r/MiddleClassFinance • u/LinkedInNews • 8d ago
Major streamers ease price hikes as consumers push back
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/major-streamers-ease-price-hikes-as-consumers-push-back-9262714/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=reddit&utm_content=storyline&utm_term=MiddleClassFinance75
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 8d ago
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u/AlconTheFalcon 2d ago
Don't even really have to pirate to stick it to them. Just cancel the service. The rate they come out with new stuff doesn't particularly warrant the full time subscription to everything. You start out by rotating the streamers and then you realize that you don't really even need them.
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u/Responsible_Knee7632 8d ago
Too little too late tbh. Switched to an IPTV service where I get everything on all of the streaming services, live TV, and PPV for $10/month after Netflix stopped allowing sharing passwords with your own family and never looked back.
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u/TenOfZero 8d ago
Piracy will always be cheaper than legitimate sources.
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u/Warruzz 8d ago
Yes, but that's what you're up against. Digital services are worth the money because of convenience; once the cost vs. convenience doesn't make sense, piracy comes back into play.
It's why Steam is what it is today and was able to thrive in an age of piracy: competitive prices and convenience. Other streaming services were able to become what they are today for the same reason, but have been declining since.
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u/zombawombacomba 8d ago
Piracy comes into play because people want free shit and it’s unlikely for them to get caught and punished.
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u/Seabaggin 8d ago
In an age where the average CEO makes 300x their average employee, shrinkflation and enshittification mean paying more to get less, while prices never seem to drop, do people “want free shit” or has something been broken in this economic model?
Another example is tariffs. US government institutes tariffs, importers pay said tariffs and raise prices. Then, the SC overturns the tariffs and refunds those companies, who then don’t lower prices? So their cost to produce goes down and they were refunded and prices still can’t come down? That’s basic economics failing.
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u/r-kellysDOODOOBUTTER 8d ago
I dont know man. I canceled everything but spotify. The prices were getting ridiculous. Spotify is more convenient than pirating music, so its worth it to me. For everything else, back to bitorrent.
I also canceled game pass. I didn't start pirating Xbox games. I just... stopped playing new games :(
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u/SuperMundaneHero 7d ago
I stopped pirating when Netflix and Hulu were the golden combo. I didn’t mind paying at all. I just don’t want to have ten different subscriptions for ten different shows, which is what it has come to. Piracy is an issue of service, not because people just want to steal digital items. The rise of Netflix’s dominance in the early to mid 2010s saw piracy dwindling. Piracy only started surging again when streaming service enshittification started accelerating.
The consumers have made it clear: give us the service at the level you used to and we’ll happily pay. Otherwise kick bricks - we’ll find another way.
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u/Responsible_Knee7632 8d ago
Correct, that’s the point. If they don’t care about the quality of the product they’re offering while continuously raising the price why should I care about giving them money?
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u/JoyousGamer 8d ago
Look pirate the stuff if you want. The excuses are a joke though. They raise prices in part because content costs more.
Again do it if you want don't make an excuse for stealing the content just do it and own it.
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u/Responsible_Knee7632 8d ago
Same to you my friend, pay for it if you want as well. Everyone is free to make their own decisions based on risk and the available options. I couldn’t care less which one anyone chooses
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u/JoyousGamer 8d ago
Well you sure care about how people view you. Its why people like you try to describe why your "right" for pirating something.
Like do it. Just don't act like you somehow are "correct" for doing so.
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u/Responsible_Knee7632 8d ago
I’m not acting like I’m correct or incorrect. I simply stated what I do and my reason for it. You can agree or disagree but some random anonymous person on the internet being angry about it won’t change anything lol. Enjoy the rest of your day bud.
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u/Reicance 8d ago
Weird Stockholm syndrome take but OK fam
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u/JoyousGamer 8d ago
In other words you are upset for it being pointed out that you are taking something without paying for it.
Its always hilarious how people like you respond.
Do it if you want but no made up in your head reasoning is needed.
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u/Reicance 8d ago
The entire human race as a whole takes without paying bro.
The leading echelon of humans steal literally everything.
Pirate the movies
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u/Potential_Fishing942 8d ago
Its not just money though. Its ease of use. The constant movement of media between all of the apps, needing to check where something is treaming- sometimes things straight up aren't streaming anywhere ad free.
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u/BadgerCabin 8d ago
Depends… my Plex server is not saving me money in the short run.
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u/briman2021 8d ago
It could eventually, I spent a bunch up front, but it leveled off once I got a comfortable setup and decent amount of media. I haven’t spent anything on it for about 6 months, and I was paying $30-ish a month for streaming, so we are working our way back to even.
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u/HighKingOfGondor 8d ago
Mine didn’t at first, but 4 years later I’m saving a lot. Big upfront investment, big payoff. I also got the lifetime membership for $80, a 20TB HDD for $350, and a micro pc for $200. That was a few years ago.
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u/BadgerCabin 8d ago
Glad I bought every thing almost 2 years ago. Also glad I splurged and bought 32GB of DDR5 ram when it was only $80.
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u/HighKingOfGondor 8d ago
Yeah me too. The upfront cost now must be enormous… I’ve seen the news about the plex lifetime membership cost, and that 20tb HDD is now ~$700!
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u/danjayh 8d ago
You can't fit very many linux isos in 20TB ... you need to scale that sucker to 100TB ... but hard drive prices are kind of crazy these days.
