T-Mobile US announced its controversial Binge On video platform gained support from four new partners, giving it more than 40 streaming services in total.

Binge On, which allows qualifying customers to stream certain video at lower quality without eating into data plans, will now enable access to content from Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision NOW and WWE Network, adding to existing high profile partners like Netflix, HBO and Hulu.

In a statement, the company also provided details on uptake of the video service so far, revealing Binge On users are watching more than twice the amount of video than before the November launch.

T-Mobile US said that one particular streaming service had seen a 79 per cent jump in daily viewers, while another service, not signed up, is seeing a 33 per cent jump in the amount of hours customers watch, with Binge On optimisation providing up to 3x more video from their data plans.

“Binge On is our most disruptive un-carrier move yet,” claimed CEO John Legere. “It has literally changed the way millions of people are watching video.”

Settings change amid criticism 
The company also announced it is introducing a change in settings for Binge On, with the introduction of short codes, which can be keyed into a handset, allowing customers to turn the service on or off.

Legere’s main line of defence in the face of recent criticism from industry group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Google-backed YouTube, which argued that Binge On went against net neutrality principles, was that consumers had the choice to turn off the service whenever they wanted.

YouTube said at the end of the year that its videos were being optimised to a lower quality, despite not being a partner of the service.

And EFF then backed up the claims, adding that all video, not just those from Binge On partners, was in fact being optimised this way, leading to a public war of words with Legere.

In an additional survey, T-Mobile US added that 92 per cent of customers surveyed said they would watch more video with Binge On, while 93 per cent liked the idea of having “all video optimised to DVD quality so they can watch 3x more using the same amount of data”.