Customer acquisition: How co-opetition and multi-party bundles drive subscription growth

It’s more than a trend, this is the future.  Co-opetition, frenemies, call it what you will, the fight for customer acquisition and the fight against churn, is creating some unexpected partnerships in the world of subscription services.  Technology is pulling down the walls and flattening out the playing field, a field where once companies competed, are now working in tandem in a new generation of collaboration. 

Subscribers now take an average of 5.4 subscriptions. However, the rise of partnerships and bundling, mean that over 30% of those subscriptions are now bought from third parties.  

This is the bundle economy.  

Customer acquisition through indirect channels 

Driven by a need to continuously find new customers, subscriptions services are becoming more reliant on third-party channels for distribution.  Omdia report that 28.8% of Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) are now purchased through indirect channels – telco and non-telco bundling.  Antenna report that over 90% of specialist SVOD in the US are now sold through indirect channels.  

In the latest Bango survey of over 200 subscription executives, Gravity Shift, 91% of subscription leaders agree that successful acquisition now requires both direct and indirect channels. More than three-quarters (77%) say they’re prioritizing indirect strategies this year, and 82% plan to increase their investment in them. 

Emerging trend: co-opetition

If we could dial back the clock just a few years, we might have found it inconceivable that two giant services that compete for our attention and subscription money, could possibly bundle together. Netflix and HBO Max do exactly that.   

Offered by a leading US mobile operator, the Netflix & HBO Max (with ads) costs subscribers just $10, a huge monthly saving of nearly a $7.   

StreamSaver™  

The Comcast Xfinity StreamSaver, now part of StreamStore, combines AppleTV+, Netflix and Peacock ad tier products for $15.99, saving over 30% if they were bought individually. 

Selling competitor products 

Another example equally unimaginable just a few years ago is Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, bringing together the Warner Brothers Discovery and Disney companies in an unexpected collaboration.  

Significantly in this example, we see competitors selling each other’s products. Each service offers this discounted 3-way multi-party bundle, starting at $16.99, from within their own service and website.  Visit either of HBO Max, Disney+ or Hulu, and subscribers can take the offer.

Co-opetition – not just for streamers

Finally, to look at a few collaborations and bundles from outside the world of streaming.  

Amazon offer Grubhub+ as hard bundle (included free) to its Prime subscribers in the US, which saves Prime subscribers on $120 of fees a year.  

In the world of gaming, platforms who own specific titles could open new revenue streams via bundling partnerships.  Xbox Game Pass and EA Play are related services, with EA Play being included with both Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. This means that subscribers to Game Pass get access to the EA Play library of games, discounts, and other benefits at no extra cost. 

The music, sports news and talk service SiriusXM bundles with FoxNation at around a third of the combined price.  

Subscribers love bundles 

In a recent study by Hub Research (Source: Best Bundle 2025), data shows that for many of the major subscription services, like Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video, the top reason for subscribing to these services was because they were included in a bundle.  

Customer acquisition through bundling  

It’s clear that subscription services, once fierce competitors in many cases, are now collaborating to create additional value for subscriptions, in the pursuit of new customer acquisition.    

The Digital Vending Machine® (DVM™) from Bango is making it easier for companies to collaborate and bundle each other’s service, and this new era of collaboration between services has never been easier.