Partnering with Peacock won’t put the “plus” back in Apple TV

Today Apple announced that starting October 20, customers will be able to bundle Apple TV and NBCUniversal’s Peacock for 30% off the price of streaming them separately, in what NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Matt Strauss called a “perfect combination of entertainment.” Additionally, each company will add selective programming from the other to its own streaming service to bolster their own content lineups.

But perhaps the deal is yet another tacit acknowledgement that the content each provides just isn’t enough. As we wrote earlier this week, Apple TV recently shed the plus sign in its name at the same time that it, and other streaming services, have notably pulled back on original content. Perhaps they’re partnering up because they don’t have enough to offer on their own. (Alternatively, it’s possible Apple just wants cause more confusion among its product suite with the name change.)

Indeed, it seems like everyone in the streaming space has been bundling services lately as they try to staunch attrition and justify their ever-increasing prices.

Foremost among those is Disney, which, besides offering to bundle Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max for less than the price of two of the services separately, is in the process of merging Hulu and Disney+ into a single app.

Of course, the elephant in the room here is Netflix, which has refused to create a first-party bundle, billing itself instead as a “go-to destination for entertainment thanks to the breadth and variety of our slate and superior product experience.”

But perhaps it shouldn’t discount Americans’ penchant for wanting more services for less. Data from analytics firm Antenna, reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, found that the churn rate for the Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max bundle was somewhat lower than for Netflix alone.

Apple TV may have dropped the plus, but they still know how to do addition.