The companies are allegedly hoping that bundling Apple TV+ and Paramount+ subscriptions at a discount would address the problem of subscription fatigue.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Paramount Global have discussed offering a combined Apple TV+ and Paramount+ services bundle for a lower price than paying for both subscriptions separately.
Apple TV+ costs $10/month after a free seven-day trial. In contrast, Paramount offers two subscription tiers for its service: Essential, priced at $6/month, and Paramount+ (which also includes Showtime and no ads) at $12/month.
The report is short on details because the talks are in the early stages, and “it is unclear what shape a bundle could take” or how much less it would cost than the combined price of separate Apple TV+ and Paramount+ subscriptions.
Apple TV+ and Paramount+ exploring a streaming bundle
The report makes the case for such an offering by noting that other players in the streaming space bundle their separate services together at a discount, like Netflix and Max, which are being bundled together as part of a deal with Verizon.
Jessica Toonkel, The Wall Street Journal:
Disney has been offering Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ à la carte as well as part of a package and has seen lower rates of subscriber defections for its bundle offering.
And:
Paramount used to offer a bundle of its own combo deal for its Paramount+ and Showtime streaming services, but the company earlier this year decided to combine the two into Paramount+. It also raised the price of the ad-free tier of the service to $12/month from $10/month.
Apple TV focuses on quality over quantity, with 100 percent original programming and hit shows like “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and “Lessons in Chemistry” ranking high in the streaming charts. However, Paramount+ is a much bigger service than Apple TV+, with more than 550 movies and 330 TV shows on the platform.
The streaming fatigue is real
This could be a viable response to the streaming fatigue. Video services across the industry have been hiking prices in the past few years. Apple TV+, which launched in November 2019 at $5/month, saw its first price increase in October 2022 when the monthly plan increased by $2 to $7/month.
In October 2023, the Apple TV+ price went up by an additional $3 to $10/month. If you buy a new Apple device, you get three free months of Apple TV+.
According to findings by research firm Antenna that the WSJ article quotes, seven percent of Apple TV+ subscribers canceled the service in October in response to the price increase versus the 5.7 percent industry average rate.
The trend might continue as people become smarter about their subscriptions. Many people subscribe to a streaming service to watch specific shows, only to cancel when they’re done binge-watching them.
But when multiple services are bundled together, subscribers are less likely to defect on any given month, according to research firm Antenna.