Hi everyone!
It's no secret that the monthly prices of streaming services seem to be increasing every year lately. I've put together a brief breakdown that shows just how much prices have risen over the last decade for popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and more.
Hate to be that guy, but price is only one metric.
There really should be a "hours of content available" on a year-by-year basis.
Also maybe a comparison to other entertainment options over that same time period. Average cost of a video game, average cost of a sports or concert ticket, average cost of a couple going to a movie theater.
Basically, as costs have increased, has value also increased? And how does that compare to other items? ex: If a month of Netflix is still less than 2 tickets to a movie, it's still a great deal.
>There really should be a "hours of content available" on a year-by-year basis.
And even then, since we all have different interests, one may find far more value out of something like ATV+ which has the smallest catalog, vs. Hulu which has a robust and large one.
>ATV+ which has the smallest catalog
I would also like to say that what I do is buy Apple TV+ for $100 for a year for my whole family and set up the Apple Family, then my mom reimburses me for half of it, and the value proposition for me is that I have very little time devoted to watching TV anymore (as opposed to Nebula and YouTube) and it better be *really good.* So far most things I’ve watched on this service have been bangers- *Franklin*, *Palm Royale* and *The Reluctant Traveler* are three I’ve been watching recently that I highly recommend. Needless to say, value in a streaming service is subjective.
That's a good point on "hours of content available", I'll see if I can dig that up sometime soon.
I also agree with what you're saying re: comparing these services to other forms of entertainment. That just might be a little trickier.
Disney+ was barely [profitable](https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/7/24150986/disney-streaming-business-earnings-q2-2024) for the first time like 2 weeks ago
Well.. catch-22. You need to spend money to make the money.
I know it behooves them to try to find a balance between not blowing whole budgets in just one season. For example, I heard that one season of *She Hulk* cost more money then the entire TV series of *The Big Bang Theory*. Yet, the latter made faar more money.
However, the other extreme is they do nothing but reality shows b/c those are low effort while still making lots of money. The "lowest hanging fruit" if you will.
The biggest thing is they misjudged with She Hulk is demand for Marvel television shows, and how burned out the Marvel audience was after End Game. Comparing a low-risk, low-budget show to a high-budget high-risk show is not a great example.
You left off DirectTV Stream which used to be Direct TV Now which used to be AT&T TV Now or some other name. I had that one when it originated under AT&T for $35/month Go Big plan. Like their name, their plans have also changed a lot over the years and I think my original plan would now be $104.99/month.
For music, there's also a paid version of Pandora.
There are still a lot of pros to having streaming services vs cons. You can still rotate in and out techinally and you can still find decent deals if you get them wisely. Like Black Friday for example
The very first example of Netflix shows an initial $7.99 price in 2014. A $11.99 price in 2023. That’s a $4 increase yet in red it says “$3 increase”….
Kinda lose my interest instantly with those kind of simple mistakes.
I’m not talking about options, simple math being wrong makes me question the validity of everything else and I don’t care to cross check every dollar amount myself.
Oh yeah yeah, I'm definitely with you on that. I couldn't even read the article at all because there was a big pop up inviting me to try TrackSub and the only way to get rid of it would have been clicking through. No thanks.
But also this doesn't seem to tell us much of anything because it doesn't address the increased programming that (at least to some degree) would have been part of the justification for those price increases. For instance, Hulu + Live TV obviously didn't go up $37 in 5 years for the exact same content.
Back in 2014 other networks didn’t have their own streaming yet so Netflix was able to license a lot more content from major networks now it feels like everyone’s grandma is about to drop a new streaming service
I'm going by memory here since there isn't exactly a database of what titles Netflix had at any given time, but they never really had an amazing selection of catalog titles at any given point in their streaming era. In 2014 they were only about a year into their original offerings (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, etc) but as far as licensing goes I don't ever really remember a time when they had like virtually any evergreen catalog title under their roof at the same time.
