>A new report found that the average American subscriber pays $924 yearly for subscriptions; that's $77 per month.
That's less than my cable bill was when I dropped it.
I’m still on the side that directly comparing streaming to cable because “you have to” subscribe to everything is a false narrative.
I subscribe to one thing a month which is <$20 regardless of service. I get Peacock for free with my Internet. Selection and value for premium TV content is still good with streaming compared to ad filled cable packages.
I pay for Netflix for the kids and that's it. I have Prime for the shipping & convenience, and the streaming service is like an added bonus. I have MAX through my cell plan, and there's Tubi, and YT.
That keeps me plenty occupied.
Yeah! Thats actually quite a bit of selection and vastly better than a cable plan.
One note, you can get free shipping on Amazon w/o Prime if you pay >$25 which isn’t very difficult to do. I cancelled Prime over 2 years ago and still regularly get free shipping from Amazon still.
Wasn't aware of that. I may need to look into it. I think my Prime service is over $100/yr and honestly, out of the streaming services I have, that's easily the least used.
Get a library card and you can add Kanopy and Hoopla. Kanopy in particular has a fantastic selection and it’s ad-free. Hoopla is good too but the model is you borrow the media for 48 hours and there’s a limit to how many copies can be borrowed per 24 hour cycle.
Have you gotten the popup on prime yet informing you that if you want ad free streaming you’ll have to pay an additional $2.99 per month for it? I saw it the other day.
Man, tubi and crackle free service among others really make it unnecessary to really pay for any service. I do pirate, and have prime too for the shipping as the streaming as a bonus. Paying is just not necessary in my opinion. I’ll buy the occasional movie with good bonus features for a movie I enjoy or just buy them from Amazon or iTunes.
> “you have to” subscribe to everything is a false narrative.
100% this.
The other thing that drives me crazy is that no one ever mentions FAST services in these discussions.
If I was living alone in my own home, I'd download all the big FAST applications, plus frndly, ESPN+, and (maybe) DAZN. That's it. I'd be just fine.
This idea that you "need" X to watch "Y" when "Y" is one show is just insane.
I do like you, but subscribe for a year (or two). Did Netflix for a year, then Hulu, then Paramount Plus for 2 years. Now I'm on Max. Really, any of them give you plenty to watch for a long time. When you come back to a service you dropped 5 years ago, the 2nd season of the good shows will finally be up.
Exactly. $77 per month is MUCH cheaper than most cable or satellite bundles, especially since those streaming subscriptions include what would be considered "premium" content via the cable or satellite company.
Did you factor in how much your broadband bill is? You can't do any of those without broadband, you're likely paying more when you add broadband as part of the equation
I agree on the need for the Internet regardless. It provides the base for all the things that I do with it which save me money every month one way or another. The gas savings alone because I can place orders over the net or at least know where something is located that I want to purchase, for the best price and don't have to drive all over the county price shopping.
That's not the point , you require Internet, a pipe for the video , just because you can use it for non streaming doesn't mean you don't include the cost. I mean if that's the case why don't you cut your cable/fiber and just tether Your phones data plan...
But you also include it if you have cable or satellite. It's not like you would opt to NOT have internet service just because you have cable TV. Chances are, it would be part of your bundle and you'd still be paying for it.
> Do you include electricity, your television, the cost of the wires, so on in your calculations then?
What about the cost of the couch or chair you sit in to watch streaming!? Lol!
And don't anybody dare say they would already have a couch or chair even if they weren't streaming! That would be as silly as saying you'd have internet even if you weren't streaming.
Oh, wait... Hahahaha!
Count me with those who disagree with this. Personally I require internet at home for work, and did long before I used it for “streaming.” To each their own, but it’s akin to counting electricity.
Yes. With internet and cable, plus a bundle of premium channels (HBO and Max), I was paying about $75-80 per month more than what I pay now for internet and a handful of streaming services. I've bounced around from YouTube TV, DirectTV Stream, and Xfinity Stream for my main TV channels, but also have a handful of premium subscription services on top of that (Netflix, Amazon+, Max, and Paramount+ in my specific case).
If you were going to pay for the internet anyway. Including it in your evaluation of pricing streaming services, outside of any bundle pricing, would be a little disingenuous.
Some people can, not all. If I took my usage, completely avoided streaming services like the plague. I’d still have the internet I have.
Either way, you are talking about evaluating pricing and value of the internet overall, not added cost because of streaming. My statement still stands, if you were going to pay for the internet anyway, including it in this evaluation is pumping up your cost unnecessarily and is disingenuous to the pricing evaluation.
No, I said that if you are going to pay for the internet anyway, it is disingenuous to include it in your streaming service price analysis. Also, my service has increased by like $10 a month tops, in the last 7 years.
If you are specifically buying internet to stream content, and do nothing else. Then yes it’s an important part of the analysis. Otherwise, you’re just lying to yourself about how much things cost.
Mine hasn't gone up in seven or so years. Maybe a few bucks but with better speeds? I just kept negotiating at the end of every year.
Then I switched to FiOS which gave me a ten year price guarantee.
Are you located in an area with options?
Yes, but what I'm asking you is that you need internet to watch your streaming services, is that 77 including the price of internet? I doubt it is. So if your internet is, say, 60 dollars a month (that's what I pay), then that's 137 dollars a month, so I ask you, is that still less than paying for cable and internet, even if you didn't care about the cable?
The purpose of the question is this: Was your internet included in the price for cable, possibly satellite but unlikely.
If say your total Comcast bill was $150 and included TV and Internet and now you pay $77 for streaming an $65 for internet you are only saving $8.
When this question is asked it is probably by someone who had Cable and Internet bundled.
Just stop. This sub can’t fathom the notion you are trying to get across. I’ve tried and failed too. To them internet is a basic need and shouldn’t count bc, “I needed it anyways”.
Edit: called it lol. Yall like to think as streaming as just streaming and cable as the cost of internet, cable and all the equipment.
Streaming is streaming, the cost of internet to stream and the cost of equipment to stream on.
I was never trying to debate that, in fact I also think it's a basic need, I was simply trying to figure out if streaming services are becoming too expensive like many claim. Everyone here assumed too much.
people aren't going to factor something they were always buying and using for other things into other, less-permanent buying decisions though. that's like counting the water bill as the cost of making coffee.
Sure, but there are various way to obtain access. You don’t need to pay an ISP, you choose too. You can access the internet from a cellphone plan on your phone. Or through public WiFi hotspots that are free.
I agree it is a need. Paying a cable/fiber company for it is *not* a need.
Many of us NEED reliable hardwired internet to work. It makes things easier for all of the devices the kids have etc. cell service is crappy at my house (from any provider) so WiFi calling allows my mobile devices to function.
I see the point if one never had internet to begin with and only cable or satellite.
The reality is most people already had internet *in addition* to cable or satellite.
People have had PC's, laptops and tablets and later cell phones that needed an internet connection long before streaming TV became a thing.
For most people the cost of internet is a baked in expense like water, sewer and electricity.
can be or can't be?
The point is trying to include the cost of an internet service in the total cost of streaming is like as one previous person eluded to, trying to factor the cost of your water bill to make coffee, tea or flush a toilet.
For most cable was up to close to $200 or above when we cut the cord. $137 is a lot cheaper than that.
