Research Indicates Bundles Will Dramatically Reduce Churn, Good News for These New Partnerships

A new day is dawning on the streaming world. The taboo of cross-company collaboration has been broken, and streaming services are increasingly banding together in new combinations that allow viewers to purchase multiple streaming subscriptions at once, for a price lower than they’d pay to buy those services separately. An exclusive report from Deadline based on data from research and analytics firm Magid shows that streaming bundles are likely to deliver on the promise of reducing churn, which is a positive for many companies as they begin aligning with former competitors.

Key Details:

• Deadline cites a report from Magid which shows the predictive rate of churn has fallen 16% thanks to the onset of new bundle options.
• Apple TV+ stands to gain the most from prospective bundles, and could see churn reduced by as much as 28%.
• Most of the top streaming services on the market, including Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Max, and Peacock have announced new bundle options recently.

Deadline’s report relies on data compiled by Magid after asking respondents to predict how bundles would affect their behavior going forward. Consumer intentions regarding whether or not they’ll churn away from services have been historically accurate, suggesting that prognostications about what bundling will do to the overall churn rate will be more or less correct.

The data clearly indicates that bundles stand a good chance of reducing churn, thanks to the increased value that these partnerships provide. The predictive churn rate falls 16% thanks to the introduction of new bundles, and the numbers also show that bundles make customers 15% more likely to keep subscriptions for six months or longer. A March survey from Antenna suggests that subscribers who stay with a streaming service for more than a year are 50% less likely to cancel that subscription at some point, so the longer bundles can keep subscribers engaged, the better chance they stick by that bundle going forward.

Magid’s survey also showed that Apple TV+ stood the most to gain from joining streaming bundles. Its high-quality programming attracts new customers, but the comparatively slow rate at which Apple TV+ releases new titles, and its lack of library content, means that viewers are more likely to stay engaged if it’s part of a bundle. Combining Apple TV+ with other services in a combo package reduces the intent to cancel an Apple TV+ subscription by 28%.

Streamers used to resist cross-company bundles, which many feared would help enrich the competition and draw attention away from their own services. But now that bundling has become a trend, Magid EVP Kate Morgan told Deadline that whichever bundle offers a robust cross-platform search function to allow viewers to see which titles are available on which services will be the winner of the next phase of the Streaming Wars.

“The winner in bundling will be able to figure out somehow, some way universal search across the bundle so you don’t have to go into each one separately,” Morgan said.

Magid’s data is backed up by a new survey from Hub Research. That company’s numbers show that 59% of respondents would pay for a service that manages all their subscriptions and that Netflix is the top streaming service that viewers would want to see included in a hypothetical bundle that transcends streaming-only services and includes essentials like internet and mobile phone service.

Which Streaming Bundles Are Available or On the Way?

The summer of bundling has already begun, as the new combination of Netflix, Apple TV+, and Peacock for just $15 per month dubbed the StreamSaver bundle is available to Xfinity TV, mobile or internet customers now. There’s no word yet on whether StreamSaver will become available to the general public, or if it will remain exclusive to Xfinity customers.

In early May, news broke that Disney+ and Hulu were joining a new bundle with the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer Max. There are few details available about that product just yet, but we do know the companies intend to launch the bundle this summer, and it will feature ad-supported and ad-free options. It will also be available to all customers, unlike the StreamSaver package. Disney+ and Hulu are still available together as their own bundle, and viewers can also combine them with ESPN+ in the Disney Trio bundle as well.

These are all soft bundles, which combine multiple streaming services at a discounted price but leave them as standalone apps. Venu Sports more closely resembles a hard bundle; it’s a forthcoming streaming joint venture from Disney, Fox, and WBD that’s set to launch this fall — if it can overcome legal challenges and government scrutiny. Venu will feature full livestreams of 14 sports-related broadcast and cable channels sourced from the three companies, as well as all content from ESPN+ on a single app.

Verizon Wireless subscribers can also grab a bundle of Netflix and Max for $10 if they subscribe to specific mobile plans. This was one of the first cross-company streaming bundles created, and it has served as a prototype for the more robust offerings making their way to the market now. Streaming bundles allow viewers to save real money off services they wanted to subscribe to but potentially couldn’t afford individually, and the data shows that they can meaningfully improve churn rates for the streamers who join them.