Top 10 List of Breakout Streaming Shows Demonstrates Why Bundling is Critical for Industry

The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes may be over, but new scripted TV isn’t quite ready for airwaves just yet. The top 10 list of breakout shows in November from Parrot Analytics reflects this fact, as the list is crowded with streaming releases that came out in September or October.

• Eight of Parrot’s top 10 breakout streaming titles are from different streaming services.
• Titles like “Ahsoka” and “One Piece” are still on the list, despite ending their runs before November began.
• The data makes clear how desperately the industry needs a wave of bundling.

Isn’t More Choice Good for Streaming Users?

Not only is Parrot’s list of November breakout shows filled with titles that didn’t actually come out in November, but the titles on the list come from a wide array of disparate streamers. Eight of the shows on the top 10 list are from different services, with “Blue Eye Samurai” and “One Piece” the only titles to come from the same service (Netflix).

At first glance, this might seem like a good thing for users. Having hits spread evenly across different providers should, in theory, increase the level of competition between streamers and help bring prices down. Unfortunately, that’s the exact opposite of the way the streaming industry is trending these days. Ad-free streaming costs have risen 25% in the past year alone, and more than 20% of viewers have canceled a streaming subscription this year, most frequently due to cost-related reasons.

Bundling to the Rescue?

The data from Parrot shows why streaming services will have to start bundling, and soon. Customers are making it clear with their subscription dollars that they cannot sustain prolonged periods in which they’re forced to subscribe to five or more streaming services to watch all the shows they want. Users can’t afford to keep their Max subscription between seasons of “House of the Dragon” and hold onto Netflix until the final season of “Stranger Things” comes out.

Bundling helps to solve this dilemma by offering users two or more streaming services at a discounted price over what they’d pay to subscribe to those services separately. Max and Netflix introduced a bundle of their services for select Verizon Wireless customers on Dec. 7, combining the ad-supported tiers of both streamers for $10 per month, a savings of $6.99.

Not only do bundles allow users to pay less for more content, they reduce the likelihood that a customer will churn away from the two services in that bundle. This is because the combined services clearly have more content, but also because their discounted price and larger libraries help the user think of them as better a value, and thus more indispensable.

That’s exactly what Disney is counting on to happen with Disney+ and Hulu. It recently launched a public beta of a combined Disney+ app that houses titles from both services and analysis suggests that a full integration of the two streamers would leave the resulting platform with more popular streaming titles than even Netflix could boast, helping solve the problem of the scattered nature of current streaming hits.

More and more streaming outlets are in talks to bundle, as well. Apple and Paramount have reportedly held discussions about bundling Apple TV+ and Paramount+, and even if that deal falls through, it demonstrates that companies are aware of the problems and the easiest solution.

Streaming has undeniably grown more fragmented and more expensive, as providers try to boost their profits. Bundling is the best solution for this trend, but it falls on individual providers to overcome the idea that they’d be helping their competition and realize that bundling is the best way to help themselves and the industry retain customers.