That said, $77 seems excessive for streaming services, most of them are in the $8 to $14 range and you don't need all of the ones in existence all together at the same time. It is ok to flip around between them from month to month. Of course the average price also includes linear cable-like programming such as YouTube TV, Hulu TV, Sling, and the like. Prices in that area range from $73 for YouTube TV through Sling at $40 to $25 for Philo.
Internet prices can vary wildly as well. We (here in Tampa, FL) have the local FIOS 500/500 internet service available to us for $25 a month right now:
https://twitter.com/FrontierCorp/status/1755595839609721323
Cable internet bundled price was $40 a month at the time (I think it was $60 when unbundled, but I went with Fiber when I dropped).
Right now, we pay for Gig speed Fiber which is $80/month (for reasons other than just entertainment), but also have only a few additional streaming services so our total price doesn't hit the cable bundle price. Also of note, cable around us has a data cap (1.2Tb) while Fiber doesn't.
Same brother, same. PoS. They kept having “unplanned outages” at the same exact time everyday right in the middle of the work day. I called them after the 4th day in a row and said cancel the service. I had spectrum out later that evening to get me a new connection. Still waiting fiber but until then, spectrum had been better than xfinity
My cable bill was $220 a month. Internet and all streaming subscriptions is currently $110. I live in a top 5 metropolitan area so prices are higher than average.
[average cable bill is 2,609.04 a year.](https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/saving-and-budgeting/articles/how-much-is-cable-per-month) or 217.42 a month. (but i dont think it includes on demand premium cable streaming)
That does include net.. my unbundled net was $89.. so using both data. if i got 1000 dollars a year in streaming, its be about $2000 or saving of 600 a year
you can do it a lot cheaper, a lot of people pay for services they already get free through phone or credit card. and sometimes they sign up twice just not knowing. and for me, streaming is more convenient, cable tv is just a confusing mess for me these days.
(had they been sane, way back when, and forced sharing of infrastructure when it doesnt make sense to build copies, like for cable, there would have been services with a lot less channels for cheaper, services without sports for those who didnt want it, and cable would be better prepared to fight streaming. though they make up for it, since cable tends to be peoples default net)
Yep. Fees alone were $60, on top of the "LoCkEd In PrIcE" package we had. So even if our streaming services came out to 60 per month, still saving a lot more money than having cable.
Package: 119.99
Total Bill: 192.xx
Sounds about right. But honesty, I watch about nothing on regular cable anymore. All the good shows have gone to streaming only, so now they have a monopoly :(
Hmm, I was never sure how we defined "major ss". For me I got nine (in no particular order)...
Hulu, NF, max, PP, Dsn+, ATV+, Prime Video, YouTube, Peacock
However, if we break them down by sub count or earnings, I guess ATV+ and Peacock may be on the lower end (which is still not too shabby, but just "lowest amongst the majors still"?
Was it less than that with internet? People forget internet was part of the overall cable bill and should be included into the monthly spent since you cannot stream without it.
Basically we all just have cable without equipment.
The article knowingly or unknowingly misrepresents the report. The report is talking about all subscriptions, not just video streaming. In the synopsis, they even mention Uber One specifically.
When zoomed out to that level and you start taking things into account like Prime, Costco, Walmart+, Instacart+, etc it's not hard to see the average person spending $1k.
It was knowingly. The outrage they were fishing for is bah gawd, I spend almost as much or more as I did on my cable/satellite bill! Streaming’s supposed to be cheaper!!!1”
Well if you're just counting all "subscriptions" I still think I am below the average. I have a calendar I put any sort of subscription into in order to keep track of it so that I know when it expires or renews. So it's very easy for me to total up what I have.
Amazon Prime - $11.58
Amazon Music - $8.25
Apple iCloud - $1
Costco - $5
Disney+ - $2.00
Hulu - $1.00
Nintendo Switch Online - $6.66
Playstation Plus - $6.66
I'm at $42.15/mo or $505/year !
You may be able to get deals before we roll back. Otherwise, Hulu black Friday, and add Dsn+ for an extra $2 to $3/mo. Both will be ad-supported though.
Some of them like HULU have been offering the deals every BF. Although last year seemed a little bit stingy but I still managed HULU for 99cents a month. I make it a point to watch for those deals every year.
Oh ok, I though Costco had a TV streaming app. lol I didn't find one lol We have a couple of the lower priced apps and a music app (that I never get a chance to use). What's nice here is a silvermine of OTA stations, close to 100 with a 4-out coax amplifier.
My internet is $92/month...that's the bill that really pisses me off. Everyone else canceled Cable TV so they had to jack the rates on internet to make up for it.
When I cancelled, Comcast offered me a special rate because I live in a "competitive area," which is defined as a place where I have 2 or more alternatives for broadband cable. If you live somewhere without any other choices, good luck...
This is pretty much what happened to me after cancelling directv and then finding the bundled AT&T internet (renamed DSL) was going to go up a lot without DTV. I was paying about $130 for the combo... now I'm paying $90 for internet through comcast/xfinity. That said, this is unlimited data at 800 mbps where as the at&t would have been $60 for 18mbps dsl. So it was a pretty massive internet upgrade that made my kids super happy. The 5G internet plans have zero available slots for new customers at my home address, so I'm just stuck with Xfinity for now.
It's very likely possible for you to get good enough internet service for a lot less than $92 a month, but it might take a little extra initial effort. What zip code are you in, or at least what's a nearby zip code, if you'd rather not give out your exact zip code?
There’s so many ways to get free streaming lol. I get Peacock for free as an Instacart+ member (and I get Instacart+ free as a Chase credit card user). I’m currently in the middle of a Paramount+ free month trial. Currently in the middle of an AppleTV+ free 3 months trial. I use my parents’ Netflix (surprisingly Netflix hasn’t kicked me off even though we are in different locations). And I pay for Amazon Prime for the free shipping, so the included videos are a free extra. I just cycle through free trials, it is kinda a fun game finding all the free trials to take advantage of.
People also need to know about Hoopla and Kanopy.
They’re streaming services available for absolutely free with no ads from a lot of local libraries. There’s limits on how many movies you can watch on there per month, and the offerings are pretty much limited to movies with only a few noteworthy shows, but if you’re a movie buff, especially if you’re interested in more arthouse stuff, they’re fantastic services to have.
Canceling streaming service is much easier than canceling cable; but yes, some people are even too lazy for that. Can save quite a bit if you are willing to rotate between subscriptions rather than paying for all the services you like to watch every month.
Not all of it. I can't think of who but at least one of the services requires that you call them. You can sign up online but you have to wait on hold with a call center to cancel. Some of them just let you flip a switch but not all of them and those companies rely on the fact that it's difficult and only costs like $7 a month so people don't kill themselves trying to turn it off. I don't know if anyone is talking about any solutions but I know it's been a matter before Congress at some point.
That's pretty much modern consumerism for you. They know that people pay for convenience. You save $$ when you make your own salad than to buy salad kits or bowls. It's much cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself, vs. buying preportioned meats, or even having it precooked! Starbucks is still super popular even though their coffee is supposed to be \*\*\*\* (still pricy).
That's what it was like every time I went to a restaurant (I scarcely eat out there anymore since that too has gotten expensive)... people who buy alcohol, sodas, and high margin items pretty much subsidize it for everyone else.
The average is subscriber is making poor choices lol. You can cancel and re-subscribe at any time. We jump back and forth depending on what we're interested in watching at a given time
This is the dream, but I can never get the family to decide on which to keep and which to cancel. We all watch different things. At least no one complained about missing Sling when I unilaterally canceled it a few months ago (by far our most expensive sub).
