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20 Aug 2025

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Downton Abbey items auctioned before last farewell
Items from period drama Downton Abbey are being auctioned for charity as the final film is released.

Philo is hiking prices on its legacy plans
It was a good ride while it lasted, those who’ve been paying less for grandfathered-in Philo live-TV streaming plans will soon be facing price hikes. Starting on October 3, subscribers to Philo’s $16 per month and $20 per month legacy plans will see their monthly rates rise to $25 a month, according to an email sent to Philo subscribers. The email, which was signed by Philo CEO Andrew McCollum, said that legacy subscribers will gain access to one year unlimited DVR functionality as part of the price hike. In the message, McCollum noted that Philo had never hiked prices on its existing subscribers or “forced them to upgrade” prior to October’s slated price increase. “Unfortunately, the trust is that we lose money on our oldest plans, and have for some time,” McCollum said in the statement. “We’ve done what we can to absorb those costs out of loyalty to our subscribers. But in order to deliver on our values, we have to build a sustainable business, so we’re making changes to some of our subscription plans.” The price hike was confirmed by a Philo staffer on Reddit. We’ve reached out to Philo for additional comment. As noted by The Streamable, Philo closed its old $16 a month plan to new subscribers back in 2019, but had allowed existing subscribers to stay on at the same price. The new $25 per month Philo plan for legacy subscribers will still be cheaper than Philo Core, the streamer’s standard tier. Both plans offer access to roughly 70 live streaming channels, including A&E, Animal Planet, BET, SMT, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, The Hallmark Channel, HGTV, History, HSN, MTV, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., OWN, QVC, TLC, TV Land, VH1, Vice, and WeTV. Thousands of on-demand titles are also on tap. That said, those who stick with the legacy Philo subscription won’t get a key Philo Core perk: access to the ad-supported version of AMC+, a bundle that includes Shudder, Sundance Now, IFC Films Unlimited, and The Walking Dead Channel. Besides its core channel lineup, Philo offers add-ons for STARZ ($11 a month), MGM+ ($7 a month), Hallmark+ ($8/month), and ad-free AMC+ ($4/month), among others. Philo also serves up more than 110 free streaming channels plus the use of a 30-day cloud DVR for no charge.

Nvidia cuts RTX 50-series graphics card prices in Europe
Graphics card prices are dropping. Wow, that’s something I haven’t been able to say in a long time. Unfortunately, it’s only for those of you in Europe, as Nvidia makes a slight cut to some of the latest RTX 50-series desktop graphics cards in the region. Notably, prices in the US (where unpredictable tariffs are putting a damper on anything with chips in it) remain unchanged. VideoCardz noticed the price drop, specifically for the RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070. The top-of-the-line RTX 5090 gets the biggest drop, from €2,329 to €2,099, just a hair under 10 percent. The RTX 5080 goes from €1,169 to €1,059, while the RTX 5070 drops from €649 to €589. The RTX 5070 Ti, 5060, and 5060 Ti are not getting any price drops at the moment. Note that the prices are for Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards, though a small amount of cards from other manufacturers should be available at that “base” price with no extras. Why the price drop? Since Nvidia changed the European prices without ceremony, there’s no official word. But VideoCardz notes that the 9 to 10 percent drop roughly follows the rise of the Euro currency versus the US dollar over the last six months, a 12 percent gain for the former. That would explain why US prices are unchanged, despite high demand across the board for Nvidia’s graphics cards. For the sake of comparison, €2,099 is $2449 at today’s exchange rates, and the US price of the RTX 5090 Founder’s Edition is still allegedly $2,000, so Europe’s general higher prices (accounting for factors like Value Added Tax, among others) seem to be holding. That being the case, this is less of an actual price cut and more of an adjustment to match the economic realities of the weakening US dollar.