After years of inflation, Americans are used to sticker shock. But nothing compares to the surging price of streaming video.
Last week, Apple TV+ became the latest streaming service to raise its price—up from $6.99 to $9.99 per month—following the example of Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Netflix, which all hiked their prices in October.
Half of the major streaming platforms in the U.S. now charge a monthly fee that’s double the price they charged when they initially came to market. And many of these streaming services haven’t even been around for 10 years.
i finally said fk it and dumped cable earlier this year, even though i can’t pick-up locals off an antenna where i am–was pretty much the only reason i had it.
haven’t subbed to an online service in over a year. the free services have been enough. currently in month two of a free trial month at prime and have pretty much run out of things to watch there. as work quiets down here til feb, i’ll probably sub to a service for a single monthly cycle over the holiday to have something ‘extra’ to pick from.
i also have my hdds of mp4, plus discs and even tapes to fall-back on, too, but i won’t ever go back to cable unless they change their entire model, and i don’t see myself ever subbing to a service full-time (it would have to be a sweetheart annual deal) or having multiple subs at once. i really liked having that extra cash in my pocket from dumping cable–too bad my greedy landlord wanted, too.