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Streaming Services Look to Bundle in 2024: ‘Everything Can Be Accessed’

Photo from Matoo Studio via Unsplash

Streaming Services Look to Bundle in 2024: ‘Everything Can Be Accessed’

By Movieguide® Contributor

When it comes to 2024 streaming trends, it looks like it’s going to be the year of the bundle. 

“The Charter-Disney deal was a sign of the times,” said Tim Nollen, a Macquarie analyst. 

Nollen was referring to a deal made earlier this year between Disney and Charter Communications. The companies struggled to come to terms over licensing fees pertaining to NFL games. 

Movieguide® previously reported:

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says the battle between Disney and Charter “won’t be the last dispute” between distributors. 

“When you have many distributors of the same product in the same geography, you’re going to have disputes,” Roberts explained. “It’s not the first dispute and probably won’t be the last dispute.”

Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, removed Disney-owned channels like ESPN and ABC from their programming lineup due to disputes over pricing. 

The dispute ended with Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers getting access to the ad-supported tier of Disney+ and ESPN+.

It now looks like merger deals like Disney and Charter’s will become more commonplace in 2024. 

Disney+ and Hulu are rolling out a combo streaming platform, while AppleTV+ and Paramount+ are supposedly in talks to create a bundle deal for subscribers. 

Joe Earley, Disney’s president of direct-to-consumer, spoke about the partnership with Hulu, saying the goal for the bundle “is to inspire Disney+ and Hulu standalone subscribers to upgrade to the Bundle as well, once they see everything that can be accessed.”

The Hollywood Reporter also wrote of talks between Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount Global’s CEO Bob Bakish and chair Shari Redstone that explored a potential deal between the studios. 

These rumors were not received positively by investors. The Hollywood Reporter noted, “Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) dropped as investors tried to unpack the news and analysts expressed their doubts about the potential deal, using such phrases as ‘we have a hard time seeing’ a deal and equating it to catching ‘a falling knife’ or even a ‘financial death sentence.’”

This new era of bundling streaming services will mean lower prices for viewers, but it looks like studios and streamers are still working to figure out the best way to merge. 


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