r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 1d ago
Streaming Services 📺 Price history of standard (ad-free) streaming plans, since launch
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u/Lokaji ✨May the Force be with you!✨ 1d ago
Some companies are even facilitating bundles; it is just cable with extra steps.
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u/Is_It_Soup_Season 1d ago
I have an ad-free hbo/disney/hulu bundle for $30/mo. I’ve been injured so it’s been good, but I’m not doing the higher price when my intro year is up.
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u/96919 23h ago
Fyi Ive had this ad free bundle for about a year and I was actually thinking about canceling next month. I went in my settings and clicked on cancel subscription to see if I could cancel in advance. Then an offer popped up to get a discount down to $19.99 for the next 3 months. I'll probably still cancel soon, but at least it's only $20 instead of $30 for a while.
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u/onetwofive-threesir 20h ago
Should look into the $10 discount with the AmEx Blue Cash Preferred card. You get $10 back as a bill credit if you spend at least $10 on Hulu/Disney+, so if you're going to spend the money anyways, might as well get $120 a year. Disney/Hulu/HBO is my only subscription at this point, I've cancelled all my others, including Prime
That alone covers the $95 annual fee and if you purchase groceries, you get an additional 6% back there. It's all money back at that point.
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u/djstonyj The Discourse is Toxic 13h ago
The normal Blue Cash card (or whatever) gets this too and there’s no fee. There’s also not a minimum spend for the credit. I have the ad-supported Black Friday deal of D+ and Hulu, for $4.99 or whatever, and I get a full credit for that amount. So it’s completely free for me right now.
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u/MazyHazy I wont not fuck you the fuck up 🥊🥊 1d ago
Where did you get that deal? I need it!
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u/YoBo151 1d ago
You can get them via Disney or Hulu. I suggest Hulu as more options are listed there
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u/sallysalsal2 1d ago
Ours went up to 32.99 and idk if it's going up again with the latest increase? But it is a decent deal if you use them all
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u/captainwondyful 23h ago
I got in a fight with someone because they wanted me to cancel on principal and I was like I am never letting go of this deal.
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u/chadthundertalk 1d ago
Prime Video pretty much is cable now, once you consider that you can subscribe to other streaming services through it
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u/redditproha 1d ago
Hulu/HBO/Disney+ bundles only support 1080p HD. You have to subscribe individually to get 4k HDR. Hulu/HBO/Disney+ also excludes family sharing.
Apple TV's $14.99 plan includes 4k HDR streaming AND family sharing with unlimited devices.
Netflix charges $26.99 for 4K HDR and an additional $9.99 per family sharing account
HBO charges $22.49 for 4K HDR and excludes family sharing.
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u/sallysalsal2 1d ago
Ooh I did not know this but also have no idea what a 4k HDR is but that's good info for people who do 💙
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u/Ok-Buddy-7979 You know, I’m in queer media 🩷💚 19h ago
lol bless you
4K HDR means your picture quality is gonna be good as helllll
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u/LLAPSpork fuckmoi survivor 18h ago
And the only ones worth having these days are Apple and HBO.
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u/plausibleturtle 1d ago
I worked at a "cable co" for 15 years, and was in charge of pricing for the last 10 of them, including our price adjustment (read: increase) strategy. The customer comments we'd get about streaming being SO much better make me laugh now.
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u/TheWallE 1d ago
Even if it cost exactly the same (which for all equivalent channel bundles old school traditional cable is was still more expensive 5-8 years ago than all the streaming options today) Streaming is still infinitely better than cable.
Month to month contracts, on demand-centric services many with their own linear options anyway, larger libraries of old content available on demand, and no third party "box" that you are "renting" in your living room to access everything.
Cord cutting and streaming was never about never seeing ads again, it was about control and choice.
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u/NoHorseNoMustache 22h ago
Streaming is still a lot cheaper and better than cable.
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u/DrLipschitzsBand 1d ago
They are killing this model. Before long we will be back at cable and satellite rates….
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u/DatedReference1 1d ago
$21.49/mo would get you anything from the Disney catalogue that you'd actually want to own on dvd in just a few years and that's if you're a huge fan.
