Research: Subscription services say bundling is the future
November 20, 2023
Bango research reveals subscription leaders are betting on cross-industry bundling as the future for their fast-growing industry. The research highlights a focus on ‘Super Bundling’ — a model that provides integrated management of subscriptions through a centralised content hub, delivered through aggregators like telcos.
With data from over 100 executives across leading music, video, and multi-service content providers, the study shows widespread endorsement of the Super Bundling model. This model is already a key growth strategy with telcos, as exemplified by offerings such as Optus SubHub and Verizon +play content hub, which bring together dozens of subscription services.
Explaining the rationale behind the subscription industry’s push towards Super Bundling, over two-thirds of subscription leaders say ‘new customer acquisition’ (73 per cent) is a high priority, closely followed by ‘reducing churn’ (68 per cent).
The road ahead
The research shows that subscription providers have identified several key opportunities in Super Bundling, while emphasising that time is of the essence.
More than three out of five subscription leaders agree that:
- Subscription services should be bundling their services with content providers from other industries (69 per cent)
- Super Bundling content hubs will be a vital revenue source for subscription services in the future (66 per cent)
- Super Bundling content hubs will offer a strong competitive advantage for subscription services (65 per cent)
Over half of these executives (53 per cent) already say Super Bundling will play a vital role in their future customer acquisition and retention strategies. Some go as far to say that not pursuing Super Bundling could be damaging, with almost a third (31 per cent) warning of potential revenue and market share loss for those that don’t adapt quickly enough.
When deciding who to select as their bundling partners, communications service providers dominate, with 60 per cent of subscription leaders citing satellite/cable providers as most effective, followed by broadband (56 per cent) and mobile phone companies (56 per cent).
Technical roadblocks
While keenly aware of the opportunities of Super Bundling, subscription leaders also point to challenges implementing the model. Three out of five (61 per cent) report that their core challenge when bundling subscriptions is the complexity of managing multiple partners.
When trying to achieve this through reseller partners such as telcos, more than half report that the top challenges they face in partnering effectively are:
- Technical integration issues (64 per cent)
- Complexity of contract negotiations (63 per cent)
- Time-consuming onboarding processes (52 per cent)
Back to the future
To overcome the technical challenges of Super Bundling, subscription services need access to specialised technology and infrastructure. Even for those who have the basic tools required to support bundling, building a unified user experience that brings together multiple vendor subscriptions can be complex and costly.
“This is where the Bango Digital Vending Machine (DVM) meets a critical need,” commented Bango CMO and co-founder Anil Malhotra. “Tackling the complexities of sign-up, billing, partnerships and subscription management is no small feat, but we’ve got you covered. The Bango DVM, a subscription bundling SaaS platform, handles the heavy lifting of Super Bundling, providing the infrastructure to bring together aggregators like telcos with diverse content and service providers through one unified hub. This allows subscription providers to focus on what they do best – delivering excellent content experiences to their subscribers.”