Death. Taxes. All your streaming services getting a little more expensive all the time. These are the new certainties in life, it seems.
Netflix has raised the cost of its subscription repeatedly in recent years. Disney Plus, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, Peacock — practically any service you can name — charges more per month than it did a few years ago, and many of them have introduced ad breaks. As customers cancel cable more quickly than anyone expected, the studios and distributors are looking for a way to make up the lost revenue. Good shows, live sports, and movies are more in demand — and thus more expensive — than ever.
And after a decade of spending money like it was going out of style because all investors cared about were subscriber numbers, companies are looking for any way they can to improve their bottom line. They’re cracking down on password sharing, canceling shows for the tax breaks, and even selling prized content to other platforms. But the most common strategy is simply to charge you, the viewer, more.
We’re tracking all the price increases and other changes from streaming services so you can make sure you’re only paying for what you want. (We’ll also include discounts and deals, though those seem to happen less and less.) Here’s the latest: