What Makes Streaming Bundles Work
When it comes to bundling streaming services, there are other factors to consider beyond the price point, product differentiation, and the content offering the bundle will deliver. According to Roku’s Anastasia Pronin, Philo’s Adam Salmons, and Bango’s Giles Tongue, the key to an effective and profitable streaming bundle is identifying consumer needs and pain points and delivering a bundle that addresses those needs, and they explain how to do it in this clip from Streaming Media NYC.
The panel’s moderator, Monica Villar, Co-Founder & CEO, Lightswitch, asks the group, “What would you say are the key ingredients to putting together a bundle that ultimately will work, be a differentiated offer to subscribers, makes economic sense, and makes sense for the partners? What are the considerations that go into making that successful?”
Well-rounded offerings and clear price segmentation
Anastasia Pronin, Team Lead, Partner Growth, Roku, emphasizes the importance of well-rounded content offerings. “We're able to see data around viewership overlap, which users are viewing multiple services on our platform. So all of that is really helpful,” she says. “But beyond that, pricing is important. Really thinking about your users and segmenting them. Who's most likely to sign up for a bundle versus a standalone product? Who’s looking at the ad-free versus ad-supported products? Carving out those niches for different users and different pathways. Ultimately, I think a lot of that calculus comes down to our content partners, and we're here as a supporting partner and platform to launch and market those bundles.”
Understanding value for the customer
Adam Salmons, Head of Content & Business Development, Philo, underscores the importance of understanding what the value is to the customer. “It's one thing to just take a lot of the brands that we all know, throw them into a bundle for a lower price, and hope that the subscribers come. But I think it has to start with answering a question for the consumer,” he says. “If you look at what Comcast announced, you've got Peacock with sports, Netflix is your large general entertainment play, and Apple TV is your kind of more niche, high-end type of content play. So that, to me, is something that makes sense for a household where you're getting back to that cable-like experience, something for everyone.” He also stresses the importance of good execution of these bundles and coherent product integration and marketing messaging.
Villar says, “I think there's something complicated about bundling, not just from the composition of it, but also just the data and the understanding of subscribers.” She asks the group, “Do you feel like players are anticipating or working around that challenge today or is that something that [will be a future investment]?”
Knowing the different "flavors" of bundling
Giles Tongue of Bango says that they are about to release a report, “Which is various interviews with content providers asking about the pain points when bundling.” He breaks down some of the questions included in their interviews. “[What] some of the outcomes are, make sure you are clear on why you are doing it,” he says. “Is this an awareness play? Is it an acquisition play? There are various reasons why you might go into bundling. Who's the right partner to do it with? So we are enabling many different types of companies, not just telcos, to sell bundles. So who's the right partner to go with? Be clear about the objectives and how you're going to measure them.”
He also discusses the “flavors of bundling.” “There's the hard bundling, which is free with the thing you are being bundled with. Soft bundling, where there might be some options. Choose two or three things. And then what we call super bundling, such as Verizon +play, which is a content hub of 40 plus different types of [offerings],” including gaming and shopping. “And each of those will have different outcomes with different results driving different objectives,” he says. “So, quite a lot to think about within the topic of bundling.”
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