Can we get a misleading headline flag on here? The $924/yr figure in the cited study includes **subscriptions of all kinds**, including music services, gaming, retail (ie Prime or Walmart+) and stuff like Uber Eats. The study doesn't break out spending on streaming in particular.
My yearly subscriptions are $68. As long as I'm under $100 for the year, it's cool. I spent more than that for Satellite in one month.
Thats: $1/mo Hulu ($12/yr), $20/yr Peacock ($20/yr), and I'm on a 6 month deal for Hulu with ads and Disney+ No ads for $6 ($36/yr) because I wanted to keep the no-ads disney+ but then transition over to the $1 hulu and cancel the $6 deal when it's up in a few months so I'd still have cheap hulu. At some point I'll just do that ad version of Disney+ ($2/mo) ... probably once new Doctor Who begins.
I'm not sure if I'll re-up Peacock when it runs out this summer. It depends on a deal. $20 is an easy "yes". I'll watch enough movies and nbc stuff to make it more than worth that.
I just do Netflix and have a free sub for HBO through my phone bill. That's more than enough content for me. I also have a Tablo device that streams antenna broadcast to me.
…how?
I would need to sign up for 6 ad free services to get it to $72, and I can sign up for 10 ad supported services and not hit $77. And $77 is the average?
What is considered a streaming service?
Edit: well it looks like YouTube TV and Sling are considered “streaming”. I always considered them “Live TV” and lump it in with Cable and Satellite.
As someone else in the comments pointed out, the article is misleading. This includes all subscription services, like spotify and uber eats, not just streaming tv/movies.
you're right... the article specifically says it's talking about video subscription services, but the Bango study specifically mentions Uber One as a subscriptions service. Yeah, Uber One is not a "streaming" service.
Maybe it depends on country? Netflix without ads in the USA is $23 and Max is $20 so right there you are at $43. Prime is $15 plus $3 to avoid ads. You can do annual plans to save a little but regardless it adds up quickly.
It odd that we have entered the world where you can subscribe and unsubscribe to services on a whim, yet people insist on subscribing to everything. Personally, I am completely satisfied with having one service at a time. There is no urgency to watch anything anymore, with there just being a backlog of good shows to watch on every service.
In the early 2000s I sold Dish Network to people, and the vast majority of customers just wanted everything. All the movie channels. The Americas Top 150 package, the highest basic package at the time. And then you run their credit and see that they have massive debt and didn’t qualify for free equipment, with an $400 debt to DirecTV meaning they didn’t pay their past bill and didn’t return their equipment, and you just wanted to scream at them WHATS WRONG WITH YOU!!!
I don’t think it’s odd for people to want access to everything they want access to. My biggest gripe with cable was I have to pay x + y + z to get all the channels I want (i.e add HBO and sports package) which includes 38837282 channels I never watch. Also if you did the work you could typically find deals on all of the services getting them at a fraction of the cost but now those companies need more than just sub numbers they need profit numbers. I still have cable for sports as well so am really at a reflection point on just how much money I want to spend on entertainment. 2 months of Netflix is basically what it costs for 2 tickets to 1 IMAX movie so it’s still cheaper but this year i will probably be back to $250+ per mo on cable+streaming unless some better deals start rolling out.
If you can live with ads (they don't bother me) you can go much cheaper. Netflix with ads is 6.99 per month, and MAX with ads is 9.99 per month or 99.99 per year (works out to 8.33 per month).
MAX also has been having discounts during the holiday period where you can get about 50% off.
Got a message my post was removed so adding again minus the keywords apparently it was removed for.
I’m just trying to help explain “how” the average cost is so high. Also streaming services seem to providing far fewer deals this year than prior and the ones being offered aren’t as good. Max’s holiday discounts were only for ad supported plans, both Paramount and Peacock’s best deals are 33% more expensive than the prior year ($30 vs $20) and I haven’t seen a new Verizon +play offer yet which is how I’ve paid for Netflix the last 2 years ($20 NFL+ with year of Netflix in 2022 and then Starz with year of Netflix for $80 in 2023).
I think 2024 is when a lot of people are going to reassess their streaming practices. I for one am probably going to finally try rotating only 1-2 plans for a period of time then cancel and rotate 1-2 different plans because it’s just getting really annoying and time consuming to play games to save less and less. Ultimately they keep it up and I think more and more people will break down and find ways around some of the BS they are doing by charging USA customers significantly more than other countries, cracking down on sharing, etc. I’ll probably just give up and not stream but others will just go back to more extreme measures.
> Edit: well it looks like YouTube TV and Sling are considered “streaming”. I always considered them “Live TV” and lump it in with Cable and Satellite.
Exactly. Those platforms are simply cable going by other names.
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
Courtesy of The Who.
I probably pay more since I gotta be fancy and get the highest tier on all of them, but I don't regret it. Nice to have everything at my fingertips like I wanted as a kid.
Only cause YTTV is $73 a month.....
Amazon prime is yearly for me, and both Peacock and Paramount yearly with a coupon code makes them about $120 for ad free versions.
If I didn't care about live sports I'd dump yttv.....
I pay $0 a month, OTA is free and my plex server was a one time purchase years ago. Most of the movies I add I get for Xmas and on occasion I buy a movie or show used to add to my server.
I am paying either slightly less or about the same as I did with traditional cable, but I get much more content and far better service. My choice of streaming isn't as much about price as it is content.
$77 average is much better than the horrible speeds I got with Comcast and their $300 monthly bill. I have the fastest FiOS connection with FTTH and it's never slowed down or just not worked for any reason other than the electricity being out. Also, out of that $77 average, that's me getting to pick what I want to see, not some cable company forcing me to watch what I get to pay for.
Considering fragmented content, inferior picture quality, dependence on ISP, unsupported devices, terrible UXs and no physical DVR, I would say streaming is over priced already.
For. Sure. UI has only become far worse over the last four years. Not sure why they keep fucking it up with every update. Nearly every service is providing worse UX than it was
With basic cable close or more then a $100/month you’d still spend $1200/year easily and see very little. The caveat is that streaming requires Internet so that’s an additional cost tacked on to the monthly subscription cost that you have to deal with. In the end you can drop streaming services and pick them back up when something is worth watching and reduce costs if needed.
I was paying $225+ per month for FiOS triple play when I cut the cord in 2016 (and I was not using the landline at all).
Today I am paying <$125 /month for more streaming channels than I can watch, including the cost of my internet access. I could easily get that figure lower, but I'm (mostly) too lazy to churn services.
So yes, I pay well over $1000/year. But I ***was*** paying more than $2700/year. I'll take that deal.
Y'all know you can cancel your subscriptions right? I don't know about the rest of you but I don't have time to watch something on 5 different platforms every month. I usually keep maybe 2 active at a time.
Exactly, I just pick one subscription and rotate monthly. I don’t know how people justify paying for 5 different subscriptions every month, there’s no way you’re getting your money’s worth out of that unless you just sit and watch TV all day.
I live in a fairly nice area in suburbia, and there is a neighborhood facebook group for different bullshit things going on. Often the topic of internet/tv comes up and you would not believe what some people are paying. I had internet-only and it was $65/mo, but these people were paying $350/mo for.. something? I guess they were getting the sports package or something along those lines. It blew my mind.
Can you imagine spending $4,200/year for TV/Internet?
