Kellen
T-Mobile wants to take on the TV industry by disrupting and shouting “BS-Free!” a lot, like they have done with the wireless industry. I think we’re all happy to hear that, since the TV industry is one of the greasiest of any, plus having new options in the field is never going to be a bad thing. Today, as a part of that TV strategy, T-Mobile announced TVision Home, which is a rebranded launch of Layer3 TV, a service they acquired back in 2017.
I’ve got to be honest here in saying that this doesn’t look like any sort of disruptor at all. In fact, I’m not sure how TVision Home is going to save you any money over your current cable bill, which T-Mobile estimates to be about $107/mo. Let’s talk about TVision Home.
TVision Home Cities and Launch Deal
TVision Home will launch on April 14 in 8 markets: Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Longmont, CO. More cities will soon join in on the fun.
T-Mobile really wants you to drop you satellite TV and switch over if you live in those markets, so to tempt you into doing that, they’ll pay off your Dish or DirecTV termination fees and give you “up to” $500 via prepaid card.
TVision Home Pricing
This is where things get sneaky. TVision Home will be priced at $90/mo to start, thanks to a $9.99/mo discount that will only be available to T-Mobile customers down the road. As a part of this re-launch, T-Mobile says that for a limited time, everyone is eligible to lock into that discount. There are no contracts or limited offers that run out and jack your bill up.
Have more than one TV in your home that you’d like TVision Home on? Each connected TV with DVR costs $10/mo. Those connected prices are also only available for a limited time, so for new customers in the future, they could pay more.
At that price, you get 150+ channels, local broadcasts, regional sports, and “more.” T-Mobile keeps saying in marketing materials that you get 250+ channels with TVision Home, but they don’t seem to want to put a price on that channel bundle. The $90/mo price is for 150+ channels (from the press release), so I’m just going to assume that 250+ channels will cost you more.
If you want premium networks like HBO or Showtime, those cost extra, just like they do on all platforms.
T-Mobile says that the average cable bill is $107.30/mo and that their new(?) service will save you hundreds of dollars per year. But will it? Doing some simple math here, even with that $9.99/mo discount, puts your bill quickly at $110/mo if you toss TVision Home in a couple of bedrooms.
Other Stuff
Not-really-a-deal pricing aside, TVision Home offers 4K, dedicated customer care that supposedly doesn’t suck, TV profiles for everyone in the family, a personalized menu system, controls via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, controls over some smart home tech, and access to your favorite apps, like Netflix and YouTube.
Maybe the real distruptor will come later when T-Mobile launches their pick-and-choose streaming service?
Sign-up for T-Mobile TVision Home
// T-Mobile
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