Price increases for streaming TV have become a new holiday tradition, as Netflix, Disney + and Hulu raised their subscription prices before 2021. For this reason, the end of the year is a good time to confirm how much you are paying for subscriptions and cancel those you hardly use.
Recent increases in streaming TV prices
Netflix increased the price of its popular standard plan (1080p and two simultaneous streams) from $ 12.99 a month to $ 13.99 per month. Netflix’s premium plan (4K video and four simultaneous streams) increased from $ 15.99 to $ 17.99 per month. These changes are in effect for new and old subscribers. The basic plan, which offers SD streaming and only a single stream, remained unchanged at $ 8.99 a month.
Disney + announced in December that it is increasing the price of the monthly subscription by one dollar, to $ 7.99 per month, and your annual subscription goes up ten dollars, for $ 79.99. The price change takes effect on March 26, 2020, so you can still get a lower price now.
Hulu has another annual increase, this time increasing its live TV product, from $ 54.99 to $ 64.99 per month. The option to watch without commercials increases from $ 60.99 to $ 70.99 per month. Hulu’s VOD-only plans will remain unchanged at $ 5.99 a month with ads and $ 11.99 a month without ads. These changes took effect on December 18, for both existing and new subscribers.
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In addition, at the beginning of the year, YouTube TV announced a colossal 30% monthly increase, from $ 50 to $ 65, which entered into force on July 31.
In addition to other services you may also have, such as:
Is it time for a TV streaming audit?
In all, these increases will likely only affect your overall streaming account for a few dollars, even if you have more than one service (the average person has three pay TV subscriptions) This fact also does not justify obtaining a traditional cable set-top box, which is still very expensive compared to streaming TV (the average cable bill is $ 217.42, according to a decision data survey)
But these fee increases can also increase over time, as all of these services use automatic “perennial” payment and annual renewals via credit card. If you want to cancel, you’ll have to go out of your way to cancel the renewal, which many people don’t do. The danger is that it is easy to ignore these increases over time – just look at Hulu’s $ 25 live TV plan a month in the last years. That’s a lot of money if you’re not paying attention to the cost.
If you’re not sure how much you spend on streaming TV, do a subscription audit: check your credit card bills for subscription services, calculate the cost and decide what you want to cancel or keep – for more information on subscription audits, read this post Lifehacker.
As these services seem to increase by the end of the year, you can set up a corresponding annual subscription audit reminder on your calendar – it can be an easy way to save money.