With the recent news that Max and Netflix might soon offer subscription bundles for certain customers and the imminent combination of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (which are all owned by the same parent company) into a single app, there’s another potential team-up on the horizon: Apple TV+ and Paramount+.
Bundling is seen as a way to prevent customer “churn”—basically, the dropping and adding of subscriptions depending on what happens to be available on them. The thinking is that if people pay one subscription fee that covers multiple services, they’re more likely to hold onto that subscription, especially as monthly and yearly fees for individual services continue to rise. The desire to keep viewers in the fold is so powerful, even rival companies are willing to team up.
The news of a potential Apple TV+ and Paramount+ bundle comes from the Wall Street Journal, which cites data that “both Apple TV+ and Paramount+ had a customer-defection rate of more than 7% in October, a higher rate than the 5.7% average for the streaming industry as a whole.” The paper said this potential combo “would cost less than subscribing to both services separately, according to people familiar with the discussions,” but adds that “the discussions are in their early stages, and it is unclear what shape a bundle could take.”
Top shows on Apple TV+ right now include Godzilla series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Gary Oldman spy thriller Slow Horses, and sci-fi drama For All Mankind; Paramount+ has Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan’s stable of Westerns, including current release Lawmen: Bass Reeves. It also has sitcoms like the Frasier reboot, and is home to all the new Star Trek series, like Discovery and Strange New Worlds.