• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 13, 2022

Premium streamers will soon need to make tough choices: Continue to spend billions on producing or acquiring TV content and/or start focusing on being profitable.

Walt Disney looks to be taking a "hard" line soon.

Disney has always talked up its streaming bundle, pushing consumers to buy its trio of streamers Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ -- and perhaps it has not been that seamless.

But that bundle, according to Bob Chapek, chief executive officer of Walt Disney, is a really “soft” bundle.

Here is his explanation to Variety: “You know the term soft bundle and hard bundle, right? Soft bundle is... buy all three services for the low price of X. The hard bundle is when things become seamless, and without friction. Right now if you want to go from Hulu to ESPN+ to Disney+, you have to go out of one app to another app. In the future, we may have less friction.

Variety says Chapek was “grinning” a little after this last thought.

Aha! So... is Disney going to merge all these services -- to save money, to speed up profitability? That could be the plan.

Chapek did not elaborate.

In the meantime, we know Disney is working on its highly anticipated advertising-supported option for Disney+ to launch at the end of the year.

Chapek says the company was caught a bit flat-footed in the beginning of its streaming adventures -- which all started up in November 2019 --  in terms of demand for original content for Disney+.

Pandemic-related disruptions also were an issue -- not just for Disney of course, but for all of streaming.

But now, Chapek says Disney has since caught up to the demand of streamers.

Now that Disney has its feet on the ground, the next step will be harder for sure -- finding an easier way for consumers to move around as they access content in the streaming world.

Your TV bundle may come in a less cumbersome carry-all bag. But what will we be giving up?