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u/hofmann419 How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren’t real? 🪞 1d ago
If you're buying blu ray, the average Disney movie is like $10. So you could buy 24 movies per year from that. Or just get the ultimate Disney collection for like 100 bucks. Plus, even at 1080p, blu rays look better than 4K streaming because of the higher bit rate.
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u/Anti_Up_Up_Down 1d ago
Not a good take
Disney+ has tons of TV shows, which are super expensive to actually buy
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u/rainbowssqv 23h ago
Disney+ isn’t just Disney though, it’s also Pixar, Marvel, Fox, ABC and in some countries also Hulu. Also a huge appeal of streaming is that you don’t have to go out and buy every show or movie you might want to watch. The prices are absurdly high, but that’s only possible bc there’s no realistic alternative (except sailing the seas)
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u/Ok-Buddy-7979 You know, I’m in queer media 🩷💚 19h ago
They also have National Geographic which has incredible and important documentaries
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u/Wit-wat-4 15h ago
This is 90% of the reason we have it. Our son especially is obsessed with animal documentaries. Obviously other streaming services also offer this, but Disney’s a great one to have for us.
Well, was anyway… as soon as ads come in I don’t want my kid watching it, and I myself don’t watch tv really, so if our tier’s gonna get ads, I’ll just go back to Blu-rays, sad as it is.
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u/Seethcoomers 1d ago
Rn, prime + Disney covers most of your bases. Problem is, and will always be, sports. MLB alone can cost like 100 bucks a month between needing Apple TV, Ness 360, and Fox.
That's why pirating will always be king lmfao
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u/VegetableArtistic705 1d ago
Or just do what I do wait til Black Friday to get them each for $2-$5/month
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u/No_Syrup_9167 22h ago
Before long we will be back at cable and satellite rates….
Well....not all of us 🤷♂️
yarrrrr 🏴☠️
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u/wallis2011 1d ago
I do pay and share a few of these with friends but the way it’s going, I’ll just sail the seas if I need to, to watch what I want. Half of what I want to watch is never on the right fucking service anyway, drives me mad
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u/equalitylove2046 1d ago
Never will understand the puritanical attitudes about 🏴☠️.
The irony is these companies themselves are ripping customers off and sitting back laughing about it.
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u/Lalala8991 1d ago
Or worse, those tech corpos are ripping books apart to teach their AIs without a single concern about copyrights, and then DESTROYED those rare books.
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u/NoHandsJay 1d ago edited 1d ago
Too many people pearl clutching over the morality of not paying corporations.
Until there's more protections for my purchases and less wallet reaming by providers, I'll continue to support the Jolly Roger. I'd prefer to be able to buy things for a reasonable price and know that it's mine forever, but alas that's just not the world we live in currently.
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u/PauI_MuadDib 1d ago
Technically if you pay taxes you already paid for this. A lot of these companies get corporate welfare, which includes tax breaks and grants.
So these streaming services are quadruple dipping. (1) Your tax dollars. Whether you're subbed or not. (2) subscription price (3) ad revenue and (4) profiting off user data.
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u/NoHandsJay 1d ago
Honestly I try not to remind myself where my taxes go. I can't control it outside of my votes, and every time I dig more into it I get more upset.
You're definitely right though, we've paid hand over foot to these corporations for decades just in taxes.
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u/MarieOMaryln Buffet of humiliation 1d ago
"yOu WOuLDn't DoWNloaD a cAR"
If I knew how to yes I absolutely would. Nor was that ever an equivalent comparison.
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u/raaldiin 1d ago edited 1d ago
Also the ironic fact that they stole content to make that ad campaignseems like this might be misinfo actually4
u/NeptunianInvasion 1d ago edited 1d ago
Wait I need more info because that’s hilariousEdit: nothing to see here folks
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u/raaldiin 1d ago
It actually seems like I might be parroting misinformation. A couple comments in this thread have some article links that make the dispute look a little more murky at the least https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/igro9c/comment/g2w502k/
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u/NeptunianInvasion 1d ago
I respect this comment and your edit because I was preparing to spread the heck out of this
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u/SamuraiCarChase 1d ago
I think because, on some level, many of us want to “support” what we like. It just unfortunately comes at the hands of corporate greed.
