Nearly one quarter of American households are paying over $100 per month for their streaming entertainment needs, according to a new report released by technology firm Bango on Thursday.

The report, called “Subscriptions Assemble,” revealed the average American household pays for slightly more than five subscription-based streaming services. At least two services in the typical household are part of a subscription bundle, which typically saves consumers money relative to the independent retail cost of each service.

Streamers are also saving money by taking advantage of free or reduced-price subscription services available through indirect means, including through their wireless phone provider or as part of a membership. More than half of Americans now have at least one subscription offering this way, while 34 percent of U.S. households pay to access a streaming service through a retailer like Walmart or Amazon, Bango said.

Bango has long proferred that consumers are attracted to subscription bundles when it makes services easier to manage and when it has the real potential to save them money. That isn’t a coincidence — the company, which has its roots in mobile micropayment technology, has shifted over the past few years to help companies launch their own subscription marketplaces.

Verizon, for instance, utilizes a service offered by Bango called the Digital Vending Machine to power its Plus-Play (stylized as +play) subscription marketplace and management platform. There, Verizon customers on certain eligible wireless phone and home broadband Internet plans can sign up for streaming services like Disney Plus and Hulu, or take advantage of unique bundle opportunities like a plan that pairs the ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery’s Max together at a discounted price.

The benefits to consumers are somewhat obvious: At a time when subscription video service continue to raise their prices, getting one or more streaming services from a company that a customer is already doing business with is kind of a no-brainer, especially if it saves them money. It also saves them the headache of figuring out how to start and stop services, and many of the platforms powered by Bango, including Verizon Plus-Play, bill customers for their streaming subscriptions on the same account as their Verizon service.

But Bango’s Digital Vending Machine doesn’t just provide access to streaming services: The company also connects service-based providers with other subscription offerings, including Apple Music, NordPass and Uber One.

“Our research reveals a major shift in the multi-billion dollar subscription industry,” Paul Larbey, the CEO of Bango, said in a statement on Thursday. “For the first time, America is moving beyond the subscription economy and into a bundle economy — where platforms aren’t competing in isolation but teaming up to offer more value to subscribers.”

That idea is rooted in the name of the report, “Subscriptions Assemble,” because it isn’t about streaming services competing with each other — the industry likes to refer to it as a “streaming war” — but rather about fostering collaboration across different types of streaming services, in a way that is mutually beneficial.

“Streaming platforms, gaming services, and even AI subscriptions are now working together, building on each other’s ecosystems, and tapping into the audiences of telcos, retailers, and even banks,” Larbey noted.

Of course, there is a catch: Many of the companies that offer subscription marketplaces and bundling perks, including Verizon, limit them only to their customers. If someone signs up for the Netflix-Max bundle through Verizon, they lose access to it if they switch to another broadband or wireless provider.

But subscription perks and discounts are not hard to come by these days. T-Mobile has long offered access to Netflix with some of its more-expensive wireless plans, and has offered complementary subscriptions to Vix Plus, Paramount Plus, Hulu and Apple TV Plus over time. Comcast announced a new product last year called Stream Saver (stylized as StreamSaver) that includes Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV Plus for $15 per month (The Desk previously reported Comcast is a Bango client, though the companies have not formally announced their business relationship). Amazon offers a streaming subscription marketplace that sells access to third party video services, and includes GrubHub Plus as part of its Prime membership.

These services are doing more than just increasing customer satisfaction and reducing churn — they’re also addressing the pain of having to juggle different apps and platforms to start and stop subscriptions and memberships.

Sixty-three percent of Americans surveyed by Bango said they want a single app to manage all of their subscriptions and streaming service, and 41 percent said they’re annoyed that they don’t have a single place to manage all of their subscriptions. That includes subscriptions to retail services like Prime and Walmart Plus (which 62 percent of Americans said they currently have), gaming plans (22 percent) even AI tools like the premium version of ChatGPT (9 percent).

“The way Americans pay for, use, and manage subscriptions is undergoing an unprecedented shift,” Larbey said. “Those who move quickly and embrace this change will be best placed to take advantage of the newly emerging bundle economy.”