It's BS. The cited study says the $77/mo figure is for ALL subscriptions, including news, music, fitness services, delivery, etc etc. ZDNet got it wrong.
If that is true (and I have a hard time believing it), then the average subscriber is an idiot, and has missed the major advantages streaming offers over cable/satellite.
This is why I maintain paying as you go is still the most cost-effective way to consume TV shows and movies. New movies cost \~$8 to digitally rent, and old ones can be as little as $3. TV show seasons can be purchased for $15-30. $1000 can go a long way.
We’re around that. I will be ditching Prime this summer assuming I remember to cancel renewing the annual subscription. My wife pays for top tier Netflix shared with my stepdaughter. I have a bunch of things to watch English soccer.
By $1000, they mean $924. That clearly rounds down to $900, not almost $1000.
If these are people cutting the cord, $77 per month has got to be less than most people's cable TV.
I'm WAY below average, it's rare for me to spend over $15 a month. $30-ish would be that extremely rare month that I get Nertflix 4k for the month and only watch that.
Currently paying $10.43 for the below...
https://preview.redd.it/m41rrdkuisjc1.png?width=756&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0bd8a28957f9d1cf661b0114fcbadb8e611d619
I've also got Prime for shipping, but won't watch the ads, so that's $4 more a month when I want to watch that (at least I assume that's kicked on by now).
I agree to an extent.
If you are like me and have certain movies you love or think you should own a physical copy then do so. Or in case of my wife who worked at Walmart for most of her young adult life , lived in the country and had a huge collection due to the fact the satellite might go out or didn't feel what was on. She would just get out a DVD and watch it.
With the amount of movies/TV shows we have I used Jellyfin and created a server with those old DVD and put those movies/TV shows on it so I can watch anytime I want. Works close to how Netflix does. Neat system to work on.
Huge downside. Time. Working on this project since July and still not done. With family , work and free time for myself it takes a lot of time.
Fun project either way for me tho.
No, it definitely is not. You cannot get nearly the quality for audio or video from streaming services you get come a disc, especially 4K DV/UHD and of course things can just completely disappear if whatever contract is up with whatever service is carrying whatever your movie and shows is. If you like your movies, buy physical copies.
Get your library card out install hoopla and kanopy this is free streaming everyone has access to
Wink wink
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IgjQMe7Rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IgjQMe7Rg)
I had a budget of $100 a month and was fine with that. I'm gonna up to $120 as yttv and YT premium take up a big chunk of that now. Those are my two must haves, Hulu I get the $1.99 deal every year. Need to add up what I have now and sure to drop a couple.
Hulu Live costs more than that all by itself. I have Prime video but already had Prime so that's free to me and then I have HBO which I use a lot more know that they've added news and sports along with TLC. That costs like $16 a month. The rest I watch is either antenna or free steaming apps like PLEX or Freevee.
My cable bill was $298/mo when I pulled it. $75 of that was for internet and phone (landline so my wife could put it on speaker and hear it). So, $223/mo for what Spectrum called a "minimum package". I now have Philo, Paramount+, Peacock Premium, Disney+, and MLB TV. In order, that's a monthly cost of $21, 11, 7, 11, and 11 -- $60 per month. My cable internet+phone is still $75/mo. The only thing I don't get that I miss is Willow for the cricket matches. And Spectrum no longer carries Willow anyway, at least not here. I'm seriously thinking of dropping Paramount+; I resent the recent price increase that included the "upgrade" to Showtime. I never watch Showtime and never used to watch it when it was included with my cable package. Why pay for something I don't use? Since I pay annually, when the renewal time comes and the price increase hits, P+ is toast.
That is a choice that some make, but we have the choice to pay less and still have a lot to watch. I pay around $400 but is actually going down a bit because I am dropping some due to price increases.
I honestly don’t think that the article is accurate. 🤔
And what is the definition of streaming services?
Does that include streaming video services, music, WiFi and premium gaming platforms?
How about satellite radio?
You can thank copyright law for that. There is no valid reason other than welfare for the entertainment duopolies. A patent is only 20 years. Imagine all the free content we would have if copyrights were restored back to 20 years? Look at how many tv shows and movies were created prior 2004.
Well, 20 years is not really fair for someone’s creative output. If you write a show like friends and it’s a mega hit, you should not lose the revenue from that after 20 years. It should set you for life as long as people are still paying for it.
I have Netfix and Hulu. I add Disney for $2 a month. Netflix is included in my Tmobile bill, so I am really only paying about $25 a month. Technically, we have prime as well, but we dont watch it, so video isnt really factored into our subscription. We have Prime for the other benefits and ours is half price right now.
>A new report found that the average American subscriber pays $924 yearly for subscriptions; that's $77 per month. That's less than my cable bill was when I dropped it.
I’m still on the side that directly comparing streaming to cable because “you have to” subscribe to everything is a false narrative. I subscribe to one thing a month which is <$20 regardless of service. I get Peacock for free with my Internet. Selection and value for premium TV content is still good with streaming compared to ad filled cable packages.
I pay for Netflix for the kids and that's it. I have Prime for the shipping & convenience, and the streaming service is like an added bonus. I have MAX through my cell plan, and there's Tubi, and YT. That keeps me plenty occupied.
Yeah! Thats actually quite a bit of selection and vastly better than a cable plan. One note, you can get free shipping on Amazon w/o Prime if you pay >$25 which isn’t very difficult to do. I cancelled Prime over 2 years ago and still regularly get free shipping from Amazon still.
It's actually $35.00 to qualify for free shipping now. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/business/amazon-raises-shipping-minimum/index.html
Wasn't aware of that. I may need to look into it. I think my Prime service is over $100/yr and honestly, out of the streaming services I have, that's easily the least used.
Well, the best benefit to prime is the 5% cash back credit card on most things you only buy online.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure with the amount of stuff I buy on Amazon that my 5% cash back easily covers my subscription cost.
Starting to think about pulling my prime these days: wife is eyeing temu more for her shopping needs
And now they are charging extra to make it ad-free.
Get a library card and you can add Kanopy and Hoopla. Kanopy in particular has a fantastic selection and it’s ad-free. Hoopla is good too but the model is you borrow the media for 48 hours and there’s a limit to how many copies can be borrowed per 24 hour cycle.
Have you gotten the popup on prime yet informing you that if you want ad free streaming you’ll have to pay an additional $2.99 per month for it? I saw it the other day.
Man, tubi and crackle free service among others really make it unnecessary to really pay for any service. I do pirate, and have prime too for the shipping as the streaming as a bonus. Paying is just not necessary in my opinion. I’ll buy the occasional movie with good bonus features for a movie I enjoy or just buy them from Amazon or iTunes.
I'll pirate if I can't find it on any of the services I have. I forgot about crackle though. I should get it for my son.
Use Prime for photo storage and backup. It's unlimited and does face ID. Also backups NEFs included. Videos tho, not so much.
The flexibility we have is such a major difference. Also not having the forced ESPN tax, and equipment rentals is huge.
> “you have to” subscribe to everything is a false narrative. 100% this. The other thing that drives me crazy is that no one ever mentions FAST services in these discussions. If I was living alone in my own home, I'd download all the big FAST applications, plus frndly, ESPN+, and (maybe) DAZN. That's it. I'd be just fine. This idea that you "need" X to watch "Y" when "Y" is one show is just insane.
