Apple and Paramount Global are the latest streamers to consider a tie-up.
The rival companies are in talks to bundle their two streaming services together and offering the resulting package at discounted prices, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. The discussions are still in the early stages, the report said, and it’s not clear what the final offering would include.
The report boosted shares of Paramount Global in premarket trading by 3.5%. The stock closed Thursday at $14.37, down more than 24% since the start of the year. Apple shares dipped less than 1% from its Thursday close at $189.95, up about 47% for the year.
The Journal report said the companies are talking about offering a bundle of Paramount+ and AppleTV+ that would cost less than separate subscriptions to each service.
Right now, the ad-free tier of Paramount+, which includes Showtime, costs $11.99 per month, raised from $9.99 in June, and the company has said another hike could be coming soon. Apple in October boosted its ad-free tier of AppleTV to $9.99 per month, from $6.99.
The report noted the companies would not be alone in packaging services together. Disney+ and Hulu, for example, are $9.99 per month with ads, and when ESPN+ is included, the three with ads are $14.99 per month. To get the three packaged without ads, the price jumps to $24.99 per month.
Streamers have found that bundling services together reduces audience defections. AppleTV+ and Paramount+ both had a 7% churn rate in October, the Journal reported, higher than the 5.7% average for the industry overall.
In May, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said its Max streaming service could also be paired with another service.
Paramount and Apple did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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