Comcast next week is launching a new streaming bundle for Xfinity customers that offers Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ together for a monthly price of $15.
Comcast executives last week at an investor conference disclosed d plans for the bundle – dubbed “Xfinity StreamSaver” – but details on pricing and launch timing were just announced Tuesday.
Debuting nationwide next week to new and existing Xfinity Internet and TV customers, the bundle includes Netflix Standard with ads (typically priced at $6.99 per month standalone), Peacock Premium (usually $5.99 per month) and Apple TV + ($9.99 per month standalone). Taken together the $15 per month streaming bundle promises nearly $100 in yearly savings compared to standalone streaming services. No contract is required and existing subscribers to any of the streaming services can still utilize the discounted bundle pricing. Comcast will handle billing with one monthly Xfinity statement.
In a statement Comcast CEO of Connectivity and Platforms Dave Watson indicated that the partner streaming services get a boost from the cable operator’s subscriber base and marketing power, while the bundle also helps drive value for the company’s broadband products, where its attention is primarily focused.
“StreamSaver is a homerun for consumers who want top-tier entertainment and live sports, and for our world-class partners Peacock, Netflix and Apple who benefit from the reach and depth of our entertainment platforms and Xfinity’s marketing engine,” stated Watson. “StreamSaver also reinforces the value of our broadband products, offering customers new ways to save money on streaming entertainment via the nation’s best and most reliable network in and out of the home.”
Comcast as of the end of Q1 counted 13.6 million pay TV and over 29 million Xfinity residential broadband subscribers in the U.S.
The company touted breadth of content available across the three services, including live sports with MLB Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+, newly announced NFL Christmas Day football games and starting next year WWE programming on Netflix, plus NFL, Big Ten, Premiere League, FIFA World Cup, WWE, NASCAR and full coverage of the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock.
Comcast is also promoting a combination of the new streaming bundle and its NOW TV offer that was introduced last year. Taken together the NOW and StreamSaver bundles are priced at $30 per month and deliver the streaming apps as well as more than 40 live TV channels such as AMC, A&E, Hallmark, History Channel, Lifetime, WEtv, and two dozen FAST channels. All of the programming and apps in the bundles are integrated in Comcast X1, Xumo Stream Box and Flex devices, powered by the Comcast Entertainment OS. Users can also access the trio of StreamSaver bundle apps on other connected TVs and devices.
Comcast is the latest to bring together major streaming apps at a discounted price for consumers – and the first to pair these three specific services - as traditional distributors and service providers look for ways to provide entertainment options and enhance the value of their broadband services amid rising programming costs and continued cord cutting in the video business. Streamers, meanwhile, are exploring bundles with competing services as they seek to reduce churn, lower subscriber acquisition costs and build up bases on nascent ad-supported tiers while also easing the burden for consumers of multiple subscriptions alongside increasing prices.
Comcast’s new offer follows on the heels of Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery teaming up on a bundle of Disney+, Hulu and Max. Pricing and launch date details have yet to be disclosed for that bundle, but WBD executives suggested that coupled with one or two other major streamers, the bundle could serve a household’s entertainment needs well, making it a must-have subscription option. That bundle is distinct from the Comcast offer, not only in terms of services included, but in that WBD and Disney plan to offer their services together directly to consumers and not through a service provider or operator like Comcast. WBD CEO David Zaslav has suggested there are business benefits, including improved ARPU, from offering a streaming bundle directly to consumers instead of through telco partners.
WBD’s Max itself has teamed with other streamers in bundled offers from telcos, including with Netflix in a $10 per month offer from Verizon for the service provider’s mobile customers. Cable operator Charter earlier this year started offering ad-supported DTC apps, including Disney+, at no extra cost in certain pay TV packages.
NBCUniversal has its own DTC Peacock streaming business and product in the latest bundle, and with parent Comcast delivering the entertainment option to customers Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts last week indicated it reflects a shift, as many in the industry have observed, towards a rebundling of sorts of the traditional cable package.
“We’ve been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years…[StreamSaver] is the latest iteration of that and I think this will be a pretty compelling package,” Roberts said May 14 during the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet and Communications investor conference.
Also speaking at MoffettNathanson last week, Comcast’s Watson emphasized that video is still an important business to the cable operator but noted a focus on broadband, where StreamSaver can complement internet services.
At the investor conference, Watson suggested losing traditional video subscribers (as Comcast has continued to do each quarter for multiple years) isn’t quite as bad for the business as one might think amid market concerns over cord cutting.
According to Watson, when Comcast loses a traditional video subscriber, the price of broadband for subs tends to go up because customers are no longer getting that multi-product discounted price. And programming costs go down for Comcast, as well video-related “noise” such as costs for service, repair and maintenance related to customer premises equipment (CPE) and related servicing activity, which isn’t as present for broadband subscribers. As a result, broadband subscribers represent more efficient customer relationships for Comcast manage than traditional video relationships. When low-end video customers drop TV service but keeps broadband service, “it’s accretive [to the business] when that happens,” Watson said.
A key for Comcast as it creates video, broadband and other service packages, is looking “at the whole home as the opportunity,” Watson said. “The focus is to continue to drive the overall relationships.”
This reflects a fundamental shift in how Comcast is looking at the business from years ago when Comcast just looked at video, he commented. Now, video is part of where the company works to compete but is not a singular focus or how Comcast’s managing its overall business.
And Comcast is looking to simplify experiences for its broadband customers, including content discovery and choice fatigue, through aggregation capabilities on its devices like the X1 platform – as well as new bundled offers like StreamSaver.