Charter Communications is looking to expand its streaming offerings in 2025, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Known by the brand name Spectrum, the company is the largest cable-TV provider in the United States, and per the report, the telecommunications and media giant plans to unroll a marketing campaign that focuses on streaming bundles by promoting more than 10 streaming platforms to help retain current subscribers and influence new subscribers to sign up.
In the Bloomberg report, the company explains why they are focusing on a 2025 launch:
The company is waiting until next year because it still has to integrate some of the apps into its system, according to Tom Montemagno, executive vice president of programming at Charter. In addition, the market is cluttered today with back-to-school and holiday offers for free streaming services by everyone from telephone companies to grocery stores.
To Montemagno’s point, earlier this month, Kroger, the United States largest traditional supermarket, launched a streaming bundle for Boost by Kroger Plus members that includes ESPN+, Hulu, or Disney+.
It has been a busy time for Charter, as Spectrum TV customers can take advantage of their latest streaming offers:
- Spectrum TV Select includes Disney+
- Paramount+ is now included in Spectrum TV Select & Mi Plan Latino Packages.
- Spectrum TV Select customers can get Peacock Premium for free as part of a recent deal
- Max and Discovery+ will also be offered as part of the company’s new deal with WarnerBros. Discovery
Companies like Spectrum and Comcast are seeing a huge hit in cable TV internet market share, as a recent survey amongst our readers shows that it has dropped to 45%. With the added streaming bundles, the cable TV providers look to attract customers who are tired of paying for various streamers on top of their cable subscriptions.
By providing the extra streaming content, the collective cost of the streaming services that will be included would be a value of $65 per month. Right now, Spectrum costs around $120 per month for more than 150 channels, according to the Bloomberg report. And as of June 2024, there are around 13.3 million pay-TV subscribers which is a decrease of nearly 10% year over year.
With major services included by traditional media companies, Charter also plans to add platforms from new tech companies as well. According to the report, Netflix, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime Video won’t be bundled with pay-TV packages, as the company wants to negotiate deals to sell them separately and offer deals for their +30 million internet subscribers.
With consumer needs shifting and cord cutting still on the rise, the bundle method is seemingly becoming the new norm and customers should expect to see more companies adding streaming offers to their subscriptions and memberships.