Cord cutters everywhere are noticing the impact of the rising cost of their favorite streaming services in what is informally known as Streamflation, a portmanteau of streaming and inflation.
The team at FinanceBuzz conducted a study analyzing the monthly prices for both standard and premium streaming subscriptions over the past nearly two decades since the services were first launched. The study tracks the pricing changes of Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Max, Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV+.
The study begins with Hulu’s launch in 2007, which did not start charging a subscription fee until 2010. Since then, every platform that came after began charging a subscription fee at launch. Of the 8 services studied, Netflix leads the competition in price hikes, with seven since 2011. Some other key takeaways:
- Netflix’s standard (94% increase) and premium (92%) subscriptions have nearly doubled in price since their release
- Netflix premium is the most expensive plan of any platform – $2 more expensive than the current cost for Max’s Ultimate Ad-Free tier
- While Apple TV has doubled in price since 2019, it’s the only platform that doesn’t require a premium subscription to avoid ads
- Amazon Prime is the only platform whose standard subscription price hasn’t changed since its launch
- Paramount+ and Hulu were the only two services that decreased prices since their launch before returning to the original price and increasing, respectively.
The chart below shows the fluctuation of pricing over the years.
In addition to the base plans, the full study examines premium and ad-free tiers and concludes that those prices have only risen over the years. Netflix also leads in that tier with a 92% increase in 11 years. At $22.99 per month, Netflix Premium is the most expensive plan of the eight studied, and nearly double the price of the $11.98 commercial-free Prime Video plan.
It doesn’t look like streamflation is slowing down anytime soon. Next month, Disney digital services (Hulu, Hulu + Live TV, Disney+, and ESPN+) and DIRECTV STREAM are increasing their prices. Notably, the two sides have agreed to a new deal that will see some of Disney’s digital platforms integrated in DIRECTV STREAM. This could give cord cutters more value for their subscription and there are plans to introduce genre-specific bundles which could lessen subscription costs.
With the rise of FAST streaming services, many cord cutters are also finding high-quality content instead of paying for a service. Earlier this year, 63% of our readers said they pay for four or fewer streaming services and we made a guide with 5 Tips to Save Money When Cord Cutting.