Would you like STARZ with that. Roku is letting its users know that if they want to save money on multiple services they can do so by signing up for Showtime and STARZ for 16.99 per month via the Roku Channel. Until now Roku has been offering access to premium subscription services via the Roku Channel as individual add-ons. The leap to offering package deals actually opens up a new front platform battle. Amazon was first to market with a solution that made a streaming platform into a middleman billing department for services formerly available exclusively through cable when it launched Amazon Channels. Roku quickly followed suit when it added channel subscriptions through the Roku channel and was later joined by Apple, which does the same thing via it “TV” app on IOS products as well as the Apple TV apps for other streaming platforms. Up till now though, no platform has packaged two or more services as a combo.
There is absolutely no reason not to expect to see Roku begin to offer multiple ways to sign up for bundled services through the Roku channel. It has so much to gain via advertising and collecting percentages of the subscription fee from partners not to find more ways to get its huge user base engaged in this way. Roku could offer packages based on its breakdowns in the premium subscription section. Want kids content sign up for the kids and family pack and so on. Sling TV, the cable replacement service specializes in mini packages of channels that allow it to offer inexpensive blocks of programming as add-ons to its core Sling Blue and Sling Orange skinny bundles.
If Roku begins to go in that direction it will be a big game changer as Roku already has the leading smart TV platform in the country and is spreading it throughout the TV watching world. If people can buy a TV that saves them money on premium cable channels it could make a difference between one platform or another.
