In its latest pairing of streaming services, Verizon is offering customers Netflix Premium and Starz subscriptions together for $25.99 per month through its +play subscription aggregation hub.
Verizon launched +play in 2022 which is a payment and management hub that also offers subscription discounts and is available to all Verizon postpaid mobile, 5G Home and LTE Home subscribers. Verizon noted it’s the first time Netflix and Starz are being offered together in a bundle. On its own Netflix’s ad-free Premium plan typically costs $22.99 per month, while a Starz standalone subscription is priced at $9.99 per month. The offer is available to new and existing Netflix customers, but users have to be a new subscriber to Starz to get it.
It marks the latest Netflix bundled offer from Verizon. Last June the carrier offered Netflix Premium and Paramount+ with Showtime together, also for about $26 per month through +play. And more recently in December Verizon’s myPlan wireless customers were offered the ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max bundled for $10 per month.
Verizon isn’t the first or only carrier to offer entertainment services alongside wireless offerings. T-Mobile has long offered “Netflix on Us,” and later added a free year of TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish-language ViX streaming service to the mix. And earlier this month it incorporated a free Hulu subscription with ads for customers of its Go5G Next mobile plans, alongside an existing Apple TV+ “on Us” offer.
It’s one way for wireless carriers to entice customers while maintaining relationships. Verizon this week just reported gaining 318,000 postpaid net phone adds in the fourth quarter, following a series of down quarters. As for streamers, some have appeared more willing to be offered alongside competitors or through bundles via partners as they focus on profitability alongside maturing services and rising streaming prices. Some, like Paramount, have pointed to benefits of hard pay TV bundles including lower subscriber acquisition costs, additional marketing dollars and might from partners, and the potential to reduce the industry problem of churn. In some cases, access to a large service provider base could also help build up bigger audiences on ad-supported plans that bring advertising dollars.
During WBD’s Q3 earnings call CEO David Zaslav suggested bundling is where the industry is headed.
“I think bundling in terms of the entertainment package is important,” Zaslav said last November. “The ability for us to get together with others domestically, around the world. I think it’s a better package for consumers where we could likely reduce churn and get better economics.”