Why Verizon’s Latest Play Could Make It the Netflix of Streaming Bundlers
In this article
With a move to solidify its competitive advantage in the space, is Verizon becoming the Netflix of streaming aggregators?
Not to get hyperbolic, but the telecom company’s pole position in the aggregation game is starting to resemble Netflix’s infamous head start in subscription streaming. Last week, Verizon unveiled an expansion of its streaming bundle strategy with “myHome,” a program patterned on its myPlan mobile offering that allows customers to pair a discounted streaming subscription with home internet service.
In one sense, this is simply the latest move by Verizon to package SVODs with its telecom services, a growing trend in the streaming bundle space of late. But it also has the potential to plant the company’s stake even more firmly in the territory of SVOD aggregation, in which it is virtually unchallenged among its peers.
A Verizon press release announcing myHome made sure to note customers can “manage even more entertainment subscriptions through +play,” the telco’s virtual marketplace where its customers can manage streaming subscriptions and other monthly plans.
This callout suggests the myHome plan is at least partially intended to funnel Verizon customers to +play — and if it’s not, it should be.
The marketplace is a major advantage for Verizon over its fellow telcos as consumers increasingly look for ways to bundle and consolidate their streaming subscriptions. More than a year since +play launched, none of the other major wireless carriers have shown any indication of following in its wake.
Cellular providers have long offered streaming services as wireless plan perks, of course; T-Mobile led that charge with the introduction of “Netflix on Us” way back in 2017. But Verizon is so far the only major carrier to provide an avenue for its customers to manage à la carte SVOD plans — and it’s reaping the rewards for it.
Verizon’s gross postpaid phone additions have been up year-over-year each quarter since Q1 2023, when +play was introduced. This does not necessarily prove +play alone was responsible for the influx; myPlan, with its bevy of streaming-related perks, has also proven extremely popular, drawing more than 13 million subscribers in just over six months, as Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said on the company’s January earnings call.
But the fact remains that packaging streaming subscriptions with cellular is clearly an effective tool for drawing in customers, who can then be directed to +play to manage and potentially add to those subscriptions.
Verizon, furthermore, is building itself into the type of interconnected aggregator consumers want for the future.
Surveys have consistently shown that streaming users are eager for a unified platform to manage their subscriptions, with a recent poll by Hub Research finding 74% of consumers surveyed would consider such a service “appealing.”
Surveys have also shown that cellular and broadband providers are considered leading candidates to offer such a service.
In another Hub study earlier this year, “high-speed home internet” was the most common selection for inclusion in consumers’ “ideal” bundle, chosen by 71% of those surveyed. When asked which company offering this bundle would make them most likely to sign up, AT&T and Verizon notched third and fourth place, respectively, just behind Netflix and Amazon.
Now Verizon is offering just such a bundle with myHome, which allows customers to combine an internet plan with one of several streaming options — including the Disney bundle, a discounted Netflix-Max bundle and a Walmart+ subscription that includes Paramount+ access — and, of course, provides that crucial gateway to +play.
While other broadband providers are offering streaming packages as well, Verizon is clearly establishing itself as the dominant one-stop shop for consumers’ most cherished subscriptions — internet, cellular and SVOD. And until its rivals, or even other would-be SVOD aggregators, can start catching up, that dominance is going to hold.