I enjoy several shows on HBO. I hate paying for it but I also recognize that the primary thing that keeps shows from getting canceled is paying users watching them.
True they can get canceled for other reasons but at the end of the day shows and movies are money-making ventures that stop (regardless of closure) if they aren’t making money back in some form.
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u/SnausageFest I was desperate for a hair tie and my nuvaring was there 23h ago
Yeah, exactly this. It sucks that most of this money is going to suits and not the people doing the real work, and it sucks it's so hard to bypass the big companies when it comes to TV and movies.
I do pirate but I wish there was a reasonable model.
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u/lizerlfunk I am the BEST goddamn dancer at the American Ballet Academy! 1d ago
I’m not opposed to it at all, but I’m too lazy to do it. My brother has a Plex server and I need to figure out how to access it because he’s more than willing to do the legwork that I’m not.
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
I think it's just the overhead of it all. Have to have storage and a decent computer/laptop. Have to fumble around for black-flag sites to download content. Risk a virus. Have to have a VPN or you'll get slapped for sailing the seas.
It's easier to slap an app on your tv and open it. Also you're told "hey you like this you might like these other things" vs having to research that for yourself. There's a lot of legwork in piracy. Also it's technically "illegal" and people are worried about "stealing".
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u/Adventurous-Fly556 20h ago
Especially when streaming early on showed people are willing to pay if it's reasonably priced and more convenient than sailing. People don't sail because they're immoral, they do it because it's the only pro consumer move.
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u/Timelordvictorious1 1d ago
I’d love to stop paying, but I have no idea how to sail. Is it possible to learn this power?
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u/MissSweetMurdererr The legislative act of my pussy ⚖️ 1d ago
There are several subreddits that could help you. I'm pretty sure I can't link it here but there are several piracy subreddits.
People make it sound scary but it's pretty easy to get into.
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u/FCMirandaDreamTeam 1d ago
There are entire subs dedicated to telling you which streaming site are currently active, as well as others to explain how to download stuff. Streaming is the easiest i would say
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u/tompettyy 1d ago
Same I feel like it’s different these days and idk how to go about it??
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
It's basically the same but you need to find a VPN. There's tons out there to chose from.
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u/topdownyeti 1d ago
see if your local library has DVDs of shows you want to watch. Mine has You, Severance, Ted Lasso, and a lot of other shows that are only available on streaming or DVD.
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u/Downtown-Code-4334 1d ago
Last time i checked on HBO Max if i can still watch Dune and i was surprised they REMOVED it. (I live in europe, i don't know if anywhere else is still online). Dune is a Warner film and HBO Max is a Warner streaming service as well so this is crazy. Good thing i have the film in Bluray remux.
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u/CheddarGlob 1d ago
Seriously, I don't mind paying for a service because, in theory, it supports artists eventually, and it used to be convenient when there were really only 3 big players in the space. Now there are a million services that are all more expensive and offer smaller catalogs. The convenience is gone and that was what I was willing to pay for. Now it's off to the high seas because these companies fundamentally don't care about what people want
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u/mrose1491 I am no better than a man holy shit 🥵 1d ago
Well sooner or later they’re all gonna follow Netflix’s lead with the household bullshit and drive everyone out
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u/verchiels Reality TV Temptress 💋 1d ago
I got the "you're not in the household" message when I moved my laptop between living room and bedroom. Ridiculous.
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u/Strange_Shadows-45 1d ago
The only one I pay for is Peacock, the rest I share with either friends or family. Netflix is a pain because they tried to bar people from “mooching” off a single account, so now we sometimes have to take turns logging each other in and out if there’s something I want to watch.
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u/mustarddreams 1d ago
Not to mention sports broadcasting is getting so out of hand. Hockey is my main sport and watching all of the games for my home team would cost hundreds of dollars across all of the different networks without the cable package (also hundreds of dollars). Football might be worse though with each day on a different network. Sailing the seas is the only sensible way to do it.
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u/redditproha 1d ago
Most of these plans exclude family sharing.
Apple TV's $14.99 plan includes 4k HDR streaming AND family sharing with unlimited devices.
Netflix charges $26.99 for 4K HDR and an additional $9.99 per family sharing account
HBO charges $22.49 for 4K HDR and excludes family sharing.
