Streaming Is Getting More Expensive, And These Are The Worst Providers
Streaming has become thedominant home entertainment formatfor the most part. After all, why bother with hundreds of cable channels with nothing on when you can get a streaming subscription to watch what you want, when you want? However, because streaming has effectively become the new normal, streaming service providers have begun looking into ways to have it replace cable in the financial and viewing sense.
According to statistics gathered by theWall Street Journal, the average cost of ad-free streaming is ona major uptick, with projections placing prices 25% higher overall by this time next year. Now that streaming has become the dominant format and nobody wants cable anymore, platform owners have more room to experiment with pricing and see how much they can get away with charging. The primary impetus for these price hikes is recouping years worth of cumulative losses from the time when you could get streaming service on the cheap.
The worst offenders
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence statistics, the average United States streaming household pays around $29.64 monthly for multiple streaming service subscriptions. That’s about twice as high as a multi-streaming package cost in 2018. In all likelihood, the growth of streaming services was heavily accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, where every platform had a captive audience stuck at home in quarantine.
Currently, the three streaming services that have seen the largest price hike since their inception are Hulu, Max, and Netflix. For ad-free streaming plans, Hulu charges $17.99, Max charges $15.99, and Netflix charges $15.49. It’s also worth noting that Disney+ has seen the widest range in ad-free pricing since its launch, originally costing $6.99 versus its current price of $13.99.
The only radical factor in this equation is customer defection, in which users immediately end subscriptions after watching what they want, but providers are researching ways to clamp down on that as well, such as bundling services.
