T-Mobile’s “Binge On” program has two new participants: Google Play Movies & TV and YouTube (also owned by Google).
After initially criticizing T-Mobile’s (TMUS) program, which lets certain customers freely stream movie and television services like Netflix and Hulu without it counting against their data usage, Google (GOOGL) seems to have come around.
In short, Google was concerned that T-Mobile was slowing down the speeds of video streams (also known as throtlling), including services that didn’t participate in the Binge On program.
After a spat with Google and the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, it seems T-Mobile has backed down. Streaming services now have the choice as to whether T-Mobile will manage their streams’ speed and quality, as it does for services participating in Binge On.
Another concern from Google was that T-Mobile didn’t clearly communicate with customers what exactly it was doing with its Binge On program, and how they could opt in and out. Now, customers can more easily control this by sending an SMS short code to T-Mobile, or a couple of taps of the T-Mobile app.
In addition to these Google services, T-Mobile announced on Thursday the addition to Baeble Music, Discovery GO, ESNE TV, FilmOn.TV, Fox Business, KlowdTV, and Red Bull TV to its Binge On lineup.