So much for cutting cords and cutting your costs.
With recent price increases by Disney+ and Netflix, the average American household is spending about $70 a month on streaming services, Wallethub analyst Chip Lupo told The Post.
“You’re probably paying just as much for all those combined as you were paying for cable,” Lupo said.
And it’s only going to get worse.
“Most people tend not to notice these incremental increases, which is how it works,” he noted. “At some point, you’ll be paying twice as much as you were originally. A lot of people directly pay their streaming services. So a lot of times, they don’t notice.”
According to Dan Ives, Global Head of Tech Research at Wedbush Securities, “we are seeing an arms race take place in the streaming battle.”
“Netflix has continued to raise prices as the churn from increases has been negligible with consumers given Netflix is the hearts and lungs of consumer content on a daily basis,” he continued. “Content is king, and Netflix is at the top of the mountain.”
Lupo told The Post that streamers justify price hikes for reasons such as “rising production costs,” since they spend billions of dollars on original programming.
Shows like “Severance,” “House of the Dragon,” and “Stranger Things” aren’t cheap to make.
He also cited expensive sports packages, such as the ESPN package hiking up Disney’s prices, and the fact that “Netflix is a publicly traded company,” which gives it added pressure.
But, as more viewers spot the increase – and the quality of the TV shows don’t reflect the price hikes – “there will be a breaking point where people no longer invest in streaming services.”
“Cable hit that bubble a few years ago. People were cutting cable, and going to streaming. I don’t think it’s that far off [that people flee streaming]. It’s feeling like cable all over again.”
Here’s a look at the price trends of the major players.
Disney+
Disney’s streamer made its debut in Nov. 2019. When it launched, it cost $6.99 per month. It also had no ads. Its first price hike was in 2022, when the tier with ads became $7.99 a month and ad-free increased to $10.99 per month.
Most recently in the fall, the prices hiked to $11.99 a month for basic, with ads, and $18.99 for the premium tier without ads.
That’s not to mention, bundled with Hulu, with ads, it’s $12.99 a month. Their current most expensive plan is $44.99 per month, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN unlimited, with no ads.
Hulu
Hulu launched in 2007, but its current subscription form launched in 2010. At the time, it was $8 a month with ads, it’s now $11.99 per month with ads and $18.99 for premium. The premium tier with no ads is currently $18.99.
In 2017, Hulu launched its live TV tier, which was $39.99 per month, at the time. In 2019, it became $44.99 a month with ads, and $50.99 with no ads.
In 2020, live TV with ads became $64.99 a month, and with no ads, it became $70.99 a month.
After the Disney merger, in 2021, Hulu increased their live TV prices to reflect a bundle with ESPN and Disney+, $69.99 with ads, and $75.99 with no ads.
Today, Hulu’s live TV tier is $88.99 and its priciest tier is $99.99 (including Hulu with no ads, live TV, Disney+ with no ads, and ESPN select with ads).
HBO Max
Currently, HBO Max is $10.99 for basic with ads, $18.49 for standard, and $22.99 for premium.
When it launched in 2020, the ad tier cost $9.99 per month, and the standard tier was $14.99 per month. The first price hike happened in 2023, raising the standard tier to $15.99.
Then, in 2024 (when the platform also briefly made an ill-advised temporary attempt to get rid of the “HBO” and simply became “Max”), it hiked the price of the ad-free tier from $15.99 to $16.99 per month.
Oct. 2025 marked its third price increase in three consecutive years, with the “standard” tier rising to its current $18.49 per month.
Prime Video
In 2016, Amazon’s streaming arm launched for $8.99 a month. That apparently wasn’t going to keep the lights on for the billion dollar “The Lord of the Rings” show.
Currently, it costs $14.99 per month (as part of Amazon Prime membership). In 2024, the streamer introduced ads – or paying an extra $2 per month for an add free tier.
However, you can still get it standalone (sans Amazon Prime membership) for $8.99.
Netflix
Currently, a standard Netflix plan is $17.99 per month, and premium is $24.49 per month. There’s still a standard tier with ads that’s $7.99 per month.
Netflix first launched its streaming service in 2007, but 2011 is really when Netflix’s current incarnation started. A standard plan was $7.99. In 2013, a standard plan had the same price but it introduced the premium plan, which was $11.99 per month.
In 2014, it introduced the concept of the standard plan ($7.99 a month) basic plan ($8.99 a month) and premium plan ($11.99). Prices hiked steadily through the years – in 2016, standard became $9.99.
By 2019, basic was $8.99, standard was $12.99 and premium was $15.99. By 2022, standard was $15.49 and premium was $19.99.
AppleTV+
Apple’s streaming arm launched in 2019. Currently, it costs $12.99 per month, or $19.95 via Apple One, which bundles it with five other Apple services.
At the time that it launched in 2019, it was $4.99 a month. Its hiked its prices three times since then. In 2022, it went up to $6.99 a month, and in 2023, it went up to $9.99 a month.
Peacock
NBC launched its streaming arm in July of 2020. At the time, it had a free tier. The premium tier (that still had ads) was $4.99 a month. An additional ad-free premium tier was $9.99.
In 2023, the first prince hike involved axing the free tier. Premium then became $5.99 while premium plus became $11.99.
In 2024, premium increased to $7.99 and premium plus became $10.99.
Today, premium is $10.99 a month and premium plus is $16.99
Paramount+
CBS’s streaming arm first launched in 2014 under the name “CBS All Access” but became rebranded as Paramount+ in 2021. At the time of its 2021 launch in its current form, the ad version was $4.99 a month, while the premium version was $9.99 a month.
In 2023, the ad tier became $5.99 a month, while the premium tier got bundled with Showtime and became $11.99 a month.
In 2024, it got bumped up to $7.99 for the ads tier and $12.99 for the premium tier, and remains that price today.
Julie Clark, the SVP of Media and Entertainment at TransUnion, told the Post via email, “Price hikes are rarely welcomed, but often tolerated when the content and experience continue to deliver value. While some viewers may not notice incremental increases right away, many are becoming more mindful of subscription costs and increasingly selective about which services make the cut.”
She cited a TransUnion survey that found that 38% of consumers cancelled a subscription in the past 6 months, with most of them citing price increases as their reason.
Clark noted, “In today’s jam-packed, endlessly fragmented world of streaming, relevance drives loyalty.”