I do like you, but subscribe for a year (or two). Did Netflix for a year, then Hulu, then Paramount Plus for 2 years. Now I'm on Max. Really, any of them give you plenty to watch for a long time. When you come back to a service you dropped 5 years ago, the 2nd season of the good shows will finally be up.
Exactly.
Exactly. $77 per month is MUCH cheaper than most cable or satellite bundles, especially since those streaming subscriptions include what would be considered "premium" content via the cable or satellite company.
Did you factor in how much your broadband bill is? You can't do any of those without broadband, you're likely paying more when you add broadband as part of the equation
I would need Internet regardless. I honestly don't know many people at this point who don't need the internet at home.
I agree on the need for the Internet regardless. It provides the base for all the things that I do with it which save me money every month one way or another. The gas savings alone because I can place orders over the net or at least know where something is located that I want to purchase, for the best price and don't have to drive all over the county price shopping.
That's not the point , you require Internet, a pipe for the video , just because you can use it for non streaming doesn't mean you don't include the cost. I mean if that's the case why don't you cut your cable/fiber and just tether Your phones data plan...
But you also include it if you have cable or satellite. It's not like you would opt to NOT have internet service just because you have cable TV. Chances are, it would be part of your bundle and you'd still be paying for it.
It used to be very cheap to add internet to cable. I paid less for cable and internet than what I pay for internet alone now.
You say 'non-streaming". The way I look at it, I use the Internet for more non-streaming than streaming. So I don't include that in the calculation.
Ok so add the 50-75 for internet service and 125-150 is still cheaper than the 2-300 most people pay monthly for cable.
You've been gifted a Reddit Ackswually Fleshlight. Please furiously masturbate into it to your satisfaction.
Do you include electricity, your television, the cost of the wires, so on in your calculations then?
I include the snacks I eat while watching tv.
And my axe.
Got em, Gimly
> Do you include electricity, your television, the cost of the wires, so on in your calculations then? What about the cost of the couch or chair you sit in to watch streaming!? Lol! And don't anybody dare say they would already have a couch or chair even if they weren't streaming! That would be as silly as saying you'd have internet even if you weren't streaming. Oh, wait... Hahahaha!
Count me with those who disagree with this. Personally I require internet at home for work, and did long before I used it for “streaming.” To each their own, but it’s akin to counting electricity.
That's not not true. The only thing you'd include is if you're paying for a higher tier
you need electricity to have your TV work so you need to count that towards your cable bill then. 
Might as well add in the cost of heating the room while you're at it. Absolutely pointless.
Don't forget the electricity! No power, no broadband! :)
Yeah. 70+35 $105 month total for me. xfinity cable and web used to be $175 in my area.
My cable bill was over $250 a month when I cut it. Now I have the fattest internet and a few streamers, I'm all set.
Yes. With internet and cable, plus a bundle of premium channels (HBO and Max), I was paying about $75-80 per month more than what I pay now for internet and a handful of streaming services. I've bounced around from YouTube TV, DirectTV Stream, and Xfinity Stream for my main TV channels, but also have a handful of premium subscription services on top of that (Netflix, Amazon+, Max, and Paramount+ in my specific case).
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If you were going to pay for the internet anyway. Including it in your evaluation of pricing streaming services, outside of any bundle pricing, would be a little disingenuous.
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Some people can, not all. If I took my usage, completely avoided streaming services like the plague. I’d still have the internet I have. Either way, you are talking about evaluating pricing and value of the internet overall, not added cost because of streaming. My statement still stands, if you were going to pay for the internet anyway, including it in this evaluation is pumping up your cost unnecessarily and is disingenuous to the pricing evaluation.
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No, I said that if you are going to pay for the internet anyway, it is disingenuous to include it in your streaming service price analysis. Also, my service has increased by like $10 a month tops, in the last 7 years. If you are specifically buying internet to stream content, and do nothing else. Then yes it’s an important part of the analysis. Otherwise, you’re just lying to yourself about how much things cost.
Mine hasn't gone up in seven or so years. Maybe a few bucks but with better speeds? I just kept negotiating at the end of every year. Then I switched to FiOS which gave me a ten year price guarantee. Are you located in an area with options?
Mine had gone up to $80/month but I called and got it back down to $50. There's LOTS of competition in my area luckily.
The cabl/Telco companies figured this out a decade ago,.and have raising broadband costs ever since.
Literally half the price I was paying for just cable. (Including internet)
That less when your internet is added? Just curious.
Most of us had internet /and/ cable.
Yes, but what I'm asking you is that you need internet to watch your streaming services, is that 77 including the price of internet? I doubt it is. So if your internet is, say, 60 dollars a month (that's what I pay), then that's 137 dollars a month, so I ask you, is that still less than paying for cable and internet, even if you didn't care about the cable?
It's 2024 - most people need the Internet whether streaming or not.
The purpose of the question is this: Was your internet included in the price for cable, possibly satellite but unlikely. If say your total Comcast bill was $150 and included TV and Internet and now you pay $77 for streaming an $65 for internet you are only saving $8. When this question is asked it is probably by someone who had Cable and Internet bundled.
Not even the point, man. XD
Just stop. This sub can’t fathom the notion you are trying to get across. I’ve tried and failed too. To them internet is a basic need and shouldn’t count bc, “I needed it anyways”. Edit: called it lol. Yall like to think as streaming as just streaming and cable as the cost of internet, cable and all the equipment. Streaming is streaming, the cost of internet to stream and the cost of equipment to stream on.
>To them internet is a basic need it is
I was never trying to debate that, in fact I also think it's a basic need, I was simply trying to figure out if streaming services are becoming too expensive like many claim. Everyone here assumed too much.
people aren't going to factor something they were always buying and using for other things into other, less-permanent buying decisions though. that's like counting the water bill as the cost of making coffee.
Sure, but there are various way to obtain access. You don’t need to pay an ISP, you choose too. You can access the internet from a cellphone plan on your phone. Or through public WiFi hotspots that are free. I agree it is a need. Paying a cable/fiber company for it is *not* a need.
Many of us NEED reliable hardwired internet to work. It makes things easier for all of the devices the kids have etc. cell service is crappy at my house (from any provider) so WiFi calling allows my mobile devices to function.
I see the point if one never had internet to begin with and only cable or satellite. The reality is most people already had internet *in addition* to cable or satellite. People have had PC's, laptops and tablets and later cell phones that needed an internet connection long before streaming TV became a thing. For most people the cost of internet is a baked in expense like water, sewer and electricity.
Well, septic, solar. What’s your point. Just bc everyone has it doesn’t mean it can be excluded.
can be or can't be? The point is trying to include the cost of an internet service in the total cost of streaming is like as one previous person eluded to, trying to factor the cost of your water bill to make coffee, tea or flush a toilet.
For most cable was up to close to $200 or above when we cut the cord. $137 is a lot cheaper than that. That said, $77 seems excessive for streaming services, most of them are in the $8 to $14 range and you don't need all of the ones in existence all together at the same time. It is ok to flip around between them from month to month. Of course the average price also includes linear cable-like programming such as YouTube TV, Hulu TV, Sling, and the like. Prices in that area range from $73 for YouTube TV through Sling at $40 to $25 for Philo. Internet prices can vary wildly as well. We (here in Tampa, FL) have the local FIOS 500/500 internet service available to us for $25 a month right now: https://twitter.com/FrontierCorp/status/1755595839609721323
Are there people with cable TV but no internet bill in 2024?
