The trend: Netflix, YouTube, and others are competing to become one-stop hubs for streaming services.

• Amazon is the clear leader and others are trying to catch up: Prime Video has driven at least 49 million subscriptions to other streaming services offered through its interface, per Antenna.
• YouTube Premium subscribers will soon get access to Peacock content as part of a recent deal between the companies. YouTube’s Primetime Channels business also offers subscriptions to streaming services including Paramount+ and HBO Max via YouTube’s interface.
• Netflix is considering making Peacock and Fox One available on its service, per individuals referenced by the New York Times.
• Roku’s channels feature displays various streaming subscription options, driving a 19% subscription increase in Q2, according to Antenna data cited by the NYT.

Zooming in: Becoming a gateway to other services could give platforms more ways to keep viewers within their ecosystems, while giving them a boost to revenues. That opportunity is particularly valuable as rising churn makes retaining subscribers between major releases more difficult.

• 32% of streaming users have signed up for a streaming service to watch specific content and canceled or paused their subscription after watching three or more times in the past year, per CivicScience. That’s up from 22% in 2023.
• Another 27% have canceled one to two times.
• Even Netflix, long considered streaming’s leader, isn’t immune: Viewership of its original series drops significantly after the first season, per internal data cited by Bloomberg, while our data shows that time spent on the platform is relatively flat.

Those engagement challenges are pushing streaming services to look beyond their own content libraries. Partnerships and bundles can broaden what viewers have access to without requiring each provider to supply every must-watch title itself.

42% of consumers were more likely to keep subscribing to a bundled service in 2025 than a standalone subscription, though rising prices could erode that advantage. Becoming the gateway to those offerings could deepen a service’s role in how consumers navigate streaming.

Implications for marketers: The streaming platforms best positioned to compete in a crowded landscape are increasingly those that can offer both original content and access to a broader range of services.

That shift could change how marketers evaluate streaming partners. As audiences move readily between individual services, maintaining consistent reach on any one service becomes more difficult. Platforms that serve as gateways to multiple services could give advertisers access to viewers across a wider range of content and viewing occasions, making the breadth of a platform’s ecosystem another factor to consider alongside audience size and ad capabilities.

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