Virtual MVPD Frndly TV has achieved another subscriber milestone, announcing today its service has topped 700,000 users.
This means Frndly’s user base has grown by roughly 200,000 – or approximately 40% – over the past year, as the company last November revealed it surpassed 500,000 subscribers.
Having launched in October 2019, Frndly is a relatively new player in the vMVPD space. However, the service touts an attractive price point for consumers, its basic plan costing only $6.99 per month for over 40 live channels.
“This is another banner day in the growth of Frndly TV,” stated Bassil El-Khatib, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Frndly TV. “We have focused on providing the best live TV service available at the most affordable price. We have more than tripled our channel offering and have done so with only a single $1 price increase since our launch.”
Content-wise, Frndly this year struck a deal with Weigel Broadcasting to add several of the broadcaster’s networks to its channel lineup, including MeTV, Decades and Heroes & Icons. And ahead of the holiday season, Frndly partnered with Solo Stove to launch a pop-up channel showcasing the manufacturer’s outdoor fire pit in a variety of outdoor fall and holiday settings.
The service has also sought to enhance its user experience, introducing this summer an alphabetized channel guide as well as a timing bar for shows and movies.
Frndly TV Co-founder and Chief Programming Officer Michael McKenna added one of Frndly’s primary goals is to bring consumers priced out of the larger linear video bundles back into the pay TV ecosystem.
“The by-product of the limited offering is that our targeted subscribers are loyal to both Frndly TV and its programming partners,” he stated. “The result is higher viewing consumption of our partners’ content and lower churn for Frndly TV.”
Speaking with Fierce Video in July, McKenna said Frndly isn’t “trying to be all things to all people.” For instance, it only carries a few sports channels like the Sportsman Channel, geared towards hunting and fishing, because that’s the kind of channel that’s most appealing to Frndly subscribers.
“If you’re looking for ’30 for 30’ on ESPN, that is not what we’re about,” McKenna said at the time. “That’s just content we have looked at and said it’s too expensive.”
Comparably, vMVPDs with a more expansive sports lineup, like YouTube TV, FuboTV and Sling TV, are priced considerably higher. Of those three, Sling is the cheapest with its Orange plan (encompassing 30 channels, including ESPN) at $40 per month. Whereas YouTube TV and Fubo’s base plans typically cost $64.99 monthly and $69.99 per month, respectively, but each comes with over 100 live channels.