Cable internet bundled price was $40 a month at the time (I think it was $60 when unbundled, but I went with Fiber when I dropped). Right now, we pay for Gig speed Fiber which is $80/month (for reasons other than just entertainment), but also have only a few additional streaming services so our total price doesn't hit the cable bundle price. Also of note, cable around us has a data cap (1.2Tb) while Fiber doesn't.
So you have xfinity lol
HAD xfinity
Same brother, same. PoS. They kept having “unplanned outages” at the same exact time everyday right in the middle of the work day. I called them after the 4th day in a row and said cancel the service. I had spectrum out later that evening to get me a new connection. Still waiting fiber but until then, spectrum had been better than xfinity
My cable bill was $220 a month. Internet and all streaming subscriptions is currently $110. I live in a top 5 metropolitan area so prices are higher than average.
[average cable bill is 2,609.04 a year.](https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/saving-and-budgeting/articles/how-much-is-cable-per-month) or 217.42 a month. (but i dont think it includes on demand premium cable streaming) That does include net.. my unbundled net was $89.. so using both data. if i got 1000 dollars a year in streaming, its be about $2000 or saving of 600 a year you can do it a lot cheaper, a lot of people pay for services they already get free through phone or credit card. and sometimes they sign up twice just not knowing. and for me, streaming is more convenient, cable tv is just a confusing mess for me these days. (had they been sane, way back when, and forced sharing of infrastructure when it doesnt make sense to build copies, like for cable, there would have been services with a lot less channels for cheaper, services without sports for those who didnt want it, and cable would be better prepared to fight streaming. though they make up for it, since cable tends to be peoples default net)
Yep. Fees alone were $60, on top of the "LoCkEd In PrIcE" package we had. So even if our streaming services came out to 60 per month, still saving a lot more money than having cable. Package: 119.99 Total Bill: 192.xx
Sounds about right. But honesty, I watch about nothing on regular cable anymore. All the good shows have gone to streaming only, so now they have a monopoly :(
Well, there are 5 major streaming companies, and many smaller ones. It does give us more choice.
Hmm, I was never sure how we defined "major ss". For me I got nine (in no particular order)... Hulu, NF, max, PP, Dsn+, ATV+, Prime Video, YouTube, Peacock However, if we break them down by sub count or earnings, I guess ATV+ and Peacock may be on the lower end (which is still not too shabby, but just "lowest amongst the majors still"?
Yeah except cable is simple. There’s not 23 sign ins and device management hell.
Was it less than that with internet? People forget internet was part of the overall cable bill and should be included into the monthly spent since you cannot stream without it. Basically we all just have cable without equipment.
That would still be about 65% less than the average cable bill in NYC.
The article knowingly or unknowingly misrepresents the report. The report is talking about all subscriptions, not just video streaming. In the synopsis, they even mention Uber One specifically. When zoomed out to that level and you start taking things into account like Prime, Costco, Walmart+, Instacart+, etc it's not hard to see the average person spending $1k.
That makes more sense, typical zdnet
It was knowingly. The outrage they were fishing for is bah gawd, I spend almost as much or more as I did on my cable/satellite bill! Streaming’s supposed to be cheaper!!!1”
Well if you're just counting all "subscriptions" I still think I am below the average. I have a calendar I put any sort of subscription into in order to keep track of it so that I know when it expires or renews. So it's very easy for me to total up what I have. Amazon Prime - $11.58 Amazon Music - $8.25 Apple iCloud - $1 Costco - $5 Disney+ - $2.00 Hulu - $1.00 Nintendo Switch Online - $6.66 Playstation Plus - $6.66 I'm at $42.15/mo or $505/year !
Color me curious how are you getting those super low Disney/Hulu/PS+ prices?
Black Friday annual signup deals offered every year.
Dang. Clearly I missed out on those... Thanks
You may be able to get deals before we roll back. Otherwise, Hulu black Friday, and add Dsn+ for an extra $2 to $3/mo. Both will be ad-supported though.
I’d rather never watch tv again than have to deal with ads
Some of them like HULU have been offering the deals every BF. Although last year seemed a little bit stingy but I still managed HULU for 99cents a month. I make it a point to watch for those deals every year.
Could you give us a little more detail on the Costco-$5 Subscription plz?
It’s $60/year or $5/month for Costco.
That's $60/year which I think is their standard membership cost.
Per month, not per year. Isn't Costco $60 per year?
Oh ok, I though Costco had a TV streaming app. lol I didn't find one lol We have a couple of the lower priced apps and a music app (that I never get a chance to use). What's nice here is a silvermine of OTA stations, close to 100 with a 4-out coax amplifier.
My internet is $92/month...that's the bill that really pisses me off. Everyone else canceled Cable TV so they had to jack the rates on internet to make up for it.
When I cancelled, Comcast offered me a special rate because I live in a "competitive area," which is defined as a place where I have 2 or more alternatives for broadband cable. If you live somewhere without any other choices, good luck...
Same. Mines 85 and i have to fight for it. Im only freestreaming right now
This is pretty much what happened to me after cancelling directv and then finding the bundled AT&T internet (renamed DSL) was going to go up a lot without DTV. I was paying about $130 for the combo... now I'm paying $90 for internet through comcast/xfinity. That said, this is unlimited data at 800 mbps where as the at&t would have been $60 for 18mbps dsl. So it was a pretty massive internet upgrade that made my kids super happy. The 5G internet plans have zero available slots for new customers at my home address, so I'm just stuck with Xfinity for now.
It's very likely possible for you to get good enough internet service for a lot less than $92 a month, but it might take a little extra initial effort. What zip code are you in, or at least what's a nearby zip code, if you'd rather not give out your exact zip code?
There’s so many ways to get free streaming lol. I get Peacock for free as an Instacart+ member (and I get Instacart+ free as a Chase credit card user). I’m currently in the middle of a Paramount+ free month trial. Currently in the middle of an AppleTV+ free 3 months trial. I use my parents’ Netflix (surprisingly Netflix hasn’t kicked me off even though we are in different locations). And I pay for Amazon Prime for the free shipping, so the included videos are a free extra. I just cycle through free trials, it is kinda a fun game finding all the free trials to take advantage of.
Isn’t the chase/instacart thing like 3 months?
Depending on your card, I think you can get it for a year.
Depends on the card. I have the Reserve card, which has a whole year of Instacart+
People also need to know about Hoopla and Kanopy. They’re streaming services available for absolutely free with no ads from a lot of local libraries. There’s limits on how many movies you can watch on there per month, and the offerings are pretty much limited to movies with only a few noteworthy shows, but if you’re a movie buff, especially if you’re interested in more arthouse stuff, they’re fantastic services to have.
It's not even complex or difficult to do.
It's that way on purpose and then cancelling is a pain in the ass. They rely on laziness.
Canceling streaming service is much easier than canceling cable; but yes, some people are even too lazy for that. Can save quite a bit if you are willing to rotate between subscriptions rather than paying for all the services you like to watch every month.
Not all of it. I can't think of who but at least one of the services requires that you call them. You can sign up online but you have to wait on hold with a call center to cancel. Some of them just let you flip a switch but not all of them and those companies rely on the fact that it's difficult and only costs like $7 a month so people don't kill themselves trying to turn it off. I don't know if anyone is talking about any solutions but I know it's been a matter before Congress at some point.
That's pretty much modern consumerism for you. They know that people pay for convenience. You save $$ when you make your own salad than to buy salad kits or bowls. It's much cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself, vs. buying preportioned meats, or even having it precooked! Starbucks is still super popular even though their coffee is supposed to be \*\*\*\* (still pricy).
