T-Mobile customers can now stream music and video for free from more than 100 services, including Amazon Video, HBO Now, Netflix, YouTube, Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify, the Un-carrier said Tuesday.
The announcement came as part of T-Mobile’s most recent expansion of its Music Freedom and Binge On streaming services. T-Mobile said Tuesday it added 16 more partners to the programs, including Amazon Music, ESPN Radio, Chilltrax, OHIO.FM, PreDanz and Uforia to Music Freedom and Dailymotion, EPIX, OVGuide, OWNZONES, Viki, YipTV and 120 Sports along with Viacom Networks’ channels Nickelodeon, Spike and TV Land to Binge On.
Music Freedom now has more than 40 participants, while Binge On has gathered more than 60 partners, T-Mobile said. The Un-carrier said the services covered by Music Freedom account for 96 percent of all music streamed by its customers. Binge On isn’t far behind, either, with participating services covering 70 percent of all video watched by T-Mobile customers on their devices each month.
“Un-carrier Data is different than Carrier Data,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “Un-carrier Data is not only faster, it lasts a lot longer than the other guys… As of today, you stream unlimited music and video from over 100 providers — without ever touching your Un-carrier Data or worrying about overages — and you can stash what you don’t use for later.”
To date, T-Mobile said users have streamed 90 billion songs and 190 million hours of video – or the equivalent of 350 petabytes of data – for free.
But those figures weren’t reached without controversy.
Earlier this year, Legere and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) got into a scuffle after the latter released a report that found T-Mobile was throttling all video traffic for Binge On participants rather than just content from participating providers. The report, which also questioned the legality of Binge On, prompted Legere to respond with a profanity-laced tirade on Periscope. Legere later apologized and a separate report from P3 Group confirmed the EFF findings.
T-Mobile has also been involved in a much more civil back and forth with the FCC regarding the commission’s enforcement of net neutrality rules. When Binge On was released in November, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he planned to keep an eye on the service, but praised it as “highly innovative and highly competitive.” The FCC later reached out to T-Mobile – as well as AT&T and Comcast – to get more information about new data policies and offerings.
Google, which recently added its YouTube video service to Binge On, also said it had initial doubts about the service, including questions about how the service would treat services that were not included in the “free streaming” portion of the program and how users could exercise control over the program’s options. The company said it ultimately decided to join Binge On after T-Mobile responded to its concerns with the introduction of more information and choice for both users and video partners.
