Exciting changes to on-campus television this semester

Philo and HBO GO, two services many students on campus have probably heard being tossed around. The big question is, why are these terms being thrown around and what do they have to do with Shippensburg University?

Bill Yost, associate director of housing and residence life, said as Comcast’s contract with SU was coming to an end, the university decided to survey the students, asking what they wanted the new contract to provide. The majority of students responded they wanted streaming video, as to make TV easier to watch. So with this information, SU sent out an estimate and features they wanted.

Campus Televideo, a service provider for hundreds of campuses across the country, gave the most options to students for the best price. This package included DIRECTV channels as well as the options to use HBO GO and Philo.

Philo is a service that lets college students stream and record TV shows from 88 predetermined channels of mixed standard-definition and high-definition programming. The service also lets a student record TV shows, and pause and rewind live TV, just like DVR.

HBO GO is similar in the fact that through the school students can watch premium programming provided by HBO. The only difference is that a student does not need to be connected to the campus network. The app and website will work whether a student is on campus or in California.

That is the biggest catch though, if a student does not live in one of the eight residence halls on campus, he or she cannot use the services. Even residents of Stone Ridge cannot use the services since Stone Ridge still has its own contract with Comcast.

To sign up for Philo, go to ship.philo.com, log in with your SU email and password, and any on-campus student will be able to watch live shows.

To sign up for HBO GO, go to HBO GO’s website or download the app, select Shippensburg University from the bottom of the drop down list, follow the login instructions and students can watch any of the numerous shows HBO GO has to offer.

Yost also mentioned that these features came at no extra cost to the students. So even with the new features, on-campus housing prices remain the same.