From fatigue to flexibility: how partnerships are powering the next stage of streaming growth

At NXT Media Days Europe, one idea came through clearly: partnerships are no longer side projects in the streaming business. They’ve become central to how growth happens.

Across panels, speakers from leading telcos and platforms agreed that the direct-to-consumer model can’t carry the weight of the subscription economy on its own. Telcos, ISPs and aggregators are now key to unlocking scale. What used to be one-to-one deals are turning into connected ecosystems built for reach, flexibility and retention.

The fatigue myth: consumers aren’t quitting, they’re managing

“Streaming fatigue” was one of the most discussed topics across the two days. Are viewers burned out by too many platforms? The data says no.

New research from our Streaming Squeeze report, which will be released on Nov 5 shows that people are rethinking how they pay for streaming rather than walking away from it. A new type of subscriber is emerging, the “Savvy Subscriber”. Someone who shops around to find the best deal possible, exploring all options available to save a bit of money from bundles. Many are cutting back elsewhere to keep their favorite streaming services. To me, that doesn’t look like abandonment, it looks like better management.

People aren’t canceling streaming. They’re rotating subscriptions, moving between ad tiers and making smarter choices about what stays and what goes. The real issue isn’t fatigue — it’s complexity. Subscribers want value and simplicity. They want all their subscriptions in one place, with one bill and the flexibility to change their mix at any time.

That tension between control and convenience ran through every session, and nowhere more than in the panel on The impact of telco partnerships on Pay TV and streaming growth, featuring Netflix, KPN, Swisscom and Bango.

The new economics of loyalty

Cornelis Kalma, Director of Product & Marketing, TV & Entertainment at KPN, summed it up well:

“We discovered that the real effect of streaming partnerships wasn’t in acquisition — it was in retention.”

That insight sits at the heart of KPN’s Voor Jou (“For You”) loyalty program — a structure that rewards customers for combining mobile, broadband and entertainment.

The program has three tiers. Each step up adds benefits such as a monthly mobile discount, free double data and a rotating choice benefit that can include partners like Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, ESPN, Viaplay and Videoland. Entertainment is swappable: once you select a service, the commitment is 30 days, and after that window you can change your selection. In practice, it feels less like a fixed bundle and more like a personal lineup you can tune as your tastes or viewing requirements change.

At higher tiers, customers unlock broader entertainment options and service perks, turning loyalty into a personalized experience rather than a static discount. The visual below shows the tiering at a glance.

KPN’s approach moves beyond traditional bundling. It replaces “one-size-fits-all” with earned choice, which deepens engagement and makes the value of staying loyal obvious to the customer.

Anchor services still matter but flexibility rules

Ludovic Simoens, Senior Director Partner Marketing EMEA at Netflix, spoke about the challenge of staying essential inside these bundles:

“We don’t take for granted being the anchor service — it takes a lot of energy to stay there.”

For Netflix, that means constant innovation: new content formats, live events and ad-supported tiers that lower the entry barrier without diluting the brand.

For telcos, it’s about giving customers real choice. Services like Swisscom blue TV and KPN now let subscribers switch between streaming partners as often as every month, with some models allowing even finer control after an initial period. That “swappable” approach builds flexibility into loyalty — an experience closer to managing a playlist than a contract.

From hard bundles to dynamic ecosystems

Thomas Rajman, Head of Content Partnerships at Swisscom blue TV, described the shift in simple terms:

“At Swisscom, we went from hard bundles to standalone, then back again. The next phase is dynamic bundling.”

Dynamic bundling is where the real innovation lies. It’s about creating systems that let users add, remove or exchange services with no friction.

That demands more than clever marketing. It needs deep integration in billing, entitlements and customer data so activation and management feel seamless. For many telcos, this kind of flexibility used to take months of engineering. Now, with our product the Digital Vending Machine^®, it can happen in a matter of weeks.

The Digital Vending Machine gives telcos and resellers a standardized way to onboard and manage multiple partners at once, removing the need for custom integrations each time. That’s why speed and scale have become the new competitive edge in partnership growth.

Check out one of our recent Bytesize sessions: Summer of Bundles where Giles and I shared a whole array of innovative ways to bundle:

The power of data and discovery

Discovery is still a challenging part of streaming. Not just finding what to watch but where to watch it and on what service.

As Netflix, KPN and Swisscom noted, recommendation engines are still largely siloed within each service. The next leap will come from partnerships that combine data safely, using privacy-first approaches like data clean rooms, to deliver better experiences without compromising trust.

This idea came up during another session, Streaming fatigue: are consumers overwhelmed by too many platforms?, where speakers discussed how better data collaboration could unlock a new level of personalization.

“With advances in data sharing and privacy-safe environments, we’re moving closer to hyper-personalization that respects the user. The ability to combine telco insight with content behavior will define the next generation of partnerships.” – Marco Frazier, Founder & Managing Partner, Screenplus

When telcos and content providers share intelligence responsibly, everyone benefits. Especially the subscriber.

The future: platforms not projects

Across every discussion at NXT Media Days, one message came through. The industry is moving away from one-off integrations toward scalable, repeatable models.

Telcos aren’t just distribution partners anymore. They’re becoming subscription platforms, hosting entire portfolios of services and creating the infrastructure that makes it easy for content partners to plug in. Aspirations were clearly shared to broaden their suite of offers, looking into security, insurance, retail and more.

• For telcos, it’s about acquisition, retention, pushing up ARPU and driving higher customer lifetime value.
• For streamers, it’s about reaching markets that are better penetrated by major telcos and building stickier relationships that improve retention.
• And for subscribers, it means the freedom of choice and to manage everything in one place.

Partnerships will define the next growth phase for streaming. The ones that win will be built on three things: simplicity, flexibility and scale.

Thanks to Dataxis for putting on a great event once again — and here’s to more collaboration and insight-sharing in 2026.