Streaming giants Apple TV Plus and Paramount Plus merging their subscription services would be “great news for consumers”, Jess Kelly has said.
The cost of entertainment subscriptions has recently increased noticeably; Netflix Premium now costs €20.99 a month, Apple TV has increased from €5.99 to €9.99 and Disney is due to up its price from €8.99 to €10.99.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly said all this taken together means many people will “feel the pinch” but an alternative might soon be available.
Staff at Apple and Paramount are in preliminary talks about pairing their services together to create a cheap bundle service to rival Netflix.
“I actually think this is great news for us, the consumer, if that were to happen,” Jess said.
“The reports - and they are reports at the moment - are that Apple and Paramount would bundle their services and bring the costs right down.
“You still may end up paying, say €12 or €13, rather than two separate 10 euro subscriptions - which is still good.”
'Still struggling'
Despite this, Jess said the finances of many companies in the tech industry are far from healthy.
Last year, Twitter and Meta both made significant redundancies and today Spotify announced it will do the same.
“Spotify, which is one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, has just announced that it’s cutting 17% of its workforce, by around 1,500 jobs,” Jess said.
“These companies, although they’re charging us money and although we feel we’re paying out a lot of money every single day of the week, they are still struggling.
“The Chief Executive of the company, Daniel Ek, has just said that they need to take substantial action to right-size their costs.
“So, if that’s Spotify - which is paying out millions of dollars to podcasters like Joe Rogan or to Meghan Markle - and they’re still struggling, it shows that this [subscription] model is [not without problems].”
Newstalk’s Cut-The-Cost series has further details on the best value deals for streaming services.
Main image: A television with video streaming services and a remote control. Picture by: Michael Zech / Alamy Stock Photo
