Parks Associates research finds 84% of home internet households bundle additional services, highlighting the growing importance of entertainment, partnerships, and customer engagement.

Verizon's latest quarterly results highlight an important shift in how telecommunications providers are approaching growth. Rather than relying primarily on device promotions and aggressive acquisition incentives, Verizon is placing greater emphasis on customer retention, simpler offers, and partnerships that create more value for existing subscribers. The company's Simplicity strategy reflects this direction, focusing on giving consumers more choice while creating opportunities to expand engagement and deepen customer relationships.

In its third-quarter 2026 results, Verizon reported 406,000 postpaid phone net additions and 314,000 broadband net additions. Equipment revenue declined 9%, while promotional acquisition costs fell 41% year over year and promotional retention costs declined 30%. Consumer postpaid phone churn was 0.87%. Together, these results reflect a business increasingly focused on improving the customer experience and finding new ways to deliver value beyond the initial device purchase or connectivity subscription.

The Best Way to Grow Is to Keep Customers

“The best way to grow is to keep customers,” said Alfonso Villanueva, Executive Vice President and CEO Verizon Consumer Group.   Villanueva emphasized that Verizon is working to reduce churn by addressing customer pain points, introducing new offers, and creating additional reasons for subscribers to remain with the company. Cross-selling is an important part of this strategy, allowing Verizon to expand its relationship with customers through entertainment, digital services, and other benefits that complement mobile and broadband connectivity. The approach recognizes that customer loyalty depends on more than competitive pricing or promotional incentives. Providers must deliver reliable services, address frustrations, and continue offering customers something they value.

Verizon's Simplicity strategy builds on this philosophy by giving consumers greater flexibility in how they select and manage services. Simplicity does not necessarily mean fewer options. Instead, it means providing customers with choices that are easy to understand and relevant to their individual needs. The company is introducing new offers across entertainment, family services, productivity, and travel, creating opportunities for customers to add services that fit their interests rather than requiring everyone to purchase the same package.

Entertainment Remains Central to the Bundle

Entertainment continues to be an important part of Verizon's strategy, even as the company expands its offerings into other digital services. Streaming subscriptions are firmly established in consumers' daily lives, but the market has become increasingly fragmented, with households navigating multiple services, changing prices, and different subscription models. Verizon is taking a thoughtful approach to entertainment partnerships, recognizing that consumers have different viewing preferences, budgets, and expectations. The objective is to meet consumers where they are by offering relevant entertainment choices rather than assuming that one package will appeal to every household.

Verizon's Simplicity offerings reflect this approach, with curated packages designed around consumer interests. Its entertainment bundles bring together services such as Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Netflix, HBO Max, and YouTube Premium, while other packages focus on family benefits, AI and productivity tools, and travel services. These offerings provide opportunities for Verizon to introduce customers to additional services while giving them flexibility in deciding which benefits are most valuable.

For streaming companies, partnerships with connectivity providers offer access to established customer relationships and additional opportunities for subscriber acquisition and engagement. For Verizon, entertainment provides another way to strengthen loyalty, increase engagement, and expand the value of its customer relationships. The opportunity goes beyond offering discounted subscriptions. Providers must make it easier for consumers to find, select, and manage entertainment services while ensuring that the offers deliver meaningful value.

Parks Associates Research Highlights the Value of Bundling

Parks Associates' Q2 2026 Home Services Dashboard finds that 84% of US home internet households receive at least one additional bundled service from their internet provider, the highest level recorded in recent years. The research also finds that 69% receive value-added service bundles, while 35% receive traditional pay-TV bundled with home internet. Mobile and broadband convergence continues to expand, with 28% of home internet households bundling these services, up from 25% in Q2 2025.

Entertainment is particularly important among customers combining mobile and home internet services. Parks Associates finds that 43% of these households receive a subscription streaming video service through their internet provider, demonstrating the growing role of entertainment in converged service offerings. The research also identifies a positive relationship between the number of services bundled with home internet and customer Net Promoter Scores, suggesting that relevant service combinations can contribute to a stronger overall customer experience.

These research findings reinforce the opportunity for connectivity providers to move beyond competing solely on broadband speeds, mobile pricing, or device promotions. Consumers increasingly have opportunities to receive entertainment, security, and other connected services through their providers, creating new ways for companies to differentiate their offerings. However, the value of bundling depends on how well those services meet customer needs. Simply adding subscriptions does not guarantee satisfaction or loyalty; providers must deliver useful services that improve convenience and address real household priorities.

Simplicity, Cross-Selling, and Customer Retention

Verizon's emphasis on Simplicity reflects a broader evolution in the telecommunications business model. As consumers keep smartphones longer, providers have fewer opportunities to engage subscribers through device upgrades alone. Entertainment subscriptions, digital services, and other offerings create additional opportunities to interact with customers throughout the relationship. Cross-selling these services can also help providers build a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and deliver offers that are relevant to different households.

At the same time, Verizon's strategy recognizes that retention begins with addressing the fundamentals of the customer experience. Reliable connectivity, transparent pricing, responsive customer service, and straightforward account management remain essential. New offers and partnerships can complement these improvements by giving customers additional reasons to stay, but they cannot replace the need to deliver strong core services. Villanueva's comments about addressing pain points and expanding customer relationships underscore the importance of pursuing both priorities together.

This approach has implications for the broader streaming and connectivity markets. Entertainment partnerships are increasingly becoming part of a larger customer engagement strategy rather than simply a promotional tool for acquiring subscribers. Providers have opportunities to create more flexible packages, introduce relevant services, and make subscription management easier, while streaming companies gain additional distribution channels and access to consumers through existing provider relationships.

The Future of Bundling Is About Choice and Engagement

Verizon's latest results and Simplicity strategy illustrate how the competitive focus is shifting toward customer experience, flexibility, and long-term value. Entertainment remains a critical part of the bundle, but providers are becoming more thoughtful about how they package and deliver these services. Meeting consumers where they are means understanding their interests, offering relevant choices, and making it easier to access the services they want without unnecessary complexity.

For connectivity providers, the opportunity is to strengthen relationships by addressing customer frustrations while expanding the value of their offerings. For streaming companies, it is to develop partnerships that reach consumers through established distribution channels and support ongoing engagement. As Villanueva emphasized, the best way to grow is to keep customers. The next generation of bundling will be defined not simply by how many services providers can offer, but by how effectively those services meet consumer needs and give customers compelling reasons to stay.
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Sources: Verizon, Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results, October 2026; Verizon Simplicity offerings; Parks Associates, Home Services Dashboard, Q2 2026.
Editorial note: Alfonso Villanueva's direct quotation is based on the wording provided. Confirm the exact wording and his preferred title before publication.