One is to license content to other platforms more. This could help services generate additional revenue while addressing content fragmentation. Small, niche services, however, have a fine line to walk when it comes to sharing the titles that make their services stand out to current and potential subscribers.
Offering discounts if users link their streaming subscription to another subscription, like for home Internet or mobile service, is said to help streaming companies reduce cancellations. Streaming services can extract more value from this strategy if they target younger audiences by offering more bundles with services like music, gaming, or food delivery services.
“… the current bundles offered by media companies may miss the mark, as younger subscribers look toward broader cross-category ecosystems. Put simply: Bundles have become mainstream, but they still should keep pace with consumer expectations that have become increasingly personal,” Deloitte said in an August blog post.
Streaming services can also get better at helping subscribers with content discovery, which could help services drive subscriptions. In Gracenote’s 2025 State of Play survey of 3,000 “consumers” in the US, Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico, and United Kingdom, 49 percent of respondents said they “are willing to cancel a service based on difficulty finding what to watch.”
Some services are already leveraging generative AI chatbots and other technologies to help users find new content. However, the challenge of creating reliable content discovery that people enjoy using extends beyond streaming services, including to smart TV operating system owners, marketers, and AI companies.
As streaming mergers steam ahead, customers are at risk of higher prices and less diversity in the ownership of countless beloved shows, movies, games, books, and franchises.
Today, fully boycotting Disney means boycotting numerous streaming services, networks, franchises, and theme parks. With more streaming services uniting, it will become harder to protest and avoid services that make disagreeable decisions, like raising prices or pulling a show because of the host’s expressed views.
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