Bundles: Uncutting cords

We’re entering the Great Rebundling. Netflix is making some customers angry. The streaming service announced on March 16 that it will start [cracking down]( on password-sharing, a morally dubious practice that’s become essential in the streaming economy because, well, there are so many damn streaming services. The history of media is the “rebundling of unbundled bundles,” says Derek Thompson, an Atlantic writer who hosts the podcast Plain English. The television bundle used to be a subscription package of channels bought through a cable or [satellite provider](. Cable was king, peaking at [68 million]( US households in 2000. But with the advent of Netflix, consumers began cord-cutting—shedding their cable subscriptions for individual streaming services. Along came Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, Apple TV… we’re getting overwhelmed just thinking about all of them, not to mention paying for them. We’re entering the Great Rebundling. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Weekly Obsession] Bundles March 23, 2022 Rebundling the bundles --------------------------------------------------------------- Netflix is making some customers angry. The streaming service announced on March 16 that it will start [cracking down]( on password-sharing, a morally dubious practice that’s become essential in the streaming economy because, well, there are so many damn streaming services. The history of media is the “rebundling of unbundled bundles,” says Derek Thompson, an Atlantic writer who hosts the podcast Plain English. The television bundle used to be a subscription package of channels bought through a cable or [satellite provider](. Cable was king, peaking at [68 million]( US households in 2000. But with the advent of Netflix, consumers began cord-cutting—shedding their cable subscriptions for individual streaming services. Along came Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, Apple TV… we’re getting overwhelmed just thinking about all of them, not to mention paying for them. We’re entering the Great Rebundling. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [68 million:]( Number of US households that subscribed to cable TV in 2000, its peak year [20%:]( Share of US households that have cut their cords (figuratively) [222 million:]( Netflix subscribers around the world [67%:]( Disney’s stake in Hulu since buying 21st Century Fox and AT&T’s shares [$69:]( Monthly price of a typical cable bundle in 2015 [$79:]( Monthly price of the full Disney bundle with live TV in 2022 Giphy Cutting the cord --------------------------------------------------------------- Cable was a great deal. For a set price—about $22 in 1995 and about [$69 in 2015]( (the last time the FCC reported this data)—US television watchers bought access to ESPN, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Discovery, Bravo, Food Network, HGTV, and much more. Growing up with cable in the early aughts meant flipping through hundreds of channels, a smorgasbord of pre-programmed television at its apex. By 2024, more than one-third of US households are expected to have cut the cord in favor of some hodgepodge of services. This author has a Roku smart TV, an antenna that gives me access to over-the-air channels like my local ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates. I have my brother’s Netflix, my sister-in-law’s Hulu, and my parents’ cable log-in. Then there’s Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount+, Apple TV+, ESPN+, Discovery+, BET+, FuboTV, and AMC+. Technically, each of these services is a bundle—you pay a set price for a huge library of content. But compared to the mega-bundle nature of cable, the landscape still feels incredibly disaggregated. Plus, if you’re a true TV buff and don’t share passwords, you could be paying close to the cost of the regular cable bundle. Skinny bundles, as they’re called, like Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV piece together a limited smattering of the old cable bundle, which customers can access through a smart TV app. Disney, which owns a wide swath of Hollywood, has started bundling together its multifarious streaming services— Hulu (in which Disney owns a controlling stake), Disney+, and ESPN+ are “The Disney Bundle” and cost $14 a month, $20 a month without ads, and around $75 a month with Hulu’s live TV offering. With Netflix alone costing $15 a month after a recent price hike, the price of the Disney bundle is unavoidably attractive. Quotable “If I was in New York, with a game on TV every night, what incentive is there to get out of the house and go see a game? We have invested millions of dollars in our industry, and we have to protect our investment. If we expose games on national TV, we get paid for that. It helps us live and exist. It helps us pay the players the kind of money they demand. The cable people want our programs, and they want us to give it to them for next to nothing.” — [Irv Levin](, owner of the San Diego Clippers and chairman of the NBA television committee, to The New York Times in 1979 Giphy Pop quiz In what year did HBO debut? 1984197919721981 Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Fun fact! The TV ad industry is still going strong --------------------------------------------------------------- While live, programmed TV’s audience might be shrinking each year, advertisers are still paying their fair share to reach coveted audiences. Even though cord-cutting increases every year, the US TV ad market has stayed stagnant, around $60-70 billion annually, according to [eMarketer](. Live TV, particularly news, sports, and other perennial programs like award shows still have decent viewership. Watch this! Look at cable! --------------------------------------------------------------- With commercials for cable TV like this one from 1990, it’s a wonder anyone signed up in the first place. Take me down this 🐰 hole! When a bundle becomes a trust --------------------------------------------------------------- The US government sued the personal computer giant Microsoft in the late 1990s for bundling its Windows operating system with its Internet Explorer web browser. While bundling is not usually illegal, a federal judge ruled that Microsoft violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Microsoft appealed the ruling, and reached a settlement in 2001. The government, which originally sought to break up Microsoft, instead, under the settlement, forced it to share its application program interface (API) with third parties. While bundles are often consumer friendly, the US Federal Trade Commission says it is [wary of them]( when a monopolist uses “forced buying” or “tie-ins” to make gains in markets where it isn’t already dominant to shut out rivals. Reuters/Brendan McDermid Is the Great Rebundling good for consumers? --------------------------------------------------------------- We asked experts what the future of TV channels looks like. Spoiler: Prepare to bundle up. It’s part of our [Next 10 Years series](, which looks at how industries marked by rapid change are adapting and evolving. [Read now!]( Giphy Poll What’s your streaming service limit? [Click here to vote]( 3 services6 servicesI lost track long ago 💬 let's talk! In last week’s poll about [submarines](, 52% of you said you’d be up for traveling in a sub. 😱 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20bundles&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🎲 [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Scott Nover]( (all-around bundle of joy), edited by [Susan Howson]( (rotates streaming services carefully), and produced by [Jordan Weinstock]( (currently wearing two jackets). [facebook]([twitter]([external-link]( The correct answer to the quiz is 1972. Enjoying the Quartz Weekly Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Weekly Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States