3 tricks to save money on TV streaming as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ prices swell

Is the golden era of streaming over already? For consumers, it appears so.

That’s because many large, popular video-streaming services are raising prices—substantially, in some cases. For example, YouTube TV cost $35 per month when it debuted in 2017. Now, it costs more than double that at $72 per month. Disney recently announced it was hiking prices for its Disney+ service by a few dollars per month, from $11 to $14 for subscribers who opt for the “without ads” offering. That’s up from the $7 per month that the service cost four years ago, when it first came out. Hulu and ESPN’s streaming components, which are either wholly or partially owned by Disney, were not spared from price hikes, either.

In effect, consumers are seeing once-affordable streaming-service costs swell to the point where they’re nearing the price of a cable subscription. Subscribing to a “basket” of top streaming services this year costs roughly $87, up $10 from a year ago, and more or less equal to the $83 average cost of a cable TV package, according to a recent report from Financial Times. The high relative cost of cable—which can vary from dozens to hundreds of dollars per month, depending on a subscriber’s preferences and geographic location—likely played a large role in driving many “cord-cutters” to streaming services in the first place.

Now, add in a crackdown on password-sharing, and it’s reasonable to think that many streaming-service subscribers are likely looking at ways to save some money, even if it means dumping some subscriptions altogether.

So yes, it appears that the era of cheap streaming services is gone. Much like the era of cheap Uber rides before it.

But with that in mind, there are still a few tricks and tactics that consumers can explore to try to claw some of their money back.

#1: Churn

With many streaming services offering different tiers for subscribers including month-to-month options, it may be worth churning through services to catch up on all the content you want. That is, subscribe to a service, watch what you want for a month or two, and then cancel. Sign up for another service, rinse, repeat. This way, you’re not paying for multiple services at a time, when you may be dedicating most of your time to a single service.

#2: Leverage-free subscriptions

You may be eligible for free or discounted streaming subscriptions that are bundled with other services you already pay for. For instance, many cell phone companies give customers free subscriptions to Netflix or other services. Apple gives customers a few free months of Apple TV+ when they purchase certain products. And of course, Prime Video comes free with an Amazon Prime membership. It may be worth taking the time to see what you might be eligible for.

#3: Take advantage of always-free services

There are free streaming services out there, most of which are ad-supported. That means you can use them and you won’t have to pay a subscription fee. Examples include Freevee (which is owned by Amazon) and Pluto TV, where you’ll be able to find multitudes of movies and TV shows, although likely not many new or popular releases.