Are OTT Bundles Getting Too Big?
Learn more about OTT and SVOD at Streaming Media East 2022.
Read the complete transcript of this clip:
Randy Ahn: We call it the bloated bundle. it's a pretty negative term as it is today. And so I think users have spoken. I think it's clear that they want something different. I think choice--Bassil, to your point--is really important there. And it's choice with a little bit of an influence in terms of the importance of things like personalization and machine learning and helping make the right recommendation based on what you've watched or what your interests are. I think it's a balance between those things and I think the consumer should have choice, especially when it comes to anything that's the business model in which they prefer to have their viewing experience in and have the choice to sign up for individual a la carte services or bundles.
I think that choice is really important. And then when it comes to the discovery of content, what's the role of recommendation and personalization? I think that's really critical to making a better user experience. You don't want to spend the majority of your time looking to find something to watch. Hopefully you can find it quickly, get interested in it, and start to start to consume that content and have that lean-back experience. And so I totally agree. I think we're going back. I think it's almost hand in hand with what we're seeing with just what streaming is and the growth in streaming, the rocket ship growth of streaming, and it's not headed towards a world of back to bundles and bringing in content that a user is not interested in or has not chosen to participate with.
Miguel Rodrigues: Absolutely. I think there was a time where one could think that you were at the point of the world where we could have gone that way. So imagine when Disney came along and they could have said, "Look, I'm gonna have my app. And if you want to have kids' content, you pay half the price. And if you want to have the series with the Star Wars and the Mandalorian, whatever, then you pay something else." And I think that's how it started in the cable business. If you remember, the only reason why people thought they were overpaying is because they would see how much it costs for me to have these 10 extra channels about documentaries or 10 extra channels about sports. And then, when you put in all of that and you say, "You now need to pay for all of this," they'll go, "But I think that costs 10 extra dollars. So if I don't want those channels, can I remove that from my bill?"
When OTT services started, that was never the case. So everything in every single OTT service that we saw out there, things were just included. You never had Netflix splitting their catalog and saying, you will pay an extra $5 for the extra content. That never happened. Even in Disney, they have pretty different content inside of their app and they never did that. So I think, in a sense, we could have gone back to that if there were a lot of services that would've started splitting their offers. And I think maybe having 4K and HD is the closest we got to that because people needed to make a choice. So if you then force them and say, "Now you need to have 4K," maybe I would think, "I don't have a 4K TV. Do I really need to pay for that?"
And that is, I think, something similar to the bloated bundle, but I totally agree. I don't think we went in that path and in a sense, that's amazing for the customers. It means that they can actually pick what they like to watch. And if they don't like it they'll cancel the subscription, and they don't have it again. And I think this element of choice is something that is here to stay, and it's not gonna go away. People are just gonna get used to that. It's gonna be impossible to go back to, to a different model, I think.
Related Articles
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.
05 Aug 2024
Churn is an unavoidable fact of life for streaming services, and much of the strategic thinking that goes into trying to make SVOD profitable focuses on how to minimize its impact, whether by offering more content, incorporating ad tiers, or entering into various bundling scenarios. So what's working in 2024 and what isn't? Five leading M & E analysts—ESHAP's Evan Shapiro, Erickson's Paul Erickson, Dataxis' Ophelie Boucaud, TVREV's Alan Wolk, and Hub's Jon Giegengack—discuss current strategies to ward off churn-pocalypse in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.
11 Mar 2024
How significant will telco-centered superbundles-where the likes of T-Mobile or Verizon package streaming channel subscriptions with their services-prove in the expansion of the streaming ecosystem in the years to come, and what types of partnerships is it likely to include? Bango's Anil Malhotra, Starz' Rob Collins, Revry's LaShawn McGhee, and Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.
02 Oct 2023
How much choice is too much choice for OTT media and entertainment consumers? Is content and channel overwhelm ruining the user experiences for OTT audiences who just want to find something to watch? And is more bundling the solution? Find out what Media Cartographer Evan Shapiro and Applicaster Co-founder Jonathan Laor have to say on the subject in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.
12 Apr 2023
Is a Great Rebundling upon us, with all-encompassing über bundles of once-disparate streaming services with cable-high price tags soon to engulf the OTT world? If so, the biggest barrier might not be cost or lack of choice. According to Ateliere CEO Dan Goman, the content companies involved lack the infrastructure or head count to pull it off.
03 Feb 2023
Kaltura SVP Product Miguel Rodrigues explains why OTT services that prioritize discovery and personalizations are the ones you should bet on in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2022.
08 Apr 2022
Philo's Adam Salmons discusses how to make skinny OTT bundles work through personalization and drilling down into exactly how users are interacting with your OTT service.
30 Mar 2022
Struum's Paul Pastor discusses the rise of app-hopping in OTT consumer behavior--even as concentration in the market around the major services increases--and the role Struum aims to play in OTT discovery and recommendation for longtail content in this clip from a panel at Streaming Media West 2021.
22 Nov 2021
Companies and Suppliers Mentioned