The app, which allows consumers to manage all their online viewing through a single interface, is betting viewers will pay to simplify their on-demand lives.
Technology company ScreenHits is launching ScreenHits TV, a streaming video aggregator app that lets consumers bundle different services together in a single interface.
The service creates a one-stop electronic programming guide where users can search the libraries of both free and subscription streaming platforms, as well as live online TV without jumping from platform to platform and without having to repeatedly sign up for new services.
Subscribers of SVOD platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, MUBI and other streaming services, including BBC iPlayer, can integrate their existing services within the app, which is set to go live across multiple territories, including the U.S. and the U.K., by the end of this month. Entry-level subscriptions to ScreenHits will start at $1.99/£1.99 per month and will initially be available on Samsung Smart TVs, Amazon Fire Stick, Apple Store, Google Chrome, Android and for the desktop.
Aggregation represents a new front in the streaming industry, which, alongside rapid growth, has seen a proliferation of new players – from Disney+ and AppleTV+ to WarnerMedia's HBO Max, set to launch May 27, and NBCUniversal's Peacock, which is planning a July 15 wide bow.
ScreenHits TV boss Rose Adkins Hulse is betting that this increase in streaming supply is creating a pent-up demand for technology to simplify the experience. "With hundreds of streaming services available, the consumer has too much choice and often gets lost in the vast array of content, creating subscription fatigue and content overload," she says. "The new app helps to streamline the viewing experience ... customers can curate their channels and subscriptions, thus only paying for channels they actually want to watch versus contributing monthly to the channels they never watch."
ScreenHits is not charging services to join its platform, and Adkins Hulse says it will share its customer use data with the streamers.
It is still a matter of debate whether "subscription fatigue" is a real phenomenon and how significant it is. A Deloitte survey from 2019 found that nearly half of U.S. consumers were frustrated that they needed multiple subscriptions to find the shows they wanted to watch. But a study from March of this year by media research firm Kantar did not find clear evidence for subscription fatigue. The Kantar study found that while 52 percent of respondents polled claimed there were too many subscription services, the average streaming consumer already has almost four subscriptions and only 4 percent of new subscriptions were accompanied by the cancellation of another subscription.