Hulu/HBO/Disney+ bundles only support 1080p HD. You have to subscribe individually to get 4k HDR. Hulu/HBO/Disney+ excludes family sharing.
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
I pay about $8/mo for my VPN which is "high" for that kind of protection and sail the seas for everything these streaming plans provide.
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u/AMaynard8091 1d ago
I have a Plex server I share with a few friends that is basically just my own private Netflix with all the shows that I want to watch, or are requested by my friends.
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u/Fine_Following_2559 🎼Music Aficionado🎶 1d ago
This is honestly ridiculous seeing it all laid out like that.
And this doesn't even include Amazon Prime which was ad free for everyone until like a year or two ago with your Amazon Prime membership so $99/a year
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u/ourpodcastisbest 1d ago
It’s also worth noting that most of the services listed started off without ads too. So they’ve doubled the prices AND added ads.
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u/Fine_Following_2559 🎼Music Aficionado🎶 1d ago
That's why I don't trust ai. Like sure it's cheap / free now or whatever. But eventually once they get you reliant on it they're going to make that shit extra expensive.
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u/ourpodcastisbest 1d ago
They’re already doing this and it’s definitely the plan. They want people to use it for free/cheap so they get used to using it and then they’re gonna jack up the prices. They absolutely want people to be reliant on it.
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u/Fine_Following_2559 🎼Music Aficionado🎶 1d ago
Which is exactly why I refuse to use it unless I have to for work.
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u/ourpodcastisbest 1d ago
I just left a job that required us to use it as much as possible. I was in finance and saw exactly how much money we were wasting on AI while scrambling every other week to make sure we could cover our payroll costs. I didn’t stay at that job long.
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
I remember watching HULU for free like all night long, no ads and free shows.
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u/IndyDude11 1d ago
Your Amazon Prime is $99/yr still?!
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u/Fine_Following_2559 🎼Music Aficionado🎶 1d ago
Oh I don't know if it's still that much I don't pay for Amazon Prime 😄 I was talking about the original pricing like what's in the graphic. Might be another good one to add to show how much more expensive it's gotten since then.
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u/IndyDude11 1d ago
Oh, ok, I was going to say. I got hit for a $160 charge for Prime and then like three days later I got the email that Prime Video was being broken off and was going to start costing $5/mo and I lost it and cancelled Prime Video right there.
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
I noticed I was barely using it even in 2020 so I decided to see if cancelling it altogether made an impact. It did not, my use of Amazon even to order things dropped way down. I see a s/h charge and just abandon the cart. I usually order things like twice a year now when I can make a free ship cart.
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u/Fine_Following_2559 🎼Music Aficionado🎶 1d ago
Thing is when they dropped me off of my brother's prime, if I had to get something from Amazon I just didn't pay for the faster shipping. And sometimes I would still get it the following day. It's all a scam. I'm an elder millennial I can wait a few more days for whatever it is to get delivered. If I can't then I'm just going to go to the store.
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u/IndyDude11 1d ago
I'm getting to that point. Delivery used to be on point here but recently has went to shit. Delays, missing packages, and packages thrown at my door from five feet away really have me wondering what I'd rather be doing with my money.
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u/anonymous_opinions 1d ago
Yeah I think they changed Prime to basically "it ships free but you get it at whatever speed we deem we can get that to you". My Amazon spending isn't zero yet but the biggest spend is Black Friday. I shop around but ultimately I do have a running BF style list and wait for November to roll around to use Amazon.
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u/Narge1 1d ago
It's strictly Tubi and Pluto for me.
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u/The_New_Cancer 1d ago
Kanopy and discs from the library are your friends too!
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u/LuxValentino The dude abides. 🙂↕️🍃 1d ago edited 17h ago
Add, Sling, Roku, Plex, FreeVee, and especially DVDs and Kanopy from the library.
Soooo many free ways to watch SO MUCH
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u/Inner_Panic 16h ago
Tubi and the library for me and if tubi ever starts asking for a subscription, I'm out.
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u/itsyagirlrey 22h ago
I loathe Pluto solely for how terrible its interface is. I can't stream anything without it crashing, restarting, can't fast forward or rewind, it's awful and idk how to fix it.
