HBO Max, and Peacock, and Disney+, oh my! These are only a few of the new streaming services to burst onto the OTT scene lately. With so many entertainment options to choose from, it’s no wonder streamers are opting in for more and more subscriptions.
Ampere Analysis reports the average US TV household now subscribes to four different streaming services. Along with a myriad of SVOD offerings to choose from, Ampere’s Guy Bisson attributes this growth to the growing trend of ‘compounding’ subscriptions, aka bundle deals. We’ve already seen multiple streamers go in this direction, including a Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+ package, and Apple TV+’s deal with CBS All Access and Showtime.
Packages like these mean viewers get a discounted price on their subscription to an individual service if they sign up for a few others, therefore the consumer is saving money yet spending more.
“‘Compounding’ (in the sense both of combining and adding to) will characterise global TV throughout 2021 as the streaming TV boom forces a re-engineering of the TV value chain and the strategies for reaching the end viewer,” Bisson writes. “The breadth of choice in the streaming market today means compounding (or bundling) multiple streaming services into packages must be the next step in the evolution of the streaming market.”
Along with bundling multiple streaming services into one package, Bisson says another trend for 2021 will be more traditional broadcast networks entering the streaming space. We’ve already started to see it with platforms like NBC’s Peacock and CBS All Access, both prime examples of traditional broadcasters turning to a more hybrid model of subscription and ad monetization.
“The concept of international distribution to prioritise own-platforms for global roll-outs will accelerate throughout 2021, compounding the streaming business supply chain,” Bisson says. “Compounding will also impact other areas of the value chain. In the broadcast space. With AVOD, SVOD and hybrid combining, the broadcast TV space will also increasingly compound in 2021. That means an acceleration of collaborative services allowing broadcast channels to retain competitive edge in the crowded streaming market. BritBox and Salto-style joint-venture streaming platforms liberate broadcasters from free-to-air business models and the geographic constraints of a single territory. Expect these models, already common in Europe, to spread widely in 2021.”