Movie and music fans can get two of their favorite forms of entertainment as part of a package for a limited time. At the 2018 Coachella Music Festival & Arts Festival last week, MoviePass and iHeartRadio announced a new, three-month promotion. Through this special deal, new subscribers to both platforms will receive access up to four 2-D movies monthly for three months via MoviePass and an extended, free three-month trial to iHeartRadio’s All Access on demand feature for $9.95 a month, billed quarterly.
‘Our existing relationship with iHeartMedia has enabled us to put together this great package deal for movie lovers and music fans,’ said MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe, in a statement. ‘Our goal has always been to deliver the best value to our MoviePass family and by partnering with iHeartRadio, we are able to provide access to two premium subscription services at one low price.’
Apart from this deal, MoviePass offers a movie ticket subscription that allows subscribers to attend up to one movie per day for one low monthly fee. According to MoviePass, the service is now accepted at more than 91 percent of theaters in the U.S., though some theater chains like AMC have spoken out against the service.
iHeartRadio, which is powered by Napster, offers a freemium music listening service. Under the All Access subscription option, subscribers can save songs from the radio to their playlist, instantly replay songs from the radio, listen offline, get unlimited access to millions of songs from the iHeartRadio library, and create an unlimited number of playlists for $9.99 a month. iHeartRadio also offers a Plus subscription with fewer features for $4.99 a month. iHeartRadio is available on more than 200 platforms and 2,000 devices.
‘We reach millions of listeners every day who are looking for great options to meet their film and entertainment needs,’ said Michele Laven, President of Strategic Partnerships at iHeartMedia. ‘MoviePass and iHeartRadio have natural synergies across our respective audiences, so offering a special promotion is a great opportunity for our listeners and their customers, and also for further growth and awareness of both our products and services.’
Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., majority-owner of MoviePass, chairman and CEO Ted Farnsworth also commented on the value of the partnership.
‘The future of entertainment is based on subscription and this subscription is a tremendous value,” said Farnsworth. ‘It’s the first time anyone is combining two leading entertainment platforms across music and movies in one great deal. Today’s new offer will allow both companies to reach a broader audience that is looking to consume their media and entertainment in an exciting new way.’
Deals between entertainment powerhouses seem to be the trend in 2018. Last week Comcast and Netflix announced an expanded partnership, offering Comcast subscribers the ability to subscribe to Netflix from within Xfinity’s X1 platform with Comcast handling the billing for both services. The two companies originally began a partnership in 2016, making Netflix accessible on the X1 cable box.
Spotify and Hulu announced a similar partnership with a new joint subscription called Spotify Premium with Hulu. After an initial three-month trial for $0.99, subscribers will pay $12.99 for both services, which includes Spotify Premium, normally priced at $9.99 a month, and Hulu’s limited commercial plan, normally priced at $7.99 a month. Subscribers who take advantage of the special offer will save about $5 a month.
Insider Take:
Wheeling and dealing is the name of the game as big entertainment players bundle their services together to reach new audiences and to cross-populate existing ones. With a growing number of affordable, subscription-based entertainment options, companies like MoviePass and iHeartRadio need to be able to offer something unique and attractive about their services to attract and retain new customers and deals like this one are a great way to do it.
MoviePass, which has grown exponentially in the last year, is selling like hotcakes – not to make money on subscriptions but by selling subscriber data to other companies. iHeartRadio is smart to connect themselves to this growing company to introduce itself to users who may not be aware of their premium offerings.
