Many Americans spend over $100 per month on subscriptions
Many Americans spend over $100 per month on subscriptions
Streaming is one of the most popular subscription categories, but customers are increasingly seeking out bundles to help mitigate price concerns.
Subscription services were once thought to be a cheap alternative to the increasingly expensive world of commerce; streaming and other subscription-based services gave customers month-to-month flexibility, and usually offered low introductory rates as well. But now, a new survey from Bango reveals that Americans are spending more and more on subscriptions, and are increasingly turning to a new type of product in the subscription marketplace to simplify their subscriptions and help control costs: bundles.
Key Details:
- Twenty-three percent of Americans spend $100 per month on subscriptions like streaming.
- The average American now subscribes to two services through a bundle or similar package deal.
- Paramount+ is now the most popular streaming service to be added through Prime Video.
Bango found that nearly a quarter (23%) of all Americans are spending $100 per month on subscription services, including streamers as well as retail subscriptions like Amazon Prime or Walmart+. With costs like that, many are looking for a way to keep prices down without having to sacrifice any services.
That’s where bundles come in. The average American now has 5.4 subscriptions, and two of these are what Bango calls “indirect” — meaning they are received through a bundle or a similarly packaged offering. More than half (55%) of subscribers get these indirect subscriptions through a cell phone plan, and 44% are now getting a service for free that they used to pay for thanks to a bundle. Saving money is a big factor — after all, Antenna recently demonstrated that the cost of streaming plans alone (ad-free and ad-supported) had risen by more than 20% in the last two years.
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However, price concerns aren’t the only reason that consumers are being drawn to bundles; convenience is also a big factor that customers are seeking out. Forty-one percent of subscribers are unhappy that their services can’t all be managed in a single app, and 63% want more services like the Verizon +play platform that let them do just that. And while bundles won’t address all of these issues, it can help curb some of them.
Survey respondents who had signed up for services indirectly most often cited the fact that it was either free or made billing easier as the reasons why they opted to go that route; close behind was the fact that they got a cheaper price than going direct. However, there were a number of other reasons that seemed to attract customers, and they all center around making life a little easier.
Whether it was a simplified sign-up process, a longer trial period, exclusive offers, or better marketing, Bango’s findings prove that customers are open to signing onto additional services if there is a clear and obvious reason to do so.
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Amazon’s Prime Video streamer is another platform that allows subscribers to add multiple ancillary streaming subscriptions and keep them all in one place. Bango found that of all streamers available to purchase indirectly through Prime Video, Paramount+ was the most popular, followed by discovery+ and Apple TV+; the latter of which has only been available since October 2024.
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Sixty-two percent of Americans say they can’t afford all of the subscriptions that they want, which creates myriad opportunities for streaming providers in the new bundle-focused economy. Fox recently indicated that its newly-announced streaming service would be on the lookout for bundle opportunities, and other streamers will likely continue that pattern as consumers seek these products for more convenience and less expense.
Prime Video
Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.