Update: Netflix has announced that its premium ad-free plan will increase by $3/month. The one-stream basic plan will increase by $2. The ad-supported plan will stay the same price. All are effective immediately.
If you’ve been feeling a little on the edge when it comes to the combined costs of your streaming subscriptions, here’s news for you. You’ll have to pay even more for your Netflix subscription in the coming months. According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix will be increasing the price of its monthly ad-free subscription. Sources say the company is just waiting for the writer’s strike to end formally, which it did on September 27, before making moves.
What does this mean for you? You may be in a pickle if you feel like the cost of your streaming services is slowly making a climb back to what you were paying for cable.
The Financial Joys of Early Streaming
Netflix not only changed how we watched TV, but it provided a way to pay less. The low streaming prices and good programming options made leaving cable well worth it. Then, other streaming services followed with competitive pricing with even more options for the average viewer. This made it easy to afford multiple streaming services without cable, and for years, it seemed like the little person finally had a big win over the big cable TV companies.
Netflix has been the company to lead the pack in the war on streaming services, with so many following in their footsteps. It’s only natural to assume that an increase in Netflix’s rates will likely spark an increase in other streaming services, creating a domino effect.
Should You Be Rethinking Cable?
The truth is that some streaming executives will admit they introduced their services at prices that were too low in the beginning in an effort to snag a huge subscriber base right from the start. This caused them to lose billions of dollars over the course of a few years. Since then, prices have slowly started to climb, causing many viewers to think twice about their streaming subscriptions. Disney and Hulu recently increased their ad-free services, making them the second price hike in 12 months. Discovery+ announced its increasing prices for its ad-free services, effective immediately.
Netflix’s last price increase was in January 2022, when it increased its ad-free plan from $14 to $15.49 per month and its 4K plan from $18 to $20 per month. This is a far cry from the debut prices of $7.99 or $11.99 for 4K.
So, what will the new price increase be, and when will it take place? Sources don’t know when the increase will occur, but it should be announced any day now that Hollywood has reached an agreement with the writers. As for the new price of its streaming services, we don’t have a definite answer for that either, but with current prices already well above what most viewers started with, should you be concerned or rethinking cable? The answer is probably yes. Or, you may want to consider losing the ad-free subscriptions and just sticking to the basics with ads. Also, you may want to skip live TV altogether. Here are the cost comparisons we found:
- The monthly streaming service costs of Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and MAX (basic with ads) will run you about $33 per month. But, you can’t use them without the Internet. So, even with the least expensive internet plan, you’re likely to pay about $67 a month for basic streaming services, which brings the actual cost of your streaming services to about $100 per month.
- Basic TV with Internet will cost about $133 per month, depending on where you live (Premium TV with Internet will cost significantly more).
- Live TV with Internet could cost you anywhere from $100 to $170 per month.
The Bottom Line
It’s safe to say that with Netflix and other streaming services soon to be increasing their monthly subscription prices again, you may want to sit down and take a long look at your subscriptions. Now may be a good time to start considering the best way to get the most TV for your money without breaking the bank.
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