Streamers Reinvent Cable As Disney+, Hulu, And Max Offer Bundle Subscription
If, like many of us, you're often struck by just how many subscription services you're paying for, you'll probably be pleased to learn that there'll soon be an easier way to bundle three of the biggest into one subscription. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Disney are teaming up to offer a streaming package that will bundle Disney+, Hulu, and Max into one subscription. The bundle is set to arrive this summer complete with the increasingly prevalent ad-free and ad-supported options. As of now, there's no exact release date or pricing details, but there will surely be more news on that front in the very near future.
While Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav has made a habit of partnering with other studios since taking on the Warner Bros. brand, licensing certain movies and TV shows to Roku and Tubi and previously licensing HBO originals to Netflix, this latest move is a significant moment. A Warner/Disney team-up certainly didn't seem like the most likely scenario, but as studios try to wring some money out of their streaming businesses, these kinds of deals will likely become more common. Disney has offered bundles of its Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ subscriptions for some time, and since becoming the sole owner of Hulu, the company has recently rolled that streaming service into the Disney+ platform. But with Max joining those other services, Warner and Disney can offer an impressively diverse catalog that gives them a real chance of competing with the biggest streamer in the game, Netflix.
The bundle is another example of new media becoming old media
In a statement, president of direct-to-consumer for Disney, Joe Earley, said:
"On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value. This incredible new partnership puts subscribers first, giving them access to blockbuster films, originals, and three massive libraries featuring the very best brands and entertainment in streaming today."
It's true that bundling Disney+, Hulu, and Max will offer a substantive catalog of media, which should help Warner and Disney navigate the notoriously tough streaming market. If we're able to bundle three services into one subscription, that might help ease the pain many of us experience when searching for a movie only to find it's not on any one of the dozens of subscription services we pay for. That, and streaming has been a very tough market for studios, which have had to constantly battle the ever-present issue of "churn" — a term that essentially refers to the amount of users canceling their subscriptions each month. A bundle such as this should go a long way to helping combat that particular challenge.
A lot of this will, of course, come down to how competitively the new bundle is priced, but it's an intriguing prospect — not to mention a significant moment in the streaming age, marking as it does the first major cross-studio streaming partnership. Still, it's hard not to notice the ways in which these streaming services are slowly morphing back into what is essentially cable, with ads and now multiple platforms (i.e. channels) being offered as part of one monthly subscription. After years of demolishing what came before it, new media is becoming old media again, and this is just another reminder of that fact.