Streaming Bundles Lower Consumer Intent To Churn By 16%, New Study Finds

Dade Hayes
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: New consumer survey data from Magid supports the entertainment industry’s faith in bundles, particularly newer cross-company efforts like a forthcoming Disney+-Hulu-Max package.

The research firm found that predictive rates of churn – the trade term for canceled subscriptions – was 16% lower due to the increased availability of bundle plans. Bundles also boosted customer intent to keep a subscription longer than six months by 15%.

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The latest insights reflect the arrival of two major offerings: the Disney-Warner Bros. Discovery combo due this summer and Comcast’s StreamSaver trio of Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+, which launched last month. Both are notable efforts to move the streaming sector beyond vertical, in-house bundles like Disney’s successful grouping of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, which has been available since 2020.

Magid’s numbers come from a monthly survey of consumers, with those findings correlated with data from Antenna and other behavioral insights. Because more bundles are being continually added to the mix, the company asked subscribers about their expected behavior. While those results are different from actual churn results, they have historically been directionally accurate and closely resemble the ultimate churn numbers, Magid says. Over the course of a year, the firm surveys some 24,000 people online on a range of topics.

Apple TV+ is poised to benefit the most from bundling, Magid determined, with the new study showing a 28% reduction in intent to churn. Kate Morgan, EVP and leader of global media, entertainment and games at Magid, told Deadline in an interview that the company’s programming is high-caliber but lower-volume than that of many rivals, meaning consumers value it but appreciate it more when it is included as part of a package.

Pricing, especially for stand-alone services, has risen sharply over the past couple of years. Apple TV+ has nearly doubled in price since its debut in 2019, and Apple has long bundled it with a host of other services, from cloud storage to music to video games.

The benefits of bundling go well beyond the top-tier outlets, Magid notes. Smaller services that “punch above their weight” could also add value to a bundle, the report found, pointing to Shudder and Crunchyroll as examples. “Expect them to bundle up.”

Morgan also noted that consumers remain frustrated with search and discovery, the bane of any viewer trying to remember where that hot title they heard about is streaming. While bundling is a cost-saver for consumers and also provides financial benefits to streaming companies, the next leap forward will be integrating services more closely in terms of the user interface. “The winner in bundling,” Morgan said, “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.”

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