Verizon adds Hulu, ESPN+, Disney+ bundle to some cell plans

On Monday, Verizon announced a new update to its unlimited plans, allowing for a free 12 months Disney Plus access as well as access to Hulu and ESPN Plus, if customers are on either the Play More or Get More unlimited plans. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Roberts joins The Final Round to discuss the details and what it means for both Verizon Media and Disney.

Video Transcript

DAN ROBERTS: Verizon, which, of course, is our parent company, announcing that it has added ESPN+ and Hulu, which, of course, is now majority owned by Disney, to its existing bundle with Disney+ for Verizon Wireless unlimited subscribers. Now the reason that's interesting to me, if you Zoom out, there's a larger trend here of the telecom giants realizing that they've got to bundle some kind of TV streaming app. That is becoming table stakes for them.

One exception-- you don't see Amazon Prime Video being offered in any telecom bundles, which, of course, makes sense, because Amazon is on its own, standing over here. And they're still trying to juice Prime subscriptions. And they're not about to let anyone bundle with Prime Video.

But you look at Verizon, our parent company, they're now offering Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu to subscribers for a year. Meanwhile, AT&T offering HBO Now or HBO Max-- the names change every week with the branding there.

But AT&T, obviously, the difference that that's Time Warner. AT&T, they own HBO Max. But that's now offered as a bundle for AT&T subscribers. Even T-Mobile offers Netflix to sell subscribers.

So the point being, I think you're going to see more of this, where all of the big telecom giants have to have some kind of TV app bundle. And then in contrast, there is Amazon. It's just a fun exercise to wonder how much Amazon could kind of get for a Prime Video-only subscription.

INES FERRE: And Dan, just zooming out on that, also this bundling theme that we're seeing now, because we just had seen a report recently that Apple also is planning to do a bundle of some of its services. So certainly, it seems like companies are looking at this bundling model and seeing that it's working. I mean, this Needham note is saying that for the Amazon Prime subscribers, that 80% are subscribing to it for the shipping, but 20% use it for other services, like Prime Video. So you can expect to see, as you were just noting, more of these bundling offers.

MELODY HAHM: Yeah, and then just thinking about, Dan, to address your earlier point, they do still offer just the video subscription component. Those memberships are at $13 a month, as I understand it. So it does put it up there with the HBOs of the world.

And kind of just the bird's eye view of our entire conversation is Amazon is really the only formidable player where it's not just a content, play? To Ines, your point of that 80% number, that is such a huge advantage that none of the others play-- other players have. The only way that a Netflix customer will sign up for Netflix is because they want to watch a movie or a show.

Whereas Amazon Prime, for me, when I'm perusing, I'm like oh my goodness, I forgot I had access to a video. Let me see what is on the docket right now. And I just checked before the show. "Ktown Cowboys" is a new movie that I've been wanting to see. I did binge the Greg Daniels show called "Upload." I had no idea-- I don't know if it was even part of the cultural zeitgeist. But the way in which I am able to actually see that as an option as another way for me to interact with the Amazon ecosystem, that is really a leg up that Amazon has that, to Laura Martin's point, I think was kind of not as talked about or focused upon, especially as we've been focusing so much of our attention on all the new players in this space.

DAN ROBERTS: Well, and Melody, I think you're right, that it's such a huge advantage for Amazon that Prime subscriptions-- which, really, the biggest sweetener is the shipping and the deals there-- comes along with the TV. They go hand in hand. But because of that, it's really hard to make apples to apples comparisons with the other streaming apps, right?

Whenever we get some kind of update or whenever one of our peer publications or us at Yahoo Finance try to lay out here's where the streaming wars stand, here's how many subscribers every app has, it's sort of like you want to put an asterisk next to Amazon Prime because, well, that's really not just a TV subscription-- even though, as you said, I guess they do still offer the standalone. And yet, even though it's hard to make that apples to apples comparison, I do think you draw a good point about the kitchen sink. And I think in that way, Amazon Prime Video is very comparable to Netflix in the sense that since you already have it, there is a lot of organic discovery where you say, well, you know, I'm already getting it, so let's see what they have.

Hmm, I'll watch this thing. I'll watch this thing, even if Amazon Prime Video might not have as many, arguably, debatably, of those must-subscribe-for-shows, whereas Hulu and others have certain shows that if you want to watch that one show, you might be willing to pay for the streaming app just to see that show.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it certainly is interesting, just the strength of their ecosystem. Because I feel like so often when we talk about ecosystems, we mainly focus on Apple because of all of their different services and their products and the importance of that there. But obviously, as it's laid out right here in Laura Martin's note, it's extremely important to Amazon. It, again, gives it a huge leg up against a lot of its competitors, like you guys were just saying.

But Melody, I was laughing to myself when you were talking about how you don't necessarily think of Prime right away and all the streaming shows because when I was going to bed last night, I actually just remembered that I didn't watch the last season "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." So that's what I have spent some time doing. But, to your point, it's not necessarily the first thing you think of when you're sitting down to watch something on TV.