Showtime Now Lets Users Download Movies, Shows To Watch Offline

In the middle of watching Homeland season 2, but won’t have a WiFi connection on your next trip? No worries, you don’t have to pause your binge: Showtime now allows subscribers to download shows for offline viewing. 

Showtime announced Thursday that users of its standalone streaming service and its Showtime Anytime app can download its entire content library to their mobile devices and tablets.

“Making our wide variety of Showtime content available to consumers at any time and any place has been a top priority for us,” Tom Christie, Chief Operating Officer for Showtime Networks, said in a statement.

To take advantage of the new option, Showtime subscribers must first update their app. They can then tap the “download” button on a chosen program’s detail page.

Users on phones will see a prompt to select either standard definition or high-definition. Tablet users will have the additional option for the highest definition.

Users can start watching a program before it’s finished downloading. If viewers need to leave while watching a streaming show, the downloaded version will pick up where they left off.

Showtime is just the latest company to allow users to download content for offline viewing.

In Nov. 2016, Netflix finally began letting viewers download some content to view without an internet connection. When Starz launched its standalone streaming service in April 2016, it included an option for downloadable offline viewing.

Back in Sept. 2015, Amazon began giving Prime members the option to download some content to iOS, Android device.

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