By: Carson Devitt 10/4/23
While many people seem to be making the switch from cable to streaming, it appears that "streamflation" is here to stay. Many services have been continuously raising their prices and some platforms have plans of doing so in the future. Here is a look at where the streaming services prices stand as of October 4th.
Following the end of the Hollywood actor's strike, likely to come in the following weeks, Netflix is planning to increase the cost of their services again. Last Year Netflix raised all of its plans from an ad-free Standard tier to $15.49 per month and a Premium plan to $19.99 per month. Additionally, the company rolled out an ad-supported plan at $6.99 per month and removed its mid-tier basic ad-free plan to $9.99 per month. To increase revenue further, Netflix cracked down on password sharing outside of the main households charging an additional $7.99 per month for each user.
AMC+ is now introducing an ad-supported subscription tier at $4.99 per month and will give users the same access as the $8.99 ad-free version. The ad load is said to be a “light” load limited to less than five minutes per hour.
Discovery + has just increased the price of their monthly subscription in the U.S. from $6.99 to $8.99. Their ad-tier plan will remain the same at $4.99 per month.
Disney Plus and Hulu both have plans to increase their ad-free prices beginning this fall. On October 12th, Disney Plus will cost $13.99 per month, and Hulu’s no-ads tier will be $17.99. Similar to Discovery + the ad-free versions for each of these services will remain at $7.99.
It’s not just the digital streaming platforms that are increasing their rates, but also Spotify. Last fall Apple Music raised its subscription to $10.99 for individual plans and now Spotify will follow suit. All the college music lovers out there, like myself, will also be affected by these price increases. Instead of the Spotify college discount of $5.29, students will be charged $6.35.
Over the past year or so major ad-free streaming services have increased by 25%. All of these continual price increases are leaving streamers with an even harder decision. Do you stick with cable or continue eating the increased costs of streaming subscriptions?
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