Bundling is back. Following the cord-cutting that led to a decline in content subscriptions, consumers now indicate they want multi-service deals, with discounts and choice as to what type of content is included. A new study from Hub Entertainment Research indicates that traditional SVODs have declined overall in household usage while areas such as gaming, music, podcasts and social media have increased. “TV is no longer the center of the entertainment universe,” the study suggests, noting premium video only accounts for about 6.3 percent of consumers’ total entertainment sources.

That shifting dynamic intensifies among the under-35 population, Advanced Television points out, noting that while young people consume more media overall, they “use more non-video sources (9.1 percent) than video (7.4 percent).”

But given the chance to build their own bundle, the average respondent among all ages goes “beyond just video,” finds Hub’s semi-annual “Battle Royale” study.

“Presented with a choice of 16 different services, including streaming video on demand (SVODs), music and gaming subscriptions, and non-entertainment options like mobile phone plans and home Internet, participants clearly preferred a diversified entertainment package,” NewscastStudio reports. “High-speed Internet and mobile phone plans were among the top choices, with 71 percent and 52 percent of respondents including these in their bundles, respectively.”

Netflix fell between the two, at 65 percent, making it “the only streaming platform to make it into the top 5” bundling choices, Advanced Television writes, adding that “43 percent chose a streaming music subscription” and that streaming music was preferred as part of a bundle to some major platforms.

The study found strong consumer interest in Paramount+ bundled with Peacock.

People said they would prefer a bundle from Netflix than from any other company, putting it ahead of No. 2 Amazon and No. 3 AT&T even though those brands are “already known to consumers as aggregators,” explains the study. Verizon was in fourth place, followed by Xfinity, then YouTube.

Corporate efforts to satisfy the renewed interest in bundling “promise to improve the precarious economics of streaming services by reducing the hefty marketing costs of acquiring subscribers, improving consumer satisfaction, reducing the high rates that consumers churn in and out of services and potentially improving the reach of their advertising efforts,” TV Technology reports.

However, “as the pay TV industry learned in the last decades not every bundle is a recipe for success,” with “bloated, ill-conceived” and overpriced content bundles potentially “a recipe for disaster.”