• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 22, 2024

Charter Spectrum’s groundbreaking Walt Disney carriage deal -- which included Disney+ -- isn’t working out, according to reports.

Only an estimated one million out of 9.5 million subscribers of Charter Signature Select pay TV package have accessed Disney+, according to one report.

That means a lot of wasted carriage expenses for Charter.

So is bundling not always a good thing? Perhaps rolling streaming platforms into still traditional-looking legacy pay TV packages isn’t an entirely smooth experience for consumers. 

Would Charter Corp. -- and Charter consumers -- save money if they didn’t want Disney+: Easily opting out of a streamer for a month or so is now a standard adjustment for modern streaming TV consumers.

There are other concerns, according to analysts. For example, Charter doesn’t allow Disney+ subscribers on its Signature Select package to upgrade to ad-free Disney+.

That means you have to add Disney+ via another streaming distributor. You would then -- in effect -- be paying for two.

All the while, LightShed Partners media analyst Richard Greenfield says Disney is benefiting from getting between $3 and $4/month per subscriber for those 9.5 million, whether they use it or not.  Greenfield also notes that current Charter subscribers may have trouble finding where Disney+ exists on its platform.

Charter believes -- as do others -- that bundling continues to be important, now in the world of streaming -- including now-hybrid linear-streaming packages. 

For those purists, other companies are thinking of streaming-only bundling (which could be attached to broadband and mobile services) like Verizon, T-Mobile.

In addition, companies like Walt Disney are striking their own deals -- for example, a Disney+, Hulu, Max Bundle. Think about other media combination themes when it comes to retail distribution.

Is this good news? Not really. All this to cause massive confusion for consumers -- who sometimes forget where, when and what streamers are accessible to them, given their current media packages.

Even TV Watch was confused and lost when a separate subscription was thought to be necessary to watch an important cycling sports event. As it turns out, Max -- through its sister sports pay TV service Eurosport, via Max’s sister streamer discovery+ -- was packaged on DirectTV with an HBO linear cable TV addition to the bundle.

Got it? (I barely do.)

Truth is, any distribution of linear and/or streaming packages of programming want subscribers to stay around for a long time  -- without “cord-cutting,” without churning (the subtraction or addition or networks/streamers).

That can come with bundling, and the lure of price savings... but only if you commit for a long period of time -- for example, a year.

This builds on the longtime notion of convincing subscribers what a good deal legacy TV networks is -- hundreds of channels for $50- $80 a month.

In essence traditional pay TV companies want to lure those consumers back -- via limited-term price deals. Question is what happens to those deals a year from now. 

Opt-out, stay-in? Or maybe just go all ‘a la carte” and manage streaming and linear on a case by case basis. Modern TV-video consumers may want to be fully in control. If that’s the case,  the business will change again.