Well friends, it’s happened. Increases in streaming costs have pushed me over the edge. It seems like every service has raised rates by 15% or more, and it’s gotten to the point where I need to prune back. So, I’d like to take a look at some of the more popular ones that I’ve subscribed to in the past or am subscribing to now. Are they worth it? I’d love to hear your comments on the subject.
Note that I’m giving prices for the top-level, ad-free versions of these services. Why? Because I can tell the difference between HD and 4K, even with streaming’s somewhat weak interpretation of 4K. And because commercials stink. Finally, I’m rounding up to the nearest dollar. I don’t know why this trend of ending every price in 99¢ is still with us, but I’m not going to pretend something is $5 when it’s really $6.
I’m also not considering yearly plans just because not every provider has them and I want to keep them apples-to-apples.
Netflix: $23 a month
Netflix is the granddaddy of them all, but it is definitely not worth that price. Yes, they have The Crown at the moment. That’s no longer the kind of appointment television it used to be but if you’ve gone this far with it you’re going to want to finish what you started. It’s so rare that Netflix actually has something I want to watch, and yet they are close to being the most expensive service out there.
Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+: $25 a month
You can argue if you want to that these are three separate services. But really, they aren’t. It’s no secret at all that Disney plans to combine them into one mega app and they aren’t likely to lower the price when they do it.
Hulu has a fair number of older shows, but they haven’t had a new program I’ve wanted to watch in about a year. I do like Moonlighting but it’s not worth the money.
Disney overall is in freefall, I think we all agree there. Their Star Wars shows have gotten worse even faster than predicted. Most of their Marvel fare is completely missable. And when was the last time Disney actually had a movie you wanted to watch? The last several Disney films have been poor attempts to remake past winners, while Pixar has completely lost the magic touch.
And then there’s ESPN+. I never use it. So yes, I could save $5 by going to the Duo Premium instead of the Premium. (I actually did this, but as I said I’m comparing the top tiers here.)
Max: $20 a month
In the last year we’ve all had a front-row seat to the intentional self-destruction of Warner’s streaming app. Call it HBO Max or just Max, whatever you like. The truth is that it’s become a wasteland of older content with just a few recent hits to its name.
Max has so much potential. It could be host to every single DC movie for the last 100 years, plus hundreds of culturally relevant movies from the TCM library. Instead it’s home to roughly 15,000 episodes of House Hunters. For some reason, they’ve added live news and sports. I like news and sports but the stuff they have doesn’t interest me at all.
Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: $12 a month
This app seems like a genuine deal considering how much the other ones cost. But, take out Star Trek and Yellowstone and you don’t have much. I’ll give them credit for doing some original programming, but there isn’t much I want to watch. With the recent strikes, a lot of that has been going to broadcast anyway.
The app now incorporates Showtime, which is a surprisingly small amount of content but does have the A24 library. There’s definitely some value there.
Peacock: $12 a month
I keep going back and forth on Peacock. They have done some good promotional deals in the past but is it worth $12 a month, once you consider that most of their content makes it over to Prime Video a few months later? Probably not. But then again the Olympics are just around the corner and that will probably do … something for them.
Apple TV+: $10 a month
Apple did their level best to give people a good look at their service. For many people, it was free for over two years. Recently they’ve not only raised prices but also stopped giving it away with new iPhones. The programming can’t be found anywhere else and there is a good selection of it, and the price is probably appropriate for what you get.
STARZ: $9 a month
Most people don’t think about STARZ when they choose a streaming service. It’s a shame because there’s a really deep library of content plus a fair number of original series. It’s also one of the few major services that still costs under $10 a month. Keep in mind that it wasn’t that long ago that pretty much every service was under $10 a month.
MGM+: $6 a month
The service that used to be known as EPIX is still out there. Personally I don’t find a lot there that I’m interested in, but there is a reasonably deep library of content. Much of it does make it to Prime Video eventually. That’s no surprise since Amazon owns MGM.
Prime Video: Free-ish
You can’t really put Prime Video in the same price matrix as the others since you get a lot of services when you subscribe to Prime. You may not choose to use the free music or reading apps or any of the other services, but they are there along with free shipping on practically anything Amazon sells.
Prime Video has tried to up its game with original series. They’ve mostly failed, and yet they’re rolling out a $3 fee next year if you want to keep it commercial free. I’d cancel it on pure principle but I do actually use a lot of the other services you get with Prime.
What would you cancel?
To me, canceling Netflix is a no-brainer. From there I’d go month-to-month with Disney, Max, and Paramount+. The way I’ve started to do it is to cancel after every show I watch and see how long it takes for me to want to watch something else. By going 2-3 extra weeks on every app without paying, I can cut my costs by 40% and I doubt I’ll miss much.
But hey, I want to hear from you. Do you think these prices are fair for what you get? Have you canceled anything recently? Leave a comment below!
