The Great Bundling Craze is continuing to sweep across the streaming landscape. The biggest streamers in the marketplace like Netflix, Disney+, Max, Hulu, and others have all joined new bundles in 2024, and now smaller streamers are getting in on the trend. As part of its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, Lionsgate Entertainment announced that it was adding its direct-to-consumer service STARZ to a new streaming bundle with BritBox, which should make its way to customers by the end of 2024.

Key Details:

• Lionsgate executives said the new bundle would be available to customers sometime next quarter.
• The bundle will be sold directly through starz.com
• There was no official word on how much the combo will end up costing.

The new combination of STARZ and BritBox will be available sometime “next quarter.” Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer pointed to the strong core demographics of STARZ as a reason the streamer is a great candidate for bundling; STARZ has grown to 13.2 million subscribers, according to the earnings report released on Thursday.

“By leveraging its advanced tech stack, Starz is enabling the creation of a compelling and complimentary offering that pairs Starz hits like ‘Outlander’ and ‘The Serpent Queen’ with BritBox’s unmatched collection of original series such as ‘Vera Shetland’ and Blue Lights alongside iconic library classics like ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘Killing Eve,’” Feltheimer said of the new bundle with BritBox.

The data clearly supports the decision by STARZ and BritBox to bundle their streamers together. Data compiled by Magid in January shows that churn rates fall dramatically when bundles are offered, as viewers are faced with the prospect of losing access to every service within the bundle if they cancel. Customers who join a bundle are 15% more likely to stay subscribed for at least six months.

The STARZ streaming service is a companion to the premium cable channel of the same name and offers much of the content you can find there. The streamer hosts titles like “BMF,” “Mary & George,” and will release the long-awaited second part of Season 7 of “Outlander” in November. BritBox, as the name might suggest specializes in British TV shows and occasional movies. Some of its most popular titles include “Luther,” “The Responder,” “Blue Lights,” original comedies like “Avoidance” and classics like “The IT Crowd” and “Keeping Up Appearances.”

How Much Will STARZ and BritBox Bundle Cost?

There were few details about the new bundle revealed, other than a vague timeline for its release and that it will be sold directly through starz.com. One piece of key information that was missing from the announcement of the bundle was a starting price.

I can at least offer viewers a guess at how much the bundle will cost, however. A STARZ subscription currently costs $9.99 per month, though in just a few weeks it will increase to $10.99. BritBox costs $8.99 per month, and there are no announced plans to increase the subscription cost on that streamer currently.

Separately, the two streamers will cost $19.98 per month once STARZ increases its rate. Bundles usually offer a substantial discount, and I’d be shocked if the price of the STARZ and BritBox combo was more than $15 per month. My official prediction is that the bundle will run $12.99 monthly, which will be a 35% reduction in the cost of what viewers would pay to sign up for these services individually.

Will that be a good enough discount for audiences to sign up for the bundle in big numbers? Only time will tell. Lionsgate is in the process of splitting its TV and movie studios away from the STARZ cable channel/streaming service, in order to make both more attractive to potential buyers. This process is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, and if STARZ is sold to a new company this initial bundle with BritBox could be just the beginning of its efforts to combine with other streamers.