How to Save Money Whipping Your Streaming Services
Like most people, you’re probably subscribed to so many ( too many) streaming services, and yet each of them carries a show you wouldn’t want to miss. With prices rising across the board, the cost of watching all your favorite shows and movies is spiraling out of control, but none of us are going back to traditional cable TV. If you want to save money by continuing to watch all your favorites, it’s time to implement the “churn method”.
How to apply the churning method to streaming services
Subscriber churn is a frequently used term – on the other side of the screen . Streaming services use this metric to measure how many users leave their platform or unsubscribe. However, you can use this method to unsubscribe or pause your streaming service subscription when you know you don’t intend to use it.
Let’s say there’s a two-month hiatus between Marvel shows on Disney+, or a 12-month wait period before Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV+. If you know there’s nothing else to watch on these services, you can cancel your subscription until the shows you’re interested in return.
The goal here is to minimize the money you spend on streaming while maximizing the number of shows and movies you want to watch at the same time. But to do this effectively, you need to know exactly which shows you want to watch and when they will debut on which platform.
How to keep track of what you want to watch
First, watch when the movie or TV show you want to watch airs. This is easy to do with a movie or TV series that drops all the episodes at once, since you only have to mark one day. It gets a little tricky with a show that airs for weeks. If you want to watch the entire series at once, pay attention to the start date and end date. If you don’t mind it later (and if you can avoid spoilers), you can subscribe to the streaming service after the season ends.
Of course, since you’re probably tracking multiple shows across multiple platforms, you’ll need to keep track of all dates. You can add it to your calendar app, use Siri or Google Assistant to help keep track, or use a watchlist service or app—something like JustWatch will help you keep track of the release date of movies and TV shows, and you can tag the content you watch like you are progressing.
Unsubscribe and resubscribe
Your specific subscription and unsubscription will depend on what’s on your personal watchlist and how long it really takes you to gobble up the entire new season of Better Call Saul . Use your calendar as a reference and actively unsubscribe. If you’re only going to use a streaming service for a month, unsubscribe immediately. You will still have access to the service until your month ends, and at the end of the billing cycle, there is one less thing to remember about it.
If you’re planning to sign up for a service for a couple of months, add a reminder to your calendar about when you should cancel the service (and start a new one).
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