In this week’s edition of Five on Friday, The Washington Post partners with Verizon’s +play subscription to attract new readers, and LG wants to transform its business with subscriptions for appliances and televisions. Also, Amazon cut 80 jobs in its pharmacy division, Microsoft brings back their Xbox Game Pass $1 trial deal, and FOX shutters the FOX NOW app.

The Washington Post partners with +play

Verizon continues to add more value to its +play subscription for cell phone users. The Washington Post joined the service as the first major national newspaper. A new offer to +play subscribers gives users an exclusive three-month subscription to The Washington Post for a limited time.

“Offering The Post to Verizon customers on +play is a major milestone for us and shows the true scope of content we have available on +play. We want the services and savings on +play to reflect our customers’ wants and needs, and we know how critical having access to news is. We’re excited to have The Post join +play to give customers choices for news and look forward to what the partnership holds,” Erin McPherson of Verizon said of the partnership.

The partnership gives a free three-months subscription to new Washington Post subscribers. Subscribers get access to the all-access digital subscription, which gives unlimited access on the web and in their apps, 24/7 live news updates, as well as the most comprehensive political and international coverage. The three-month trial offers up to $36 of savings for new subscribers. After the trial, the cost is $12 per 30 days.

The new deal could help bring up subscriber numbers for The Post. According to The Desk, The Post lost about 500,000 subscribers at the end of last year. While it is unclear how many subscribers Verizon +play has, they had around 143.2 million cell phone connections earlier this year. Given a small percentage of those users are also +play members, they have the potential to put a dent in those 500,000 missing subscribers.

LG to offer subscriptions for appliances and televisions

LG hopes to grow and diversify their revenue, and subscriptions just might be the key. In a recent newsroom post, they shared their latest ambitions.

“LG will innovate with a platform-based service business model that continuously generates profits, such as content and services, subscriptions and solutions, to the hardware-oriented businesses, which generate sales and profits at the time of purchase,” the company said in their newsroom post.

The company’s goal overall is to grow their revenue from $51 billion to $78 billion over the next six-and-a-half years. Not only would this come from subscriptions, it could also come from their advertisements, The Register said. In addition, the company aims to get their operating systems from their televisions into other TV brands, as well as other product groups.

LG’s TV business will be the first to move into the subscription model. With the expansion, they will become a media and entertainment service provider, as reported by The Verge. They will start by making changes to their operating system that would allow them to expand not only content, but their services and advertisements.

Not only are they looking to create continuous revenue, but LG wants to expand their service range. The appliance brand hopes to reach into other spaces for the house, which would include maintenance of their products, management and cleaning.

LG has already teased subscription products, showcasing a range of products that evolve with a customer, such as software upgrades to home appliances. At the time, LG wanted their customers to get the feeling of getting a new appliance, without feeling like they actually got one. With their “Evolving Appliances for You” strategy, LG promised they would announce 20 upgradeable appliances in 2022.

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Amazon lays off 80 pharmacy employees

Amazon is once again cutting staff, this time from their pharmacy division. These are the first layoffs since Amazon’s previous 27,000 staff layoffs. The healthcare offshoot laid off pharmacy technicians and team leads, however, registered pharmacists were largely unimpacted.

Previous layoffs from the company have impacted healthcare, but not in large numbers, with the main layoffs hitting Amazon’s devices and grocery divisions. Digital health tools and Halo fitness band units were laid off in Amazon. In January, they cut Amazon Pharmacy program managers, risk compliance managers and billing managers, reports CNBC. In 2022, they shut down their telehealth service, Amazon Care.

At the same time, Amazon has ramped up their healthcare ambitions with the purchase of One Medical and the launch of Amazon Clinic. They seem to be investing their money in healthcare infrastructure, without wanting to pay for healthcare workers.

Amazon started their reach into pharmaceuticals about four years ago, when they acquired PillPack. In 2020, they shifted to Amazon Pharmacy, Semafor shared. Earlier this year, they started offering RxPass, allowing Prime members unlimited prescription medications for $5 per month and would also applying manufacturer coupons at checkout to help customers save their money, according to Neowin.

“Like many businesses, we have been closing monitoring economic conditions and our organizational needs, and have made the decision to adjust resources. As a result, a small number of roles have been eliminated on the Amazon Pharmacy Services team,” a spokesperson for Amazon said in an email.

The company may have enjoyed its most successful Prime Day event ever, but Amazon is still adjusting their strategy to meet their changing needs and economic conditions.

Microsoft brings back Xbox Game Pass deal

Microsoft previously killed off their $1 Game Pass Ultimate trial offer, but have reportedly brought it back. But there’s a catch.

Xbox’s Game Pass trial deal has been around for years, with only small periods of time when it wasn’t  available. The trial lets a user to try the service for $1 for 30 days before they commit to a subscription.  However, in March of this year, the company stopped the introductory offer in order to evaluate different marketing promotions, The Verge shared.

The new trial comes back just after Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass to $16.99 per month. PC subscribers also benefit from the deal, but the price is $9.99 per month after the free trial.

Game Spot noticed another change, and it comes from upgrading from Xbox Live Gold. Instead of having a 1:1 conversion ratio for time on the service, it is now a 3:2 ratio. If a subscriber had 90 days of Xbox Live Gold left, they would only convert to 60 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Microsoft explained in their FAQs.

Speculation is rising on why Microsoft decided to reinstate the deal. Could they have noticed a lower conversion rate for subscribers after removing the trial, or are they trying to increase subscriber counts? Gaming subscriptions have slowed lately, and maybe Microsoft is trying different pricing and promotional strategies.

It’s not that Game Pass isn’t profitable, and Microsoft needs the money. Game Pass reportedly brought in $2.9B in revenue in 2021, making up 18% of Xbox’s total business, according to Forbes. However, it has less than half the subscribers that PlayStation Plus has, according to Dual Shockers.

FOX shuts down FOX NOW App

FOX shut down its TV Everywhere app, FOX NOW, which let users stream episodes of FOX comedies, dramas and animation one day after they aired on the network. All FOX customers, whether they were broadcast, cable or satellite users, were able to utilize the app.

The network notified users by posting on the FOX website. They did not give a reason for shutting down the app, The Desk explained. If a user wanted to continue to enjoy FOX programming, they were directed to other streamers that shared the content, whether it was FOX’s website or Hulu.

“FOX NOW is no longer available; please enjoy these other great apps from FOX. Whether it’s sports, news, local updates, or entertainment content, we want to create deeper engagement and ensure viewers can seamlessly explore and enjoy their favorite content within our ecosystem of brand-specific apps such as FOX Sports, FOX News, FOX Local, and Tubi,” the announcement on the website read.

Pulling the plug for its TV Everywhere app makes FOX the first major television broadcaster to pull support for that type of app. However, this happened after FOX renewed their deal with Disney to offer next-day episodes through Hulu. It is unknown if the terms of the deal meant that FOX NOW had to be sunset.

Most of FOX’s current content is available through their website. However, most viewers will need a TV provider’s credentials to log in. It appears that they offer a “Preview Pass” the first time a viewer visits the site, but that only lasts for an hour, which for most shows, is one episode. There are full seasons of certain content available for free.

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