DENVER—Frndly TV has announced that its low-cost vMVPD service has surpassed the 700,000 subscriber mark.

“This is another banner day in the growth of Frndly TV,” said Bassil El-Khatib, co-founder and chief marketing officer of 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.”

By topping 700,000 subscribers, Frndly TV has had subscriber growth of approximately 40% over the past year, the company reported. 

In November 2021, Frndly TV announced it past the 500,000-subscriber mark. 

“One of our philosophies in creating Frndly TV was to work hand-in-hand with our programmers in bringing consumers who were priced out of the larger linear video bundles back into the pay TV ecosystem,” added Michael McKenna, co-founder and chief programming officer of Frndly TV. “The by-product of the limited offering is that our targeted subscribers are loyal to both Frndly TV and its programming partners. The result is higher viewing consumption of our partners’ content and lower churn for Frndly TV.”

The company also noted that in 2022, Frndly TV has seen increased engagement in the platform, with viewership per subscriber up almost 10% vs. 2021. Reactivations have increased 33% versus 2021. And, annual subscriptions have grown to more than 22% of Frndly TV customers, the vMVPD reported. 

The service offers tiers of services starting at $6.99 per month. It has expanded its programming line to more than 41 live, linear channels, up from 12 at its launch and offers a VOD library of 10,000+ shows and movies. 

DENVER—The live streaming platform Frndly TV has signed a deal with Weigel Broadcasting to add five of Weigel’s diginets to its lineup of streaming services. 

The deal includes Weigel’s MeTV, H&I (Heroes & Icons), Decades, Start TV, and the new Story Television national network.

MeTV and the new Story Television network launched on Frndly TV on March 28 with the others to follow.  

The five new networks will boost the Frndly TV channel lineup to more than 35 services, but the streamer said that the new content will not increase its current $6.99 a month subscription fee. 

DENVER—Frndly TV, a newly launched live TV and on-demand streaming service, wants to be the go-to offering for family-friendly viewing. Now available for $5.99 per month, Frndly TV features 12 networks specifically picked to offer what it calls “positive, uplifting family friendly” programming.

The lineup of channels at launch for Frndly TV includes Hallmark Channel, Game Show Network, The Weather Channel, Outdoor Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Hallmark Drama, PixL, Light TV, BabyFirst TV, QVC, Sportsman Channel and World Fishing Network. The streaming service hopes to expand to 20 channels in the next year.

Among the features of the streaming service are a linear grid TV guide, unlimited cloud DVR in select packages, more than 1,000 on-demand titles, 72-hour “Look Back” capability to catch up on recent episodes and the ability to start a program live from the beginning.

Frndly is now available on Roku, Amazon and Chromecast devices, as well as for mobile with iOS and Android devices. It is expected to become available on Apple TV by the end of the year.

The standard $5.99 subscription service offers the main Frndly TV features and channels in SD available on one device at a time. For $7.99, content is available in HD, can be used on two devices simultaneously and has the unlimited cloud DVR with 30 days of storage. At $9.99 per month, Frndly TV can be used on four devices and has cloud storage of up to 90 days. There is also an annual plan where customers pay for 10 months and get two months free.

More information, and the option to start a seven-day free trial, is available at www.frndlytv.com.