• Triple-play bundles now account for only 34% of service packages offered online, down from 41% in 2019
• Triple-play and internet-plus-entertainment double-play bundles together account for roughly 80% of current online offers
• With growing demand for connectivity, internet service is firmly at the core of service bundle offers

Shifting user demand and cost considerations mean triple-play offers now only represent about a third of service bundles marketed online by cable companies and telecom providers, which are increasingly shifting their focus to double-play bundles. Additionally, internet connectivity is now the core feature of the bundles being offered, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s ‘@Home Bundles US’ dataset tracks the pricing, packaging and promotions offered by 11 key competitors in the US market, with service bundles being a key focus of the data and analysis.

Courtney Rudd, Senior Consumer Services Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “The triple-play offer of internet, entertainment and phone service has not disappeared, but service providers are increasingly focusing their marketing on double-play packages. Reasons for this include mobile phone service reducing consumer home phone needs and streaming entertainment services eating into consumer pay-TV needs. The result is less demand for triple-play bundling. If you look at 2020 alone, there was a sharp increase of internet-plus-entertainment and internet-plus-voice bundle offers between March and April and that held steady since.”

Rudd continued: “In the early months of 2021, we are seeing service providers shine the spotlight primarily on two bundle types, with triple-play and internet-plus-entertainment double-play bundles accounting for roughly 80% of online offers.”

During 2019, featured offers for triple-play bundles accounted for roughly 41% of all offers tracked during the year. This percentage dropped in 2020 to 37% of tracked offers. Following this trend, the first two months of 2021 saw triple-play offers marketed online drop to 34% of the online offers tracked.

Rudd added: “Service providers may be varied on the types of bundles they feature online, but one thing is clear: internet will most likely be at the core. So far in 2021, internet-plus-entertainment and internet-plus-voice bundle offers have seen the most uptick in the number of bundles available online when compared with previous years.

“GlobalData research shows that internet-plus-voice offers accounted for 15% of online bundle offers in January and February 2021, up 2% when compared to the full-year 2020 average and up 4% when compared to the 2019 average. Additionally, internet-plus-entertainment bundles accounted for 44% of online bundle offers in January, up 3% and 7% compared to full-year 2020 and 2019 percentages, respectively.”

* Data taken from GlobalData’s @Home US dataset, which is updated monthly