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Report: Nearly 90% of US, UK Telecom Companies Plan to Offer ‘Super Bundle’ Subscriptions in the Near Future

Report: Nearly 90% of US, UK Telecom Companies Plan to Offer ‘Super Bundle’ Subscriptions in the Near Future

For decades, telecommunications companies — those that offer voice, video, and text services — have been offering talk-and-text packages for phone plans and premium subscription service add-ons for their home television plans, so the idea of bundling is not a new phenomenon for most consumers. But more and more companies are seeing the benefits of increasing the range of subscriptions they offer.

“Super Bundling: The Final Frontier,” a new study from digital payments and marketing technology company Bango, shows that 88% of the leading telecom companies in the United States and United Kingdom are planning to offer their own versions of “super bundle” subscription-aggregator platforms as they work to build up their customer base and retention rates.

Super bundling provides telecom customers access to a large range of subscription services, including on-demand platforms, lifestyle programs, and more, that are managed through one content hub and charged as one monthly bill.

Some telecom services are already doing this, most notably Verizon, which launched its first-of-its-kind +play platform last year. Available for Verizon mobile, 5G Home, and LTE Home customers (Verizon Fios subscribers are not eligible), the service bundles a wide range of subscriptions, including Netflix, Max, Paramount+, and more, in one place. Customers do not automatically receive access to all of these services but are able to subscribe via +play.

While most telecom companies still haven’t launched super bundles of their own yet, 92% of telecom leaders have already begun offering streaming services as part of other bundles, deals, and a la carte options, so the first steps have already been taken. Now, they have to move on to the larger, more expensive ones.

Part of that is weighing the costs of doing business, is that the number of U.S. customers using subscription video services has decreased, as has that of consumers currently stacking their subscriptions, according to a report earlier this week.

A large part of that is the ever-increasing cost of subscriptions, but part could also be customer dissatisfaction in the way they are able (or aren’t able) to manage their multiple subscriptions. Bango says that while the majority of telecom leaders are struggling to keep their customer’s engagement, 52% of U.S. subscribers are frustrated that they are not able to manage their subscriptions all in one place, and therefore 78% of people want a single platform to manage all of their subscriptions.

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Further, the want for super bundling paves the way for customer loyalty. Streaming video-on-demand services have the highest positive impact on customers signing up for specific telecom plans, with sports streaming on-demand coming in third. Seventy-nine percent of U.S. customers say they would be more loyal to a telecom company that does provide an all-in-one service, and more than half say they would leave their current TV, mobile, or broadband provider if they could get an all-in-one hub somewhere else.

The desire to create super bundles falls in line with what we have seen from recent streaming service consolidation, which has had its own difficulties to overcome. A recent report from Parrot Analytics showed that merging streaming services into a single user experience can more effectively keep customers engaged, but some will have more issues than others. Hulu and Disney+, whose libraries share a lot of crossover in the type of content they provide, plan to come together for a one-app experience by the end of the year, while the Max merger, which brought together the disparate libraries of HBO Max and discovery+ has not seen nearly as much content crossover from users.

As always, cost is the enemy of consumer ease, but the Bango report provides a sign of things to come for telecom companies that want to be seen as more than just network providers. Hopefully, this type of bundling and consolidation will lead to customers saving money and having to juggle fewer subscriptions on a monthly basis.

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Ashley cut the cord in 2012 and is a fan of the New York Yankees, FC Bayern Munich, and (for balance) the Buffalo Sabres. She currently streams using a Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and her favorites to stream include "Blazing Saddles," "Six Feet Under," and "Taskmaster."

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