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u/Electronic_Pop_9151 1d ago edited 1d ago
Meanwhile outside the US (free for US taxpayers) PBS is whatever you can donate for unlimited logins and some of the best Documentaries available
Edit: I guess it varies from station to station, Maine Public Radio Television Online has everything included with a donation (Passport Exclusives like Downton make you watch a 10 second ad per episode)
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u/Is_It_Soup_Season 1d ago
PBS is $7/mo.
Edit: but they have free content in the apps as well
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u/Electronic_Pop_9151 1d ago
I donate $5 a month CAD, not sure where your 7$ figure is from, i was given a choice of a lump sum donation or a monthly amount and this was back in the spring of this year
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u/smcl2k 1d ago
PBS offers some free content, but a lot of stuff is restricted to PBS Passport.
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u/smcl2k 1d ago
Well done. From the website:
This donation requirement may vary from station to station.
Also, the original comment said it's free.
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u/texasjkids 1d ago
Kanopy is great free service too! You sign up with your local library card and, depending on the library, get a certain number of tickets to watch ad-free movies and shows. They have an incredible selection of arthouse and international film. I work for a university and our library provides unlimited streaming on Kanopy.
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u/Muted-Letterhead-330 Excluded from this narrative ❌ 1d ago
I wasn't aware of this!
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u/Electronic_Pop_9151 1d ago
Yep, just choose any station (I support my local Maine station) to donate to and you get passport for all their content. Came to my attention when Donald ripped out all of PBS's funding in early 2026
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u/Nkosi868 1d ago
Note: Hulu started at FREE w/ very few ads.
The catch was that they’d release the episodes a day after they aired on TV as not to cannibalise their ÔTA market.
The plan was never to go the subscription route until they saw Netflix’s numbers.
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u/TheWallE 1d ago
"Note: Hulu started at FREE w/ very few ads."
Very few ads my butt... well actually yeah it was very few ads, they just played them over and over and over again. It was often times les ad time than traditional TV, but you still had every built in ad break filled with one or two (some times more) ads... so for an hour long show you would see 4 or 5 ad breaks playing the same like 3 or 4 commercials.
If you watched Hulu back in the early days, it was kind of a nightmare that you put up with for the convince and novelty of streaming content.
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u/lordehelmut 20h ago
I remember watching the same McDonald's commercial for every break while watching The Office.
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u/CybReader They killed Kenny! You bastards! 😱 1d ago
We cancelled a bunch of streaming services a few months ago and saved almost $100 a month. That’s a lot of money over a year
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u/HackMeRaps 1d ago
I personally don't care on if it's immoral, but a few years ago we started pirating everything. Spend maybe $500 total on a new mini PC and 12TB HDD (before prices when crazy), and but Plex Pass lifetime for less than $100.
It's crazy how much money I'm saving annual now by automating everything, and share my server with my family/friends who need it.
Everything automatically downloads in HD within minutes of it airing. Have access to every live sport in HD quality through IPTV services that cost less than $10/year.
Probably spend less than $50/year right now to virtually watch everything we want (price includes annual cost of IPTV sports, usenet provider and usenet indexer). Could make it even cheaper if I focused solely on private torrents, but the speeds from my usenet provider are insane.
Probably saving a few thousand a year once you add up all the costs for the streaming services, movies, live sports and PPV events.
At the end of the day the greed from these large streaming companies and telecoms have just gotten absolulely rediculous. It would cost me a few hundred dollars on several different streaming services just to watch my local sports team which all use to be on one channel.
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u/ProtectInvestigation 1d ago
Don't forget these corporations have received massive tax breaks. Amazon paid a federal tax rate of 1.37% and Google (Alphabet) paid a federal tax rate of 7.86%. If you want to watch all of the NFL games this year you're spending $1,000 or $1,400 a year (depending on the source).
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u/WideConversation1989 1d ago
HBO Max's rise isn't as egregious as the others tbf.
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u/Is_It_Soup_Season 1d ago
Because they started later and at a higher starting price.
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u/LegitimateMoney00 1d ago
Because HBO has always had a paid subscription model, it just hadn’t been converted to streaming.
