3 ms·

I would love it for content bundling services to take off. Who wants to maintain 30+ subscriptions to content websites?

ghaff 10y ago
The problem is that, the challenges of assembling and delivering such a bundle aside, now you have a $200 monthly bundled sub that's effectively a next-gen cable bundle.
- smacktoward 10y ago
  If the alternative is 20 $10/month subscriptions, one $200/month one has advantages: only one bill to pay, only one set of credentials to manage, a clearer picture of how much you're actually spending every month on content.
  - Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y ago
    When was the last time you paid a paper bill? Or are you not using credit cards for some reason? I do most of my streaming through a set-top device, so I add credentials once, and ... that's it. If I happen to watch through a browser, then there are password managers, which seems like an appropriate solution for the few that choose to do this. If there were a 'manager' that streamlined all of this, that would be great, but a 'bundler' by definition doesn't let me pick and choose services.
    - yellowapple 10y ago
      > When was the last time you paid a paper bill? Or are you not using credit cards for some reason? Does it matter? Last I checked, the GP's criticisms apply to electronic bills as well. Credit cards make the situation significantly worse, since now you're managing your credit card information (which expires every few years) across 20 sites instead of 1. That's 20 sites that could fall victim to database theft. That's 20 sites that you'd have to trust to not be the thieves themselves. At the very least, that's 20 sites where you'd have to continually update the card numbers and expiration dates and CVVs. One can mitigate the credit card issue by using some "trusted" payment system like PayPal, but you're then still verifying 20 different bills each month, checking them against your PayPal/CC/bank statements, inspecting them for discrepancies, etc. That's made significantly easier when you only need to worry about a single large bill. I agree that a sort of "manager" would be nice. Perhaps some sort of marketplace or metaservice for multimedia subscriptions, where it would combine each service's monthly (or perhaps yearly) cost into a single bill with a single payment method, all itemized and unified.
40acres 10y ago
Do any services like this currently exist? Let's say I want to manage all my subscriptions through a third party that lets me add / drop subscriptions and arrange when I'm billed, along with other features I suppose, does anything like that exist currently?
- daxelrod 10y ago
  I believe that Roku handles billing for various streaming services: https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-do-i-manage-or-cancel-a-subscription https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-do-i-manage-o... . Apple will also do the billing for streaming services that you sign up for via its apps.

ghaff 10y ago

The problem is that, the challenges of assembling and delivering such a bundle aside, now you have a $200 monthly bundled sub that's effectively a next-gen cable bundle.

smacktoward 10y ago
If the alternative is 20 $10/month subscriptions, one $200/month one has advantages: only one bill to pay, only one set of credentials to manage, a clearer picture of how much you're actually spending every month on content.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y ago
  When was the last time you paid a paper bill? Or are you not using credit cards for some reason? I do most of my streaming through a set-top device, so I add credentials once, and ... that's it. If I happen to watch through a browser, then there are password managers, which seems like an appropriate solution for the few that choose to do this. If there were a 'manager' that streamlined all of this, that would be great, but a 'bundler' by definition doesn't let me pick and choose services.
  - yellowapple 10y ago
    > When was the last time you paid a paper bill? Or are you not using credit cards for some reason? Does it matter? Last I checked, the GP's criticisms apply to electronic bills as well. Credit cards make the situation significantly worse, since now you're managing your credit card information (which expires every few years) across 20 sites instead of 1. That's 20 sites that could fall victim to database theft. That's 20 sites that you'd have to trust to not be the thieves themselves. At the very least, that's 20 sites where you'd have to continually update the card numbers and expiration dates and CVVs. One can mitigate the credit card issue by using some "trusted" payment system like PayPal, but you're then still verifying 20 different bills each month, checking them against your PayPal/CC/bank statements, inspecting them for discrepancies, etc. That's made significantly easier when you only need to worry about a single large bill. I agree that a sort of "manager" would be nice. Perhaps some sort of marketplace or metaservice for multimedia subscriptions, where it would combine each service's monthly (or perhaps yearly) cost into a single bill with a single payment method, all itemized and unified.

40acres 10y ago

Do any services like this currently exist? Let's say I want to manage all my subscriptions through a third party that lets me add / drop subscriptions and arrange when I'm billed, along with other features I suppose, does anything like that exist currently?

daxelrod 10y ago
I believe that Roku handles billing for various streaming services: https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-do-i-manage-or-cancel-a-subscription https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-do-i-manage-o... . Apple will also do the billing for streaming services that you sign up for via its apps.