Navigating TV, Streaming Bundles to Lighten the Load: Who Wins?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 21, 2024

To bundle or not to bundle? Perhaps when it comes to all the possible combinations of TV networks and streamers and other content providers, we may want to shift things around as needed.

A new company called MyBundle looks to help people navigate all the different variations on the TV network/streaming package one might buy in the new TV world.

Who controls the bundle? Right now, some would say that is largely legacy broadband/pay TV companies -- big and small operations have an inside track. Transmission and TV/movie content seem to go together after all.

“Nobody wants 10 different services,” MyBundle CEO Jason Cohen recently told The Hollywood Reporter.  “But if it was 10 clicks on a bundle [emphasis added], that's different. We think there’s a big opportunity.”

Services like this want to help consumers figure out what they want -- and it isn't about cord-cutting but rather cord-shaving. But that can be a complicated process.

It's not just helping consumers bundle, but for which “bundlers”. They will not only pose directional questions like “select the channel you need” but also look at their history, including bundles (or not) they currently have. This is all done to navigate at the lowest cost.

All that is well and good. But high-profile, individual entertainment programs -- both scripted and unscripted -- continue to be the bedrock and strong promotional tool of the new streaming world.  That could mean constant change -- altering one's bundle from month to month.

For example, one bit of analysis suggests that at any given time, many heavy consumers of TV content honed in on two major new TV series per streamer, at best.

This isn’t to say that other new and library TV shows and movies are not important on a particular service. But it does provide consumers with the feeling that they are getting a lot of content.

Critics may say the majority of consumers' TV behavior is not about making continuous month-to-month tweaks in their package. Still, those consumers might want to have that option.

That seems to create endless possibilities, and lots of flexibility is needed. 

From the business side of things, small to mid-sized broadband and/or cable TV providers would seem to benefit from consumer referrals like this to lift their revenue prospects.

But we are only in the first quarter of this rapidly new pay TV-video game.

How many different and still evolving game plans are out there?