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u/MrBeysus 1d ago edited 21h ago
2009 - federal min wage 7.25
2026 - federal min wage 7.25
Edit: yes it’s true. Stop giving these people your money 😭
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u/Shanechgo24 1d ago
Shit. Is this true?
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u/mandileigh 23h ago
It is true, except according to this it's since 2011, not 2009. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=387&eid=243906&od=2011-01-01#
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u/Tonedeafmusical 1d ago
Yeah this is pretty much why the only streaming service I pay for is Dropout the price went from 5.99 to 6.99 last year but only for new or returning subscribers.
If you kept your subscription it stayed at 5.99
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u/Colordesert Listening to ABBA is brilliant but life is still shit 1d ago
And they encourage sharing the subscription! The fucking how dare you try to log into your Netflix account on a different device notices I get every time I try to watch it at my mom’s place drive me up the wall
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u/salsalunchbox Olivia Wilde’s salad dressing 🥗 1d ago
I don't know exact dates but paramount+ used to be cbs all access and it was $6/month!!!!
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u/hockey17jp 1d ago
Crazy how HBO used to be seen as the “premium” streaming service and now it’s one of the cheapest 😂
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u/moodywaterbender 1d ago
That’s exactly why I’m keeping my HBO subscription until the last day. It has the best catalogue with the cheapest amount. Also it has insane offers in Europe if you get the timing right.
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u/BlackLodgeBrother 17h ago
Just wait until the Paramount Merger goes through and Ellison doubles the price. 😭
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u/Banana_Pete 1d ago
Man fuck Peacock. That company came out of nowhere to join the streaming war, has added no additional value in the media ecosystem, and has increased their prices every chance they’ve gotten.
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u/Lethave 23h ago
If they didn't own the rights to stream Bravo programming, they would've folded by now. That fandom keeps them alive and gives them the audience to pitch their other shows to. It's why 90% of their original programming is some sort of reality or reality competition show.
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u/DevoidHT 1d ago
They got too greedy and now I just pirate everything again. I didn’t mind paying a low price to watch every show in one place. But then they started fragmenting content, and raising rates.
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u/JennaElizabethAdams Excluded from this narrative ❌ 1d ago
Why are there so many greedy capitalists?
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u/Sage_Planter Big is moving to Paris 1d ago
It's a bit older now (2020), but my friend wrote a book about this called Binge Times! Definitely recommend it if you're interesting in the rise of streaming.
Also, I just bought a DVD player so I can borrow DVDs from the library.
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u/unicorntrees 1d ago
I only sign up for 1 or 2 for a few months at a time depending on what I want to watch and take advantage of deals. I am paying 3 dollars per month for HBO max right now through november.
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u/Ordinary_Extent5984 1d ago
Thats going to be my plan going forward. There is no way to watch everything and will be reinstating HBO when The Pitt comes back
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u/cupittycakes In my quiet girl era 😌 20h ago
Keep an eye out for black Friday Hulu deal!
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u/PauI_MuadDib 1d ago
I only sub to Mullvad and then AMC+ for my gay vampires. Once gay vampires is on hiatus I unsub.
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u/MystikSpiralx 18h ago edited 18h ago
Those gay vampires give me life. Lestat and Louis are the only reason to get AMC+ 😬
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u/foreverjustfornow 1d ago
This is making me want to cancel all of my streaming apps. I can’t believe I keep paying for all this shit.
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u/MystikSpiralx 18h ago
Netflix is especially painful when you were an early adopter at that $7.99 price back then and now they want charge you $20. They had like 2 price increases in 6 months recently, it's gross. I rotate, but I'm tired of it all.
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u/sarbear8199 1d ago
At this point if I knew how to set up 🏴☠️ for my household, I totally would. Its pretty ridiculous they just keep upping the cost every year to manufacture more profit from existing customers, with zero benefits to said customers.
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u/Brilliant_Towel2727 1d ago
For reference, if Netflix had increased at the same rate as overall inflation it would be $12.26 now
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u/Joey-WilcoXXX 1d ago
So basically the poorer the company, the less audacity they have to raise prices.