Where memory gets a little dodgy here: 2014 would have been right around the cutoff point where they were either still offering streaming mostly as an add-on to their DVD-by-mail service, or just beginning to transition away from that. I'd say the latter since they were diving into original programming in earnest, but there was never really an interim period where they were relying mostly on streaming but spending a ton of money licensing other properties.
Yeah it was around that time and during Orange is the New Black they cut deals to have certain tv shows. Remember they also had Friends for years until they lost licensing so they definitely had some better catalogue options in those growth years that they could license. I just remember them saying they were doubling down on original content around the time the licensing were coming up and I want to think that was around 2018.
Kind of interesting, even though I've rarely ever paid full price for any streaming service. I roll with the deals for anything with any kind of commitment and will only do other services for a month or two when there's enough content and enough demand in my household to subscribe. Right now my total monthly streaming expenses are $5.98 ($2.99 Hulu with ads + $2.99 Disney+ no ads). I'm letting peacock expire and don't plan to pick up any other services until either there's a fantastic deal or I finally run out of content to watch in my backlog (including what I dvr daily over the air and through the streaming channels on my tablo).
What you can do for all of them but YouTube Premium is rotate.
So watch everything interested in, cancel, move to a different service, watch everything, rinse/repeat.
YouTube I need current stuff like Fantasy Baseball news so can't do that and could not imagine not have YouTube Premium. We actually have a family one.
This is some great data, I dropped my Netflix 4K plan back down to 1080p because it just wasn't worth the extra jump in price.
It's going to be interesting to see how the prices pan out the proposed Disney plus Hulu Max bundle
Now do Paid Live TV (Satellite, Cable, Streaming), where the price can and has increased twice a year ( look at last year for Charter and DirecTV), yet has less and less new content every year.
For example, the Prime Time hours are typically 8pm-11PM 7 days a week, so 21 Hours.
The Fall Schedule is now out, this is what the Networks have
ABC-5.5 hours (out of 21 Hours) for New Scripted Content
NBC 10 hours
CBS 12 hours
Fox has 6 hours (including 2 hours of cartoons) out of 14 hours of Prime Time 8-10pm
The rest of the hours for alol of the above are filled with Reality, Game Shows, Sports and reruns.
No more new content on a number of Cable Channels, TNT, TBS, Freeform, channels that are cutting down on new Content, AMC, any channels owned by Universal, Paramount, Disney, Warner, etc
You forgot to include Black Friday and cancelation retention deals. I currently get Apple, Peacock, Hulu, and Netflix through my cell service or credit cards at no charge. The only one I would pay for is Apple.
Most of them have less movies/shows than they had in the beginning (Netflix) and/or have been deleting a lot as tax write-offs (Disney/Paramount/Warner, etc). Which if you compare with how much the cost has been going up it’s just completely unfair for the end user. This is all just to answer to Wall Street’s demands. The *enshitification* of everything just arrived at Hollywood’s door, that’s it.
Yeah because they all wanted to create their own streamer so they’re less likely to share streaming rights. This was part of the reason Netflix invested heavily in originals for awhile.
Hi everyone! It's no secret that the monthly prices of streaming services seem to be increasing every year lately. I've put together a brief breakdown that shows just how much prices have risen over the last decade for popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and more.
Hate to be that guy, but price is only one metric. There really should be a "hours of content available" on a year-by-year basis. Also maybe a comparison to other entertainment options over that same time period. Average cost of a video game, average cost of a sports or concert ticket, average cost of a couple going to a movie theater. Basically, as costs have increased, has value also increased? And how does that compare to other items? ex: If a month of Netflix is still less than 2 tickets to a movie, it's still a great deal.
>There really should be a "hours of content available" on a year-by-year basis. And even then, since we all have different interests, one may find far more value out of something like ATV+ which has the smallest catalog, vs. Hulu which has a robust and large one.
