Altice U.S. telecom provider Optimum has signed a licensing agreement with tech company Bango for the launch of a new subscription management platform, the companies announced on Tuesday.
As part of the deal, Optimum will use a white label version of Bango’s Digital Vending Machine to develop its own subscription management platform, which will allow cable TV and broadband Internet customers to start and stop membership to different services.
While the partnership was officially announced this week, it actually stretches back several weeks, with Optimum offering a six-month trial of Disney Plus and Hulu to its Optimum TV and Internet customers. The offering was rooted in a newly-announced streaming portal that Optimum planned to build out in the coming months. The Desk previously reported that the streaming portal, as described, resembled the type of platform that Bango helps support through its Digital Vending Machine.
On Tuesday, Bango confirmed it was working with Optimum on the platform, and that the Disney-Hulu offer would be “the first of many that the company plans to bring to customers,” with more streaming platforms and subscription services to be announced later.
“We’re delighted to partner with Optimum to bring these exciting offers to life,” Anil Malhotra, the Chief Marketing Officer at Bango, said in a statement. “The Digital Vending Machine empowers Bango partners to innovate through subscription bundling and to scale quickly, delivering high-impact offers that increase customer satisfaction and business growth.”
Optimum is the latest partner to take advantage of Bango’s Digital Vending Machine to develop and launch its own subscription management platform. Other companies that also use Bango’s services include Verizon, Comcast, Optus and Telenet.
The Digital Vending Machine allows service-based providers to sell direct subscriptions and unique bundles to a variety of services, including Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Fox Nation, Uber One and Nord Security.
Bango has conducted a number of consumer studies over the past few years that reveal a desire by most to start and stop subscriptions from a single platform, and to bundle services with an eye toward convenience and cost.
In March, Bango released a study that showed the typical American household has around five streaming subscriptions, of which two are typically purchased through a bundle — either one offered through Bango’s Digital Vending Machine, or through another product.
Their studies are complemented by independent surveys, which reflect many of the same findings. Earlier this week, Hub Entertainment Research released a new report that showed bundles were helping to boost the subscription video economy. Americans typically had access to six premium subscription-based video services when they purchased at least two of them through a bundle, Hub reported; by comparison, streamers who opted for direct billing typically had around three subscription video services.
