UNBUNDLING AND RE-BUNDLING
Higher prices are also set to usher in a new phase in the battle between digital services of all kinds.
As consumers feel the pinch from paying for multiple high-priced premium services, getting a discount for buying a package of services starts to become more attractive – something that encourages the recreation of the very media bundles that standalone streaming services helped to destroy.
This reflects a familiar pattern in the media business. Waves of unbundling, as old media packages are picked apart, are often followed by re-bundling. Consumers get more for a single payment – though one side-effect is that they also often end up, once again, paying for things they do not want.
For media owners, meanwhile, selling a package also lowers overall customer acquisition costs and reduces churn of accounts.
In video streaming, Disney has reported success with adding Hulu to its Disney+ video offering, and is planning to do the same with its ESPN+ sports service. Cross-company bundles are also in the works, with a Disney+, Hulu and Max subscription package promised for later this year.
As these new media bundles start to form, new competitors will loom large.
Amazon’s Prime, which combines video with free ecommerce deliveries, and Apple One, which includes six of the iPhone maker’s services, including iCloud storage, have shown Big Tech’s willingness to experiment with unconventional offerings that traditional media companies cannot match.
Google has also included access to its latest AI models for some subscribers, though it has not gone as far in bundling all its subscription services together.
The potential of these tech groups to combine many different types of services and to up-sell to their billions of users are likely to make them formidable competitors in the next phase of the streaming wars.
From: channelnewsasia
Business News