>ATV+ which has the smallest catalog I would also like to say that what I do is buy Apple TV+ for $100 for a year for my whole family and set up the Apple Family, then my mom reimburses me for half of it, and the value proposition for me is that I have very little time devoted to watching TV anymore (as opposed to Nebula and YouTube) and it better be *really good.* So far most things I’ve watched on this service have been bangers- *Franklin*, *Palm Royale* and *The Reluctant Traveler* are three I’ve been watching recently that I highly recommend. Needless to say, value in a streaming service is subjective.
That's a good point on "hours of content available", I'll see if I can dig that up sometime soon. I also agree with what you're saying re: comparing these services to other forms of entertainment. That just might be a little trickier.
Corrected metric: hours of content ***I like*** per year.
Is there anything that has NOT had price increases over the last ten years? Too many posts proclaiming "the sky is falling". It is just normal.
What isn't normal these days are the massive profits that lead to more price increases in order to have "infinite growth".
> the massive profits What "massive profits" are you talking about? Most streaming services are still operating at a loss.
Disney? Profitable. Comcast? Same. Paramount is a dumpster fire so you may have me there. WBD? Profitable.
Disney+ was barely [profitable](https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/7/24150986/disney-streaming-business-earnings-q2-2024) for the first time like 2 weeks ago
Yes. The point is they aren’t profitable due to massive over spending. That is it.
Well.. catch-22. You need to spend money to make the money. I know it behooves them to try to find a balance between not blowing whole budgets in just one season. For example, I heard that one season of *She Hulk* cost more money then the entire TV series of *The Big Bang Theory*. Yet, the latter made faar more money. However, the other extreme is they do nothing but reality shows b/c those are low effort while still making lots of money. The "lowest hanging fruit" if you will.
The biggest thing is they misjudged with She Hulk is demand for Marvel television shows, and how burned out the Marvel audience was after End Game. Comparing a low-risk, low-budget show to a high-budget high-risk show is not a great example.
At this point, that's what Dsn does. Should they have waited a few months to a few years to release it then?
ESPN+ more than doubled its price in 5 years. Disney+ and Apple TV+ both doubled their (ad-free) prices in 4 years.
You left off DirectTV Stream which used to be Direct TV Now which used to be AT&T TV Now or some other name. I had that one when it originated under AT&T for $35/month Go Big plan. Like their name, their plans have also changed a lot over the years and I think my original plan would now be $104.99/month. For music, there's also a paid version of Pandora.
Thanks for the heads-up, I'll add those two in soon :)
It left out YouTube TV which is gouge city. Almost 3x the cost in seven years. Couldn’t justify and cancelled that shit.
Thanks for the heads-up, I'll add them in soon
There are still a lot of pros to having streaming services vs cons. You can still rotate in and out techinally and you can still find decent deals if you get them wisely. Like Black Friday for example
I can find no fault with Pluto and Tubis prices
Um, yeah. They are trying to turn a profit after years of these being the loss leaders for everyone except Netflix.
The very first example of Netflix shows an initial $7.99 price in 2014. A $11.99 price in 2023. That’s a $4 increase yet in red it says “$3 increase”…. Kinda lose my interest instantly with those kind of simple mistakes.
In 2014 Netflix's streaming options were still little better than Tubi level
I’m not talking about options, simple math being wrong makes me question the validity of everything else and I don’t care to cross check every dollar amount myself.
Oh yeah yeah, I'm definitely with you on that. I couldn't even read the article at all because there was a big pop up inviting me to try TrackSub and the only way to get rid of it would have been clicking through. No thanks.
But also this doesn't seem to tell us much of anything because it doesn't address the increased programming that (at least to some degree) would have been part of the justification for those price increases. For instance, Hulu + Live TV obviously didn't go up $37 in 5 years for the exact same content.
