DIS
WBD
The bundle era gets a thumbs-up
Warner Bros. Discovery says the Disney bundle isn’t just a flashy marketing gimmick — it’s helping the company do the most important thing in streaming: keep customers around. On Thursday’s second-quarter earnings call, WBD said the bundle has lowered churn and improved subscriber additions.
Why investors should care
If you’re running a streaming business, churn is the sneaky villain in the story. It’s the subscription version of a leaky bucket. WBD’s executives said bundled customers are sticking around longer and showing better engagement than standalone subscribers, which is exactly the kind of data Wall Street likes to hear when everyone is still obsessing over who can build the stickiest streaming empire.
Not just a Disney story
The company also pointed to other bundle experiments — like Verizon’s Max-with-Netflix package in the U.S. and partnerships in Latin America and Europe — as evidence the industry is moving toward “we’re better together” economics. But the Disney relationship remains WBD’s longest-running and apparently most successful collaboration.
The catch: the rest of the quarter wasn’t as pretty
Streaming was the bright spot, with revenue up 10% to $3.08 billion on a constant-currency basis. But total revenue still fell 12% year over year to $8.72 billion, missing analyst expectations. So yes, the bundle is helping. No, it doesn’t magically erase the bigger issues in the cable-and-media machine.
Big picture: if streaming is the race to build a habit, WBD just found evidence that bundles can make the habit stickier — and that’s the kind of math investors don’t mind seeing.