This week we learned that the price of Disney+, Hulu, Hulu + Live TV, Starz, and ESPN+ are all increasing. So, we asked our readers if this news would force them to cut back on the number of streaming services they pay for. According to our readers, yes, they plan to cancel some of their paid streaming services and not replace them.
According to a survey of more than 150 cord cutters, 65% of them said they plan to cancel a streaming service to cut back on the number of services they pay for; 16% said they were thinking about canceling some of their streaming services; and just 20% said they had no plans to cancel a streaming service.
This lines up with a recent trend of cord cutters cutting back on the number of services they pay for.
According to more than 1,000 of our readers, 63.3% pay for four or fewer streaming services, 47.3% pay for three or fewer streaming services, and 27.3% pay for two or fewer streaming services.
While most cord cutters still pay for four or fewer streaming services, the number of cord cutters paying for five or more is down since October 2023. Last October 66.2% of cord cutters paid for four or fewer services. Part of that number may be the growth of sports across multiple streaming services, like the NFL airing a playoff game exclusively on Peacock back in January.
Price hikes could speed up that trend. This in the long term would likely have minor impact on large streaming services, but smaller niche services could struggle as subscribers decide whether they want to pay for extra anime or fishing content or do they want Disney+.