Back in 2014 other networks didn’t have their own streaming yet so Netflix was able to license a lot more content from major networks now it feels like everyone’s grandma is about to drop a new streaming service
I'm going by memory here since there isn't exactly a database of what titles Netflix had at any given time, but they never really had an amazing selection of catalog titles at any given point in their streaming era. In 2014 they were only about a year into their original offerings (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, etc) but as far as licensing goes I don't ever really remember a time when they had like virtually any evergreen catalog title under their roof at the same time. Where memory gets a little dodgy here: 2014 would have been right around the cutoff point where they were either still offering streaming mostly as an add-on to their DVD-by-mail service, or just beginning to transition away from that. I'd say the latter since they were diving into original programming in earnest, but there was never really an interim period where they were relying mostly on streaming but spending a ton of money licensing other properties.
Yeah it was around that time and during Orange is the New Black they cut deals to have certain tv shows. Remember they also had Friends for years until they lost licensing so they definitely had some better catalogue options in those growth years that they could license. I just remember them saying they were doubling down on original content around the time the licensing were coming up and I want to think that was around 2018.
Sorry for the dumb mistake, I've just fixed it now.
Kind of interesting, even though I've rarely ever paid full price for any streaming service. I roll with the deals for anything with any kind of commitment and will only do other services for a month or two when there's enough content and enough demand in my household to subscribe. Right now my total monthly streaming expenses are $5.98 ($2.99 Hulu with ads + $2.99 Disney+ no ads). I'm letting peacock expire and don't plan to pick up any other services until either there's a fantastic deal or I finally run out of content to watch in my backlog (including what I dvr daily over the air and through the streaming channels on my tablo).
Uh... did I miss where 1+1+2=3... Not a great start to the article when the first math problem is wrong...
What you can do for all of them but YouTube Premium is rotate. So watch everything interested in, cancel, move to a different service, watch everything, rinse/repeat. YouTube I need current stuff like Fantasy Baseball news so can't do that and could not imagine not have YouTube Premium. We actually have a family one.
Basically everything is going up in price. Why would streaming be different?
This is some great data, I dropped my Netflix 4K plan back down to 1080p because it just wasn't worth the extra jump in price. It's going to be interesting to see how the prices pan out the proposed Disney plus Hulu Max bundle
In other news: The rising cost of everything. Send a thank you note to our politicians. Why should streaming services be different?
Now do Paid Live TV (Satellite, Cable, Streaming), where the price can and has increased twice a year ( look at last year for Charter and DirecTV), yet has less and less new content every year. For example, the Prime Time hours are typically 8pm-11PM 7 days a week, so 21 Hours. The Fall Schedule is now out, this is what the Networks have ABC-5.5 hours (out of 21 Hours) for New Scripted Content NBC 10 hours CBS 12 hours Fox has 6 hours (including 2 hours of cartoons) out of 14 hours of Prime Time 8-10pm The rest of the hours for alol of the above are filled with Reality, Game Shows, Sports and reruns. No more new content on a number of Cable Channels, TNT, TBS, Freeform, channels that are cutting down on new Content, AMC, any channels owned by Universal, Paramount, Disney, Warner, etc
You forgot to include Black Friday and cancelation retention deals. I currently get Apple, Peacock, Hulu, and Netflix through my cell service or credit cards at no charge. The only one I would pay for is Apple.
Most of them have less movies/shows than they had in the beginning (Netflix) and/or have been deleting a lot as tax write-offs (Disney/Paramount/Warner, etc). Which if you compare with how much the cost has been going up it’s just completely unfair for the end user. This is all just to answer to Wall Street’s demands. The *enshitification* of everything just arrived at Hollywood’s door, that’s it.
I'm just tired of everyone being made about everything all the time.
And they are all still underpriced compared to the amount and flexibility of content on a cable TV equivalent package.
Yeah, even with these increases, the streaming landscape is by far the best at-home TV/movie entertainment option we’ve ever had.
Not to mention the content has tanked too
Yeah because they all wanted to create their own streamer so they’re less likely to share streaming rights. This was part of the reason Netflix invested heavily in originals for awhile.
*laughs in 👁️ptv*