this just after he called throttling claims bullshit. Does he really think we are all so stupid? Is this his opinion of T-Mobile's customers? He's laughing at us all the way to the bank.
  • Eh, there is a difference between throttling and changing bitrate technically. However, with services that don't support auto adjusting bitrate, it does appear to be getting throttled. So he's not lying fully.
  • From JUST a technical point of view, I think it is a good thing for a customer to have an option for.  Emphasis on OPTION. Full disclosure: I'm on an AT&T shared data plan and would love to limit "the kids" to less bandwidth usage on their mobile device without sacrificing experience. And in MY house, I decide neutrality. :)
  • ATT has a program where I can prepay for my customers data to view my content, so when they access the content it doesn't count against the customers plan. To me that's far worse than this T-Mobile program, and I'm guessing most of you don't even know it exists.
  • The worst part about NN is it's effect on consumers. You most likely pay for internet from a provider that also has tv service. Since Netflix and similar services encourage cord cutting and/or subscription reduction, the cable companies are upset since tv is their biggest money maker. Since they also provide ur internet, they throttle all Netflix (or similar service) streams and the quality degrades. Nothing u can do about it until the companies come to a resolution or the FCC intervenes. Now ur stuck paying for Netflix and watching sub par video and u don't wanna cancel the service because it's great and not Netflix's fault and can't cancel ur internet because u need it. That's the real problem with having no NN.