Disney+ X Max are collaborating on a streaming bundle

In a collaboration unseen since Judge Doom attempted to drown Toontown in Dip to make way for a freeway to connect Hollywood to Pasadena, Disney and Warner Bros. are joining forces. Announced via press release today, Disney and Warner Bros will begin offering a streaming bundle in the coming months that combines Disney+, Hulu, and Max in one Netflix-killing package. ABC, CNN, the Snyder Cut, Flip Or Flop, Coyote Vs. ACME, Batgirl, Willow, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are finally under the same roof with ad-supported and ad-free options. While no price was announced, consumers can subscribe from either company’s website. You see that competition does breed innovation.

Described as putting “subscribers first,” the new bundle will create new problems for cable companies and Disney and WB’s main streaming competition, Netflix. The streaming war has begun to subside, and streamers are transitioning from caring about subscribers to caring about revenue. Earlier this year, Netflix announced that subscribers are “just one component” of its growth as it tries to profit off the millions of vaporware movies and shows it releases every five minutes. It seems like Warner Bros. and Disney are following suit. As noted by The Verge, Disney announced this week that its streaming services turned a profit for the first time.

On the one hand, this is probably music to many consumers’ ears, especially if they haven’t already experienced the password crackdown that’s surely coming. Conversely, it’s beginning to look a lot like cable, with its bundled services and inflated prices. Later this year, Disney-owned ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery will release a streaming service for sports that will hopefully clean up the Wild West of sports broadcasts and blackouts but will likely kneecap cable companies. After all, sports are the main reason people subscribe to cable in the first place.

This has been a long time coming in many ways. Lest we forget, Max is the product of a combination of apps owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Some may remember last May when HBO Max, formerly HBO GO, merged with Discovery+ to become Max, the one to watch when you want to watch HBO. Disney, too, has begun bundling Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Deadline notes that the bundles reduce consumer churn, which  occurs when subscribers cancel the service after watching Succession. Thus, the bundle makes it harder for consumers to untangle themselves from subscriptions because they’re locked into a package.

The streaming wars are a closed loop. After a decade of fighting it, streamers are slowly becoming cable. Only this time, just as the prophecies  (a.k.a. this tweet) foretold, it’s completely unregulated.