“There are so many way to get free streaming” Proceeds to name like 6 ways to pay to get “free streaming” lol
I thank those people for supporting the rest of us.
That's what it was like every time I went to a restaurant (I scarcely eat out there anymore since that too has gotten expensive)... people who buy alcohol, sodas, and high margin items pretty much subsidize it for everyone else.
The average is subscriber is making poor choices lol. You can cancel and re-subscribe at any time. We jump back and forth depending on what we're interested in watching at a given time
This is the dream, but I can never get the family to decide on which to keep and which to cancel. We all watch different things. At least no one complained about missing Sling when I unilaterally canceled it a few months ago (by far our most expensive sub).
Can we get a misleading headline flag on here? The $924/yr figure in the cited study includes **subscriptions of all kinds**, including music services, gaming, retail (ie Prime or Walmart+) and stuff like Uber Eats. The study doesn't break out spending on streaming in particular.
Well I always wondered...now I know. I am way below average.
You're doing it wrong.
These "reports" seem to come out every few weeks; they certainly don't reflect my reality.
My yearly subscriptions are $68. As long as I'm under $100 for the year, it's cool. I spent more than that for Satellite in one month. Thats: $1/mo Hulu ($12/yr), $20/yr Peacock ($20/yr), and I'm on a 6 month deal for Hulu with ads and Disney+ No ads for $6 ($36/yr) because I wanted to keep the no-ads disney+ but then transition over to the $1 hulu and cancel the $6 deal when it's up in a few months so I'd still have cheap hulu. At some point I'll just do that ad version of Disney+ ($2/mo) ... probably once new Doctor Who begins. I'm not sure if I'll re-up Peacock when it runs out this summer. It depends on a deal. $20 is an easy "yes". I'll watch enough movies and nbc stuff to make it more than worth that.
This is the way. Also look into Tmobile's freebies and Chase + Instacart
I just do Netflix and have a free sub for HBO through my phone bill. That's more than enough content for me. I also have a Tablo device that streams antenna broadcast to me.
…how? I would need to sign up for 6 ad free services to get it to $72, and I can sign up for 10 ad supported services and not hit $77. And $77 is the average? What is considered a streaming service? Edit: well it looks like YouTube TV and Sling are considered “streaming”. I always considered them “Live TV” and lump it in with Cable and Satellite.
As someone else in the comments pointed out, the article is misleading. This includes all subscription services, like spotify and uber eats, not just streaming tv/movies.
you're right... the article specifically says it's talking about video subscription services, but the Bango study specifically mentions Uber One as a subscriptions service. Yeah, Uber One is not a "streaming" service.
The article misrepresented the report. It includes all online subscriptions including Costco, Walmart+, Instacart+, etc.
Maybe it depends on country? Netflix without ads in the USA is $23 and Max is $20 so right there you are at $43. Prime is $15 plus $3 to avoid ads. You can do annual plans to save a little but regardless it adds up quickly.
It odd that we have entered the world where you can subscribe and unsubscribe to services on a whim, yet people insist on subscribing to everything. Personally, I am completely satisfied with having one service at a time. There is no urgency to watch anything anymore, with there just being a backlog of good shows to watch on every service. In the early 2000s I sold Dish Network to people, and the vast majority of customers just wanted everything. All the movie channels. The Americas Top 150 package, the highest basic package at the time. And then you run their credit and see that they have massive debt and didn’t qualify for free equipment, with an $400 debt to DirecTV meaning they didn’t pay their past bill and didn’t return their equipment, and you just wanted to scream at them WHATS WRONG WITH YOU!!!
I don’t think it’s odd for people to want access to everything they want access to. My biggest gripe with cable was I have to pay x + y + z to get all the channels I want (i.e add HBO and sports package) which includes 38837282 channels I never watch. Also if you did the work you could typically find deals on all of the services getting them at a fraction of the cost but now those companies need more than just sub numbers they need profit numbers. I still have cable for sports as well so am really at a reflection point on just how much money I want to spend on entertainment. 2 months of Netflix is basically what it costs for 2 tickets to 1 IMAX movie so it’s still cheaper but this year i will probably be back to $250+ per mo on cable+streaming unless some better deals start rolling out.
If you can live with ads (they don't bother me) you can go much cheaper. Netflix with ads is 6.99 per month, and MAX with ads is 9.99 per month or 99.99 per year (works out to 8.33 per month). MAX also has been having discounts during the holiday period where you can get about 50% off.
Got a message my post was removed so adding again minus the keywords apparently it was removed for. I’m just trying to help explain “how” the average cost is so high. Also streaming services seem to providing far fewer deals this year than prior and the ones being offered aren’t as good. Max’s holiday discounts were only for ad supported plans, both Paramount and Peacock’s best deals are 33% more expensive than the prior year ($30 vs $20) and I haven’t seen a new Verizon +play offer yet which is how I’ve paid for Netflix the last 2 years ($20 NFL+ with year of Netflix in 2022 and then Starz with year of Netflix for $80 in 2023). I think 2024 is when a lot of people are going to reassess their streaming practices. I for one am probably going to finally try rotating only 1-2 plans for a period of time then cancel and rotate 1-2 different plans because it’s just getting really annoying and time consuming to play games to save less and less. Ultimately they keep it up and I think more and more people will break down and find ways around some of the BS they are doing by charging USA customers significantly more than other countries, cracking down on sharing, etc. I’ll probably just give up and not stream but others will just go back to more extreme measures.
> Edit: well it looks like YouTube TV and Sling are considered “streaming”. I always considered them “Live TV” and lump it in with Cable and Satellite. Exactly. Those platforms are simply cable going by other names. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Courtesy of The Who.
That's probably less than cable TBH
Yeah, but a lot of people pay for this in addition to cable.
...why the heck would you do that?? Cable gives you credentials you can use in basically any TV Anywhere app.
Netflix, hbo, etc.
I probably pay more since I gotta be fancy and get the highest tier on all of them, but I don't regret it. Nice to have everything at my fingertips like I wanted as a kid.
Binge, cancel and rotate is the name of the game now thanks to endless price increases. Sometimes, can also get special deals during Black Friday.
Bullshit
Still cheaper than cable
Only because they dont educate themselves. I pay less than $40 a year.
Only cause YTTV is $73 a month..... Amazon prime is yearly for me, and both Peacock and Paramount yearly with a coupon code makes them about $120 for ad free versions. If I didn't care about live sports I'd dump yttv.....
At $73/month for YTTV, that sounds about right.
We spend $49.05 a month on Paramount, Prime, Netflix, and Max. Hulu, Disney, and ESPN are free with our cell plan.
I pay $0 a month, OTA is free and my plex server was a one time purchase years ago. Most of the movies I add I get for Xmas and on occasion I buy a movie or show used to add to my server.
I am paying either slightly less or about the same as I did with traditional cable, but I get much more content and far better service. My choice of streaming isn't as much about price as it is content.
$77 average is much better than the horrible speeds I got with Comcast and their $300 monthly bill. I have the fastest FiOS connection with FTTH and it's never slowed down or just not worked for any reason other than the electricity being out. Also, out of that $77 average, that's me getting to pick what I want to see, not some cable company forcing me to watch what I get to pay for.
You have to be willing to give up "live tv" if you want to really save money.
Considering fragmented content, inferior picture quality, dependence on ISP, unsupported devices, terrible UXs and no physical DVR, I would say streaming is over priced already.
