Starting in August of 2019, Student Housing and Residential Life (SHRL) will be changing the TV lineup offered through the Philo IPTV platform and expanding its availability to all students, not just residents. In years past, SHRL has subscribed to cable and satellite television content, however, the growth of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube TV have reduced viewership to fewer than one in five residents.  

What does this mean for residents? 

The new channel lineup will provide locally available broadcast channels, UH original programming, and some internet-based streaming channels but will not offer premium and cable channels. This will allow the University to free up funds to fast track WiFi upgrades in the residence halls. It will also allow the University to broadly expand the availability of streaming to include commuter students, faculty, and staff while on campus. 

The channel changes are scheduled to take place on August 6th. At that time, any recorded programs that are stored on the Philo DVR service will no longer be available.  This is required to keep the University in compliance with copyright and licensing of TV programs. Once the change takes place, users will again be able to record new content to watch later.    

We believe that changing the TV channel selection will better align with viewing habits of the majority of the student population and allow SHRL to focus on improving student access to the internet.

Questions? 

Please visit uh.edu/philo to learn more about this change.