The Great Bundle Revival – Why Streaming Looks a Lot Like Cable Again
For years, the streaming story has been told as a rebellion against cable. Consumers cut the cord to escape bloated channel packages, endless fees, and rigid contracts. The promise was freedom: watch what you want, where you want, without paying for extras you’d never use. Yet as subscription fatigue sets in and growth slows, the major platforms are finding themselves drifting back toward the very structure they once disrupted.
Over the past year, we’ve watched a steady shift. Disney began pairing Disney+ and Hulu into a single app, Warner Bros. Discovery rebranded HBO Max to “Max” to broaden its appeal, and Verizon started bundling Netflix, Max, and Starz into one discounted package. Even competitors are partnering, as Comcast’s Peacock struck promotional tie-ins with Netflix. In practice, this means the same consumers who once celebrated à la carte viewing are now being nudged toward larger bundles that look suspiciously like the cable model they abandoned.
Why the Bundling Wave Is Rising Again
At the core of this revival is churn. Streaming platforms face escalating costs to acquire and keep subscribers. With consumers juggling five, six, or more subscriptions at once, cancellations happen the moment a favorite show ends. Bundles reduce that risk by locking users into ecosystems with multiple must-have titles. If you subscribe through Verizon and get three premium services in one deal, the friction of canceling becomes much higher.
This strategy also lets companies improve margins without hiking individual prices to unsustainable levels. A standalone Netflix subscription might feel expensive, but when wrapped into a multi-platform package at a “discount,” consumers are more willing to pay. It’s a psychological play rooted in perceived value a tactic cable companies perfected decades ago.
What This Means for Advertisers
The resurgence of bundles has immediate implications for media buying. Audience fragmentation has been one of the biggest headaches for planners over the last decade. With content spread across dozens of platforms, achieving scale has required increasingly complex strategies, often involving multiple buys across disparate networks. As bundles consolidate audiences, the pendulum begins to swing back.
For advertisers, that shift means two things. First, inventory is becoming more centralized. Instead of negotiating separately with five different streaming platforms, there are emerging opportunities to access bundled inventory through fewer points of entry. That efficiency can streamline negotiations and improve cost-per-reach. Second, larger bundles create richer datasets. Platforms with cross-service visibility can build deeper audience profiles, giving advertisers more sophisticated targeting options that go beyond basic demographics.
The New Leverage Dynamic
While this sounds promising, it also changes the balance of power. The more audiences reconsolidate under mega-bundles, the more leverage the platforms themselves gain. Advertisers could face steeper pricing as bundles reduce competition between services. Just as cable providers once controlled the gateway to mass audiences, today’s streaming giants are positioning themselves to do the same.
Another consideration is transparency. As bundles grow, advertisers will need to ensure they’re not paying for impressions that skew toward less valuable placements within the package. A bundled buy that includes Netflix, Max, and Starz, for instance, may sound compelling, but brands must ask how inventory is weighted across the services. Are premium shows driving most of the exposure, or are less-watched titles padding the numbers? Media buyers will need to press for clarity.
A Shifting Consumer Mindset
The consumer side of the equation shouldn’t be ignored either. While many viewers will welcome simplified billing and broader access, there’s also potential for frustration. If bundles grow too large or too rigid, audiences may once again feel like they’re paying for content they don’t want. That tension opens the door for ad-supported tiers and free, FAST (free ad-supported TV) services to gain more traction. Advertisers should watch closely, because the growth of bundled premium subscriptions may indirectly accelerate adoption of ad-supported models as viewers try to balance their costs.
Where Advertisers Should Be Looking
The takeaway for brands is that this is not a return to cable as we once knew it, but it rhymes. Consolidation means more scale, more efficient buying, and better targeting opportunities but also renewed gatekeeping by the largest media owners. Advertisers that stay proactive will have the advantage: asking sharper questions about bundle inventory, investing early in cross-platform measurement, and identifying where bundled data can unlock smarter planning.
The bundle revival may feel like déjà vu, but for advertisers it’s less about nostalgia and more about strategy. Those who treat it as a chance to simplify, while still pushing for transparency, will be best positioned to capture audiences in this new, yet familiar, streaming era.