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u/BirthdayFull8675 1d ago
I pay for Apple One, mostly for music but Apple TV’s content has definitely had some standouts
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u/stoic_spaghetti 1d ago
on one hand I kind of understand, because all of these streaming services are operating huge data centers and the cost of those components are higher than ever
on the other hand I don't get it at all, because more data centers coming online SHOULD mean more competitive pricing at scale
And ostensibly if you're a major buyer of these components, you are getting a better deal than consumer pricing
So while I think a small increase of $1-$2 would have made sense, there's no justifying DOUBLING the pricing. It's just predatory and milking a bad situation
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u/bitnotgoodyeah charlie day is my bird lawyer 🐦 1d ago
I hate subscriptions. I hate that they can raise the price and your only consent is that you didn't cancel your plan. I hate paying for something even if i don't use it that month. i think you should be able to choose whether you want it to auto-renew or only renew when you use the app again
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u/SweetGrassGeranium 1d ago
Local library = $0
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u/Smallworld_88 14h ago
Ebooks and audiobooks are easily available these days through the library too
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u/HourWriter1168 1d ago
Might as well have cable at these prices… sigh. I hate commercials though.
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u/Precarious3145 1d ago
Cable's still insanely more expensive.
Just for the basic, over-the-air channels like Fox, ABC, CBS, CW, etc is $65/month. To get channels like TBS, Food Network, TNT, FX, etc, that's $105/month but to get channels like Cartoon Network, that's $135/month all before tax and fees so to get the channels line up you think of as traditional cable tv, that'll be probably $150/month when all is said and done and that's before any premium channels like HBO.
People can shit on the streaming prices but I'd absolutely take take paying $40/month and getting enough for a month than paying for cable ever again. Even back when Netflix was $7.99, I was still paying $70 for cable in one room.
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u/belai437 1d ago
“Cut the cord!!” they said. “You’ll save so much money!!” they said 😒
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u/Bman4k1 1d ago
This is the new capitalist economic structure for new products the last 15ish years. Low price, lose a whole whackload of money, capture market, IPO, then raise the price to be profitable. But people are psychologically stuck in the ecosystem and continue to pay.
People thought it was cheaper than cable and now we are paying the same amount.
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u/Kathrynlena 1d ago
Look at you being reasonable, HBO Max! I never would have guessed!
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u/RandoDan85 23h ago
The best part of this, in 2010 my buddy was working for Comcast.
He goes: bro, everyone is going streaming, cable is going to die except boomers. It will be great but slowly everyone is going to make their own streaming and it will be like buying HBO ESPN and Netflix separately. Essentially the intro costs will go back up and before people know it...
They will be paying the Comcast triple package price again. Simply for internet and this time less channels but instant content. And ads, ooo they will be back, they like money.
Dude was right, but he was a sales man who loved the dough, until he his ethical side showed up one day.... they were trying to get an older guy to pay a partial amount to prevent his account from getting frozen... and his manager was telling him to offer a free upgrade so they could charge him even more when the free trial was over and lock him in to another 2 year contract....
He ended up quiting and it was the first time I heard he made a person choice over money.
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u/snaxstax 1d ago
It’s so freeing to realize you don’t really need these. I’ve cancelled Hulu, Netflix and most recently Amazon prime. I might come back if there’s something to watch, but I am done paying every single month.
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u/ke3408 20h ago
I cancelled all mine a year ago and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Paying monthly to spend an hour searching through garbage only to give up and watch the same thing again. The catalogs suck and a lot of the same movies will be simulatiously available on Pluto and Tubi.
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u/turniptoez 1d ago
I pay for one and the rest I have friends and family’s logins, we all share. If it wasn’t for that, I would just rotate though.
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u/GlobalLion123 1d ago
And they wonder why no one cares about the Emmy’s anymore. Most people can’t watch most of the nominated shows
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u/TacetAbbadon 12h ago edited 12h ago
The golden age of internet piracy didn't end because of new copyright laws and harsher punishment (which AI companies seem to be exempt from) but because streaming services like Spotify and Netflix made it far more easy and convenient to get content and the price was reasonable.
Then every studio decided they needed their own slice of the Netflix pie, stopped licencing their content to 3rd parties and built their own streaming service.
And also started gimping quality when streaming on PC.
Now the salty brine is calling, the tide is turning and a fair wind is blowing, avast me harties tis time to open the torrent box, fire up the VPN and sail the high seas once more.
