As anyone who has been following the streaming world in 2024 knows, bundling is the wave of the present, and likely the future. Providers are searching for ways to keep customers engaged with their platforms as prices rise, and bundles can offer meaningful discounts on services that viewers were likely to stack anyway. Disney+ and Hulu are already available together for $9.99 in the Disney Duo Basic bundle, but the two services will join a new streaming product this summer when they combine with Max in a new offering. But is that a wise move on Disney’s part? New data from Ampere Analysis suggests perhaps not, as Warner Bros. Discovery seemingly has a lot more to gain from the arrangement than Disney does.

Key Details:

• Upsell opportunities for the new bundle will greatly favor WBD, as its customers are less likely to already have a Disney streamer.
• Disney Bundle subscribers are 59% less likely to cancel their subscription within a year than viewers who sign up for just one Disney streamer.
• Disney and WBD are strengthening cross-company ties with Venu Sports, and Disney’s relative lack of prestige content could also play a role in the decision to bundle.

So why is Disney bundling its streaming services with Max likely to favor WBD? Ampere’s data shows that more customers who could potentially be interested in such a bundle already have a Disney-owned service. Ampere looked at the overlap between Disney+, Hulu, and Max customers and found that in the group of users who subscribe to just one of these three services, 33% are already signed up for Hulu. A further 13% are solely subscribed to Disney+, and just 6% are only signed up for Max at the moment. That means that upsell opportunities will greatly favor WBD, since more viewers already have Disney+ and/or Hulu accounts.

There’s not much incentive for Disney to join a bundle with Max in the name of reducing churn, either. Disney’s current bundle options already do a fantastic job of that; Ampere found that the Trio bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ saw 59% fewer viewers churn away from the bundle one year later as opposed to customers who sign up for just Disney+ alone.

A bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max would provide some new sports opportunities for Disney subscribers, as Max carries sporting events like additional NBA games (at least for the 2024-25 season) U.S. Soccer matches, and weekly MLB games in its Bleacher Report Sports Add-On. But Disney already allows consumers to bundle Disney+ and Hulu with ESPN+, and a new ESPN tile coming to Disney+ later this year will enhance the sports offerings on the streamer even further. That would seem to indicate that Disney isn’t partnering its services with Max to entice more customers with different sports.

So, Why is Disney Bundling its Streaming Services with Max?

Despite the seeming illogic of teaming with WBD’s streamer, Disney may have ample reasons for doing so. The two companies may have plenty of internal data to show that Disney streamers can see an even greater reduction in churn if they add Max to the bundle, or that Disney’s streaming customers have a great deal of demand for sports available on TNT, TBS or truTV.

But more concrete reasons for the two companies to bundle together are apparent as well. For example, Disney and WBD are already collaborating on a new streaming product, a joint venture sports platform called Venu Sports. This service will have live streams of 14 channels, including networks owned by Disney, WBD, and Fox. Bringing Max, Disney+, and Hulu together in a single product will allow Disney and WBD to more closely align their on-demand streaming goals with the future of their live TV channels.

It also cannot be denied that combining Max with Disney+ and Hulu will give the new partnership an amount of prestige content that the Disney Bundle currently lacks. Hulu has a fair share of prestige shows like “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” and “Shōgun,” and Disney+ has made a few prestige TV shows, especially from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, but it doesn’t have anything like Max’s lineup of HBO titles like “Game of Thrones,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” to name a few.

So there are a few good reasons for Disney+ and Hulu to join a bundle with Max, despite the clear benefits that WBD will see from the arrangement. Best of all for both, perhaps, is the fact that more and more streaming services are seeking out bundle opportunities, and being the last streamer standing in that race will be decidedly disadvantageous.