For. Sure. UI has only become far worse over the last four years. Not sure why they keep fucking it up with every update. Nearly every service is providing worse UX than it was
With basic cable close or more then a $100/month you’d still spend $1200/year easily and see very little. The caveat is that streaming requires Internet so that’s an additional cost tacked on to the monthly subscription cost that you have to deal with. In the end you can drop streaming services and pick them back up when something is worth watching and reduce costs if needed.
I was paying $225+ per month for FiOS triple play when I cut the cord in 2016 (and I was not using the landline at all). Today I am paying <$125 /month for more streaming channels than I can watch, including the cost of my internet access. I could easily get that figure lower, but I'm (mostly) too lazy to churn services. So yes, I pay well over $1000/year. But I ***was*** paying more than $2700/year. I'll take that deal.
Y'all know you can cancel your subscriptions right? I don't know about the rest of you but I don't have time to watch something on 5 different platforms every month. I usually keep maybe 2 active at a time.
Exactly, I just pick one subscription and rotate monthly. I don’t know how people justify paying for 5 different subscriptions every month, there’s no way you’re getting your money’s worth out of that unless you just sit and watch TV all day.
The average subscriber is not very smart then.
I call BS on the report. I pay 40 a month for all channels, plus netflix, hulu and OTA guide
I live in a fairly nice area in suburbia, and there is a neighborhood facebook group for different bullshit things going on. Often the topic of internet/tv comes up and you would not believe what some people are paying. I had internet-only and it was $65/mo, but these people were paying $350/mo for.. something? I guess they were getting the sports package or something along those lines. It blew my mind. Can you imagine spending $4,200/year for TV/Internet?
You are not the AVERAGE US subscriber
It's BS. The cited study says the $77/mo figure is for ALL subscriptions, including news, music, fitness services, delivery, etc etc. ZDNet got it wrong.
You would be surprised. I still think the report is BS!
If that is true (and I have a hard time believing it), then the average subscriber is an idiot, and has missed the major advantages streaming offers over cable/satellite.
This is why I maintain paying as you go is still the most cost-effective way to consume TV shows and movies. New movies cost \~$8 to digitally rent, and old ones can be as little as $3. TV show seasons can be purchased for $15-30. $1000 can go a long way.
We’re around that. I will be ditching Prime this summer assuming I remember to cancel renewing the annual subscription. My wife pays for top tier Netflix shared with my stepdaughter. I have a bunch of things to watch English soccer.
If you cancel now, you'll get a prorated refund. You can also set it to not renew ahead of time, but we took the refund.
By $1000, they mean $924. That clearly rounds down to $900, not almost $1000. If these are people cutting the cord, $77 per month has got to be less than most people's cable TV. I'm WAY below average, it's rare for me to spend over $15 a month. $30-ish would be that extremely rare month that I get Nertflix 4k for the month and only watch that. Currently paying $10.43 for the below... https://preview.redd.it/m41rrdkuisjc1.png?width=756&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0bd8a28957f9d1cf661b0114fcbadb8e611d619 I've also got Prime for shipping, but won't watch the ads, so that's $4 more a month when I want to watch that (at least I assume that's kicked on by now).
Buy some DVDs
I agree to an extent. If you are like me and have certain movies you love or think you should own a physical copy then do so. Or in case of my wife who worked at Walmart for most of her young adult life , lived in the country and had a huge collection due to the fact the satellite might go out or didn't feel what was on. She would just get out a DVD and watch it. With the amount of movies/TV shows we have I used Jellyfin and created a server with those old DVD and put those movies/TV shows on it so I can watch anytime I want. Works close to how Netflix does. Neat system to work on. Huge downside. Time. Working on this project since July and still not done. With family , work and free time for myself it takes a lot of time. Fun project either way for me tho.
Physical is dead.
No, it definitely is not. You cannot get nearly the quality for audio or video from streaming services you get come a disc, especially 4K DV/UHD and of course things can just completely disappear if whatever contract is up with whatever service is carrying whatever your movie and shows is. If you like your movies, buy physical copies.
For $1000/year you could have 50 DVDs a year. If you stream for 30 years that’s over 1,500 DVDs - quite the collection
For $1000 a year you could buy 1000 DVDs a year from thrift stores and garage sales. 65 of them, however, will be The Mummy.
Not anyone I know. Who are these people with that much disposable income?
Back to cable
Get your library card out install hoopla and kanopy this is free streaming everyone has access to Wink wink [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IgjQMe7Rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IgjQMe7Rg)
Soooo…. Almost a cable bill.
I 100% knew this would happen which is why I never cut the cord.
Not me
I’ve got mine down to about $180 a year so I’m below average.
I imagine that includes music. Seems hard to get to $80/month without a mvpd like yttv. I'm probably at $1200 with yttv, yt and a couple others.
I had a budget of $100 a month and was fine with that. I'm gonna up to $120 as yttv and YT premium take up a big chunk of that now. Those are my two must haves, Hulu I get the $1.99 deal every year. Need to add up what I have now and sure to drop a couple.
Hulu Live costs more than that all by itself. I have Prime video but already had Prime so that's free to me and then I have HBO which I use a lot more know that they've added news and sports along with TLC. That costs like $16 a month. The rest I watch is either antenna or free steaming apps like PLEX or Freevee.
That’s ridiculous. Just use one at a time. Geeez, it’s very easy to start and stop services online. It’s not cable for fucks sake.
I have one streamer at a time and xbox ultimate. Still ends up 250+ for the year probably more.
My cable bill was $298/mo when I pulled it. $75 of that was for internet and phone (landline so my wife could put it on speaker and hear it). So, $223/mo for what Spectrum called a "minimum package". I now have Philo, Paramount+, Peacock Premium, Disney+, and MLB TV. In order, that's a monthly cost of $21, 11, 7, 11, and 11 -- $60 per month. My cable internet+phone is still $75/mo. The only thing I don't get that I miss is Willow for the cricket matches. And Spectrum no longer carries Willow anyway, at least not here. I'm seriously thinking of dropping Paramount+; I resent the recent price increase that included the "upgrade" to Showtime. I never watch Showtime and never used to watch it when it was included with my cable package. Why pay for something I don't use? Since I pay annually, when the renewal time comes and the price increase hits, P+ is toast.
That is a choice that some make, but we have the choice to pay less and still have a lot to watch. I pay around $400 but is actually going down a bit because I am dropping some due to price increases.
I guess nobody told people they can pause their subscriptions and don't need every service every day.
...But what's the median?
I honestly don’t think that the article is accurate. 🤔 And what is the definition of streaming services? Does that include streaming video services, music, WiFi and premium gaming platforms? How about satellite radio?
You can thank copyright law for that. There is no valid reason other than welfare for the entertainment duopolies. A patent is only 20 years. Imagine all the free content we would have if copyrights were restored back to 20 years? Look at how many tv shows and movies were created prior 2004.
Well, 20 years is not really fair for someone’s creative output. If you write a show like friends and it’s a mega hit, you should not lose the revenue from that after 20 years. It should set you for life as long as people are still paying for it.
I have Netfix and Hulu. I add Disney for $2 a month. Netflix is included in my Tmobile bill, so I am really only paying about $25 a month. Technically, we have prime as well, but we dont watch it, so video isnt really factored into our subscription. We have Prime for the other benefits and ours is half price right now.
Sounds like a skill issue.