Bundle deal with Netflix? When did this start to be a thing...

Just before taking the recycling out, today's falls-apart-in-your-hands advertising flyer dropped a Verizon one-pager onto the floor. They're offering a bundle deal that includes a year of free Netflix ("already have it? We'll pay for a year more of it!"), which is neither HBO, Showtime, or any of 6,000 sports networks the rest of us cable customers already pay for many times over.

Maybe I just haven't noticed it before (because usually I have a tighter hold on my advertising supplements that go straight to the recycling), but this seems like a shift in the fabric of the media universe. It's like the big guys reading the handwriting on the wall. Sort of like, sign up at your grocery for a coupon card, get $50.00 of PeaPod services thrown in. :Shrug:

Yeah, I know Netflix has pretty-well penetrated the marketplace, with apps all over your smart tv's, in your DVR's, on my Oppo (and holy smokes, there's even a button for it on the Oppo remote!), but...this is new, innit...?

 

If I saw a flyer like that, I'd have four questions.

• When to bend over?
• How far to bend over?
• When we bend, do we spread?
• Who's got the Crisco?

 

Loretta's got the crisco. She's making chicken, and I helped....