Another big move for the so-called “Uncarrier.”
Stephen Brashear / AP Images for T-Mobile
T-Mobile announced that video from Netflix, HBO Go and Now, Hulu, Sling TV, ESPN, Showtime, VEVO, and many more content providers won't count against your data plan. Essentially, if it's on a platform T-Mobile has partnered with, you won't be charged for it.
"It's free, the providers don't pay, the customer doesn't pay, and you can shut it off," said John Legere, T-Mobile's outspoken CEO, at the company's "Uncarrier X" event on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The program, called Binge On, includes 24 partners at launch with more to come, and is aimed squarely, according to Legere, at "millenials." "These aren't cord-cutters, they're cord-nevers," he said. "Today is Data Day. D Day."
Binge On is touted as letting viewers "Watch what [they] want, without watching [their] data." It's not a completely new model — telecomm companies in Europe stream content under data-free agreements, and companies like Facebook subsidize data usage in developing market — but it's a major move for an American data provider. It's also the kind of step that usually forces other companies' hands. With a move as bold as this, T-Mobile could force its competition to follow.
Legere made a point of including Go90 — Verizon's content app — into Binge On, "just because we can." His presentation was peppered with direct insults to competitors Verizon and AT&T after taking the stage to a bouncy, synth-filled EDM track, clutching a sugar-free Red Bull, and claiming to have "passed that shit up" — referring to a job as an AT&T executive.
John Legere is about as outspoken as executives come, and the announcement today — broadcast on Ustream — came with the disclaimer that it would sometimes broadcast "some expletives, so ear muffs if you're young," and the promise of an "industry-rattling announcement." It's a performative edginess that is occasionally-to-often cheesy — the event opened with dramatic music and a "previously on 'Uncarrier...'" narration — but does translate to a product that is genuinely different from anything else on offer.
If nothing else, expect to see more people streaming Master of None on their morning commute.
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