Amazon to add Starz, MGM+ Merge in Effort to Boost Subscribers
By Movieguide® Contributor
Starz and MGM+ are partnering up in a new 20% discounted bundle offer for U.S. Amazon Prime members in an effort to boost subscribers.
“We are excited to join forces with Amazon to offer Starz together with MGM+ to their millions of customers on Prime Video,” Alison Hoffman, Starz’s president of domestic networks, said. “Starz is a complementary service to general entertainment offerings, so we’re thrilled to see that bundling is now here and believe there will be many more bundling opportunities to come.”
Variety reports this team-up will help Starz, as the network lost 1.1 million domestic subscribers in the last three months of 2022. Lionsgate, who owns Starz, plans to “spin off its film and TV studio and production company from Starz, which it acquired for $4.4 billion in 2016.”
The MGM+/Starz bundle will launch in the next few weeks for $11.99 per month—a 20% discount from the current price of both standalone subscriptions. This deal is only available for Amazon Prime subscribers.
They aren’t the only streamers partnering with other networks to boost subscriptions. Movieguide® previously reported:
Paramount announced on Thursday Feb. 16 that they plan to raise the price of their subscription service Paramount+ in Q3 of 2023.
This move follows an announcement in January that Paramount+ will merge with Showtime, combining the streaming services under the name “Paramount+ with Showtime.”
The motivation behind this price change comes as streaming services across the board try to make streaming more profitable.
“We all know streaming represents incredible value for consumers and the Paramount Plus offering is far from the industry price leader,” CEO Bob Bakish said. “We are on the value end of the pricing spectrum. And so, in 2023, we will raise the prices both for Paramount Plus Premium and Essential.”
The “essential plan with advertising” price will increase from $4.99 per month to $5.99 per month, while the premium version will rise from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month.
Paramount has stated they will focus on producing content based on existing franchises in the coming years. This type of content, such as TOP GUN: MAVERICK, was the streaming service’s largest moneymaker in 2022.
“The higher levels of consumer awareness and built in fan bases associated with [these IPs] drive strong subscriber acquisition volume, lower acquisition costs, lower churn and extend LTVs,” Bakish said.
Bakish later clarified that Paramount would continue to take chances on new IPs despite the focus on current franchises.
Paramount’s price hike is just one of many in the streaming sphere as companies look to improve the profitability of their platforms. Disney+ increased in price at the end of 2022, and Netflix is working to cut down on password sharing.
The popularity of streaming as a whole has started to cool off, with most streaming services bringing in few new subscribers. To keep their platforms profitable, companies may need to focus on the kind of content they produce over simply raising their prices, something Movieguide® has previously reported on.
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