Almost nine in ten (88%) of the leading telcos in the United States and the United Kingdom are planning to offer Super Bundling as they prioritize revenue growth and customer retention. That is according to a survey of 115 telco leaders – senior strategic decision makers and budget holders within telecommunications brands – who are eyeing how best to secure their share of a predicted US$600 billion subscriptions market by 2026.
Commissioned by Bango, the survey found that more than eight in ten (82%) telco leaders are convinced that offering Super Bundling and content aggregation is key to customer retention and acquisition. Moreover, almost nine in ten (88%) believe Super Bundling will provide a “vital” source of future revenue.
“The speed at which telcos are moving to implement Super Bundling – in response to consumer demands for greater choice and flexibility – should come as no surprise. Bundling in all its forms – be it free minutes for voice calls to offering streaming sports content – has been a favored tactic of telcos for decades,” the report says.
● THE NEXT STEP FOR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
In the early days, bundling was focused on adding value by bundling call minutes and texts to monthly bills. As the model matured, telcos found they could attract and retain customers by offering subscription services as part of their packages. Today, according to the report, Super Bundling is the next logical step, providing customers with access to a huge range of subscription services – managed through a single content hub – and charged as one monthly bill.
What is more, customers seem to cannot get enough of it. Almost eight in ten (79%) of US consumers say they would be “more loyal” to a telco that provides an all-in-one subscription service. At the same time, more than half (58%) say they would be prepared to leave their current TV, mobile or broadband provider if a Super Bundling platform was offered elsewhere.
As this “third generation” of bundling becomes the norm, experts predict that it could fundamentally alter telco business models for good. This is backed up by the research which found that more than eight in ten (82%) of telco leaders want their organizations to become more than “just” a telco company. At the same time, 84% believe customers should increasingly see them as content providers first and network providers second.
In the United States, for example, Verizon has been making waves with its +play platform which brings together Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and more. Similarly, in Australia, Optus has launched SubHub, providing flexible access to dozens of streaming services and subscriptions.
These platforms go way beyond just video streaming services – offering a huge variety of apps spanning music, healthcare, fitness, productivity, and more. However, the report notes that it is not all plain sailing: in the rush to roll out their own aggregation platforms, some telcos are finding that manually building a Super Bundling content hub from scratch can be complex, time-consuming and not a task that should be undertaken without in-house expertise.
When pressed, telco leaders said they expect to invest on average between US$10-20 million on developing their Super Bundling platform. One in seven (14%) believe it could cost even more than that.