Here’s How Much Each Streaming Service Has Grown Since 2023
Now you don’t have to look far to find a digital subscription to just about anything: from AI chatbots to photo editors, from cloud storage to music streaming, most of us pay multiple monthly subscriptions for access to our content and tools. Moreover, prices for these products, especially streaming services, only move in one direction.
Over time, it can be difficult to remember how many price increases there have been, and they can easily leave you with a significantly higher monthly bill. Here, in cold black and white, are all the price increases for video streaming services we’ve seen over the past 18 months—since January 2023.
Tracking these price increases isn’t an exact science, as sometimes the service you get changes along with the price (for example, you might get a wider selection of movies or access to an additional bundled service), but they are changes. in monthly prices over time. Continue to the end to see what the overall shift was.
All figures mentioned represent monthly payments, although some of these services offer discounts when paying for full years in advance. Monthly price increases often, but not always, match what you’ll pay for the year up front.
Netflix
Netflix’s only price increase during this period came in October 2023, when the cheapest basic plan without ads went up $2 from $9.99 to $11.99, and the most expensive Premium plan went up $3 from $19.99 to $22 $.99. There have been rumors that we will see a further increase sometime in 2024, but there is no official information yet.
Disney+
Like Netflix, Disney+ raised prices in October 2023, with the standard ad-free plan going from $10.99 to $13.99, an increase of $2. This is the only price increase in the US in the last 18 months, and while further price increases before the end of the year are always possible, we haven’t heard anything about it.
Hulu
Disney also owns Hulu, and with the expansion of Disney+ in 2023, standalone Hulu subscriptions have also arrived: the ad-free plan has gone up $3, from $14.99 to $17.99 per month. Hulu + Live TV packages also increased in price by $7, to $76.99 per month with ads and $89.99 without ads.
Max (HBO Max)
Max saw its first price increase in February 2023, with the standard ad-free package increasing by $1 from $14.99 per month to $15.99 per month. This was followed by further price increases in June 2024, with the standard ad-free options and the ultimate 4K ad-free option increasing by $1 per month, to $16.99 and $20.99, respectively.
Paramount+
Last year, monthly prices for Paramount+ increased from $4.99 to $5.99 for the Essential tier and from $9.99 to $11.99 for the ad-free plan with Showtime. In August 2024, the price will increase again: $7.99 for the Essential plan (though only for new subscribers for now) and $12.99 for the Showtime plan.
Peacock
Peacock has given us advance notice of price increases for July and August 2024, with the ad-supported Premium plan down to $7.99 from $5.99 per month and the Premium Plus plan down to $13.99 from $11.99 US dollars. These plans also received an increase in 2023: $1 for the cheaper plan and $2 for the more expensive one.
Apple TV+
In October 2023, Apple TV+ went from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month, following a sharp rise in 2022 (the Apple One package, including Apple TV Plus, went from $16.95 to $19.95 per month at the same time ). So far there have been no rumors of further price increases in 2024.
Amazon Prime Video
In late 2023, Amazon announced that if you don’t want to see ads on Prime Video, it will cost an additional $2.99 on top of your $8.99 monthly subscription (or $14.99 for a shared Prime subscription, which includes Prime Video). . This is the only price increase over the past 18 months.
General
If you were subscribed to all the subscription services we mentioned here at the beginning of 2023 (ignoring bundles, trials and special offers and assuming you signed up for the cheapest plans affected by the increase), you would be paying 76 $.92 per month. At the end of 2024, you will pay $98.91.
That’s close to 30% growth over 18 months, a sign of the pressure on these companies to squeeze more and more money out of the same number of customers. If you’ve noticed that your bank account is getting depleted faster and faster every month, it’s not surprising.
True, for our purposes these figures are simplified. For example, you can bundle Disney+ and Hulu for less money, and some plans have no price changes but new ads. There are also annual plans with different rates, with some tiers remaining the same and others not.
It’s a complex picture, and one that streaming services probably prefer, but it’s clear that price increases have affected virtually every platform in the business. What’s more, they don’t show any signs of stopping, which means you may have to be even more picky about what you sign up for in the future.