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Roku bundles Starz and Showtime for $17 per month just ahead of Disney+ launch

Simon Cohen
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Before your monthly video streaming budget has been completely consumed by the ever-growing number of choices out there, Roku would like you to consider its new streaming bundle. The company has announced that you can combine Starz and Showtime under a single monthly bill of $17 by subscribing through its Roku Channel. That’s a $3 savings over subscribing to each of these cable offerings separately through platforms like Amazon Prime Channels and Apple TV, or as stand-alone apps. Intriguingly, Roku says that price will never change as long as you stay subscribed.

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Original content is becoming the major calling card for streaming subscription services, reducing the influence that massive library sizes have on people’s decisions to sign up. Starz and Showtime are home to some pretty popular shows like Billions, Homeland, Shameless, Outlander, and Power. However, even at $17 per month, this bundle might not offer enough value to tear folks away from their commitment to giants like Netflix and HBO. Both of these subscription services arguably offer more and better original content — and for less money — than Starz and Showtime.

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Speaking of less money, it’s getting tougher for cable streaming options like Starz and Showtime to justify their high monthly prices, which is likely why they’re experimenting with Roku’s bundle offer. Apple TV+ may not have much in the way of content yet but at just $5 per month (with many getting the service free for the first year), it feels like an easy add-on to an existing Netflix subscription. Then there’s the days-from-launching Disney+ behemoth. With a massive existing content library and some very desirable original productions like The Mandalorian, its $7 per month seems like a huge value by comparison.

If these options weren’t enticing enough, we’re far from done when it comes to streaming services. Within the next six months, we’ll have even more choices: HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi are all headed our way.

With so many competing services, it’s no wonder observers have started to question whether there’s simply too much choice and if we’ve now hit our threshold for streaming fatigue?

If you’re wondering which services are currently offering the best movies and shows, we can help. Here are a few of our roundups from the major providers:

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Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
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