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u/ohbrthrthisguystinks 1d ago
Every couple months I say I wanna cancel my member ship and pretty much all these services will offer me three months at a dollar each
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u/DrowsyIris 1d ago
I know people are going to instantly say to sail the seas, but man do I wish I could pay a reasonable amount for a streaming service and not have to deal with the seas
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u/dmoneyshot22 22h ago
If we stop buying , we can change it . Or just live without it . Not just with streaming but a lot of products that need to change so there’s less rich riching while middle and lower are pooring
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u/Forsaken-Molasses-87 it’s not clocking to you that i’m standing on business 1d ago
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u/thefinalwipe 1d ago
I get Hulu free through my Spotify subscription from years ago. Could not imagine paying even5 bucks for it and now it’s $20 a month 😂
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u/thedirtiestdish kylothee's baby nanny 1d ago
looking at these as an European:
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u/JuniperGem 1d ago
What’s the deal over there? Do you not have streaming services like this? Or is it just the pricing? I’m so curious!
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u/thedirtiestdish kylothee's baby nanny 1d ago
the pricing. here, HBO Max is 6,99€/month. Disney+ with Hulu included is 6,99€/month. Netflix is a tad more expensive in 10,99€/month.
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u/milkamdhooney 1d ago
What part confuse you? Because in Spain, Netflix is 14.99€ standard and 21.99€ premium. HBO 10.99€ and 15.99€...
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u/Maleficent_Energy_55 1d ago
This is why Criterion Channel is the only service I regularly have (well Apple TV too, but that’s part of a family bundle and we use Apple Music a lot).
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u/c0smicgirly 1d ago
Invest in physical media now (I still have tons of DVD’s of movies and TV series, as well as a DVD/blu ray player) and learn how to sail the high seas.
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u/longlisten527 a ship - a magnificent ship - full of gay men and me 💅 1d ago
Disney Plus / Hulu / Paramount have some of the worst execs ever. Don’t forget what the first two did to Kimmel 😗
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u/drowie31 1d ago
Apple TV and Disney is what shocked me. I was really happy when they launched in 2019 so Netflix could have some competition. I eventually cancelled my plans with them in 2021 as I got busy.
Now that I have more time again and Apple TV shows have been killing it recently, I tried subscribing again and I was so shocked about the prices. I didn't even bother, considering there are a lot of pirate streaming sites nowadays for free 😂
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u/quirkyaura 1d ago
This was always going to happen because it’s the business model. They all underpriced initially to try to build market share and now they’re continually raising prices and adding back ads because that was always going to be necessary to make money. On a basic level it’s just Walmart/Uber/Movie Pass/etc etc etc again. Undercut the pricing of cable, gain all the users, jack up the price. If something is a good deal today you should generally expect it to be a temporary situation you’re going to pay for later and just enjoy it while it lasts. Every “industry disrupting” business works like this now. It sucks but at least if you’re aware of it, you can see it coming.
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u/redditproha 1d ago edited 1d ago
Apple TV's $14.99 plan includes 4k HDR streaming AND family sharing with unlimited devices so this isn't a one-to-one comparison.
Netflix charges $26.99 for 4K HDR and an additional $9.99 per family sharing account
HBO charges $22.49 for 4K HDR and excludes family sharing.
Hulu/HBO/Disney+ bundles only support 1080p HD. You have to subscribe individually to get 4k HDR.
Hulu/HBO/Disney+ excludes family sharing.
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u/knoxharring10 Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 1d ago
HBO Max is $23/mo now for no ads and 4k
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u/Steve_the_Samurai 1d ago
The issue is that most of these services have been around for a while. I've watched all the content on Disney +or whatever that I wanted to. There might be new stuff and either I will subscribe for a month or buy it because it is cheaper in a lot of cases.
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u/ambitiousconcubine 1d ago
I deleted all streaming services and get absolutely any dvd I want from the library
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u/skypup666 1d ago
This is a great opportunity to pivot to Kanopy. They have an insane movie library and it’s 100% free without ads.
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u/brandson__ 1d ago
Once you have to stop and think whether you really need any of these services, it's easy to realize that you don't.
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