Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle is really good at keeping customers

Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle is really good at keeping customers
The bundle first launched in summer 2024, and has proved highly successful in keeping its initial wave of subscribers.

Attracting new subscribers is obviously important for every streaming service, but it’s only half the battle. The other half is keeping those viewers engaged. It’s always more expensive to bring new customers to a streamer than it is to keep existing ones, and studies have shown that the longer a person stays with a streaming service, the less likely they are to cancel in the future. That’s why executives at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are likely overjoyed by data shared by The Wall Street Journal this week that shows the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle is quite effective at preventing subscribers from canceling.

Key Details:

• WSJ cites data that shows that the bundle has an early retention rate of around 80%.
• That figure bests even Netflix, which retained 74% of customers over the same time frame.
• Bundles are consistently stickier than individual services thanks in large part to the discount they offer.

The WSJ report cites data from Antenna, which shows that 80% of the first wave of customers who signed up for the bundle when it became available in July of last year were still subscribed in September.
For comparison, only 74% of viewers who subscribed to Netflix in July 2024 were still customers of that streamer in September. Netflix remains the gold standard of streaming customer retention, so the numbers represent a clear accomplishment on the part of the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle. As of December, the bundle had more than 2 million customers overall.
At the time of its launch, the Disney+, Hulu, and Max combo was a historic undertaking. No cross-company streaming bundles like it had been made available to the general public at that time, and it was hoped that the $17 starting price for all three services would attract a large and loyal customer base.
Those hopes have now come to fruition, or so the early data suggests. The discount of nearly 40% off of what viewers would pay to get these streamers separately is no doubt a big draw, as is the availability of titles like “The Pitt,” “The White Lotus,” “The Bear,” “Bluey,” Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and DC titles, and much more all in the same streaming product.
Other surveys have shown that bundling can reduce cancelation rates by 60% or more, thanks to discounts, the availability of content, and the fact that viewers who want to cancel one service in the bundle have to cancel the entire thing. Those factors make them naturally stickier than standalone services, but even Disney and WBD executives probably weren’t expecting their new bundle to be quite this good at keeping viewers engaged.
The Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle is available now, and costs either $17 per month for ad-supported plans to all three services, or $30 if you’d prefer to go ad-free.

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