Price increases for TV streaming have become a new holiday tradition as Netflix, Disney + and Hulu have increased their subscription prices before 2021. For this reason, the end of the year is a good time to confirm how much you pay for subscriptions and cancel the ones you just use.
Recent increases in TV streaming prices
Netflix has increased the price of its popular, standard plan (1080p and two simultaneous streams) from $ 12.99 per month to $ 13.99 per month. Netflix’s premium plan (4K video and four simultaneous streams) has risen from $ 15.99 at $ 17.99 per month. These changes are valid for both new and old subscribers. The basic plan, which offers SD streaming and only one stream, remained unchanged at $ 8.99 per month.
Disney + announced in December that it would increase its monthly subscription price by one dollar to $ 7.99 per month, and its annual subscription increases by ten dollars, up to $ 79.99. The price change will take effect on March 26, 2020, so you could still block a lower price now.
Hulu has another annual increase, this time increasing the live TV product, from USD 54.99 to $ 64.99 per month. The option to watch without ads increases from $ 60.99 to $ 70.99 per month. Hulu’s VOD-only plans will remain unchanged at $ 5.99 per month with ads and $ 11.99 per month with no ads. These changes took effect on December 18, for both existing and new subscribers.
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Also earlier this year, YouTube TV has announced a great one monthly increase of 30%, from 50 USD to 65 USD, which entered into force on 31 July.
This is in addition to other services you may have, such as:
Is it time for a streaming TV audit?
That being said, these increases are likely to affect your overall streaming bill by only a few dollars, even if you have more than one service (the average person has three paid TV subscriptions). Nor does this really make the argument for getting a traditional cable box, which are still very expensive compared to streaming TV (the average cable bill is $ 217.42, according to a decision data survey).
But these rate increases can also add up over time, as these services use all the “evergreen” automatic payments and annual renewals via your credit card. If you want to cancel, you have to do your best to give up renewal and many people don’t. The danger is that it’s easy to overlook these increases over time – just look at Hulu’s live TV plan, which has risen by $ 25 per month in recent years. There is a lot of money if you are not careful about the cost.
If you’re not sure how much you’re spending on TV, you’ll want to do a subscription audit: scan your credit card bills for subscription services, calculate the cost, and decide what to cancel or keep – for more on subscription audits, read this Lifehacker post.
As these services seem to increase at the end of the year, you may want to set up an annual audit reminder of the appropriate subscription on your calendar – it could be an easy way to save money.