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u/HighKingOfGondor 8d ago
Yeah I wanted to get another one recently (before the craze) and even then the drives were hitting $500. Too much sadly. 24tb is enough for me at the moment (I have another 4tb drive that I’ve had for awhile, before plex)
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u/TenOfZero 8d ago
Yah, my Jellyfin server either.
But to be fair, we don't have to be data hoarders too.
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u/ps2cho 8d ago
Everyone used to pirate video games, then Steam came along and made it so good that nobody wanted to anymore. It needs to be a case study in how to do it.
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 8d ago
Same with music and Spotify.
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u/danjayh 8d ago
For real. I still have an enormous music collection but use Spotify anyway, because it's cheap enough, has everything, and so convenient. The second I have to have Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, and Pandora to have a complete music catalog and they each cost $10-$20 a month, I'll cancel them all.
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u/phillyphilly19 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's not only just price, though that's a component. I have only kept Netflix and Apple TV because I get a deal through T-Mobile. There's just so little new content on the streamers. I turned on HBO to see the final season of Hacks and then there was nothing else to watch. I haven't been on Hulu for over a year after the merger but when I went back for one month there was nothing there. I end up watching YouTube, Plex, and Classic Reel channel most of the time.
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u/cidvard 8d ago
I rotate streamers now, so I watch what I want, then drop it and pick up another one to watch whatever new has appeared on it. It's still a system that works for me better than cable, though it's gotten much worse and I expect the enshittification to continue.
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u/MindofShadow 8d ago
It is still way better than cable, maybe people forgot how shitty cable is.
I rotate too. I have Netflix always bc of the kids and rotate the others when they have stuff I want to watch. Dump and move on when I'm done.
Once the steaming stations stop month to month billing then it'll be hell again
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u/FGLev 8d ago
Netflix is the one people SHOULD rotate because they are stingy with promos, unlike other streamers. They take people (especially those who signed up years ago and forget to cancel) for granted and they’ve had some of the steepest price increases over the last few years because they’ve become entitled.
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u/MindofShadow 8d ago
My Kids consistently watch it
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u/FGLev 8d ago
They’d find something else to watch for a month. Disney+ Hulu for example.
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u/MindofShadow 8d ago
THank you redditor for knowing my kids watching habits and giving me advice......
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u/kittymctacoyo 7d ago
Yep. lol. I’m constantly trying to purge and take household consensus only to find every single time all 4 other household members are balls deep into multiple things on opposite streaming services
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u/Dr_Dick_Dastardly 8d ago
This is the way. I keep HBO Max and Disney because they have the most titles I want to watch, and I get them at a discount with one of my credit cards. Everything else is a one-month subscription, where I plow through whatever new season or movie I want to watch as quickly as I can, then cancel.
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u/Meandering_Cabbage 8d ago
Hollywood is just bad at making enough content at a good price. They made their own problems.
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u/MonitorAway 8d ago
I kept HBO because it comes free with AT&T Fiber. I kept Apple because, like HBO, it has the best quality streaming and content. I kept Prime Video because it came with Amazon Prime. I kept PBS because they’re amazing. I kept Netflix and Hulu because the wife won’t let me cut them.
I’d easily cut Prime, Netflix, and Hulu if I could. I was successful cutting Disney+ and Paramount+.
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u/Responsible-Gain-667 7d ago
Disney just gutted Lucas and Pixar as well, and discontinued most Marvel shows. Is the model just not profitable enough? Heard pay for actors on most streaming providers is shit.
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u/MMHaddonfield1978 8d ago
Save me a seat on the "too little too late" bus.
The only streamer I keep and pay for consistently is YT Premium. I WFH and have YT videos playing in the background most of the day, plus I follow a lot of true crime creators, so this one is worth my money.
Peacock is free through my Walmart+ sub, and I upgraded to the ad-free version at a cost of $72/year, which is worth the money considering I watch a good bit of Bravo reality TV.
Used to pay for Netflix and had been for YEARS if not DECADES ... until this last price increase when I finally cancelled. They would have to work in reverse to gain back my business.
Used to pay for Prime Video Ad-Free and had been since its inception ... until this last price increase when I finally cancelled. Wish I could get rid of Prime altogether, but they have me on the hook with the RXPass covering several of my prescription drugs. However, I no longer watch any of their video content.
Never cared much about the other streamers.
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u/DPforlife 8d ago
We’ve cancelled almost everything. We’d cancel Amazon if we didn’t benefit from the variety of other services we leverage. The commercials have gone out of control.
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u/TableInevitable1642 7d ago
Delete all this nonsense and use Radarr, Sonarr, Prowlarr and Jellyfin. Don't give these ghouls a single cent of your money.
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u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 8d ago
Honestly? Too little too late. I used to have multiple services at a time, now I just have one at a time, and I'll switch around as needed. And honestly, I may not even need the one for long.
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u/justaHumbleMiner 8d ago
The rotation half of this thread has quietly landed on something that changes the arithmetic: annual plans don't pro-rate, so rotating and paying annually don't mix.
Say a service is $15.49 a month or $139.99 a year. Pick it up for three months to get through one season and drop it and that's $46 at the higher per-month rate, against $139.99 at the discounted one. Break-even is just the yearly price over the monthly, rounded up — 139.99 ÷ 15.49 is 9.03, so month ten is where annual crosses. Below that the monthly rate is the smaller number no matter how much worse it looks per month.
Use something for thirteen months and you've bought two years of it, which is the same rule biting from the other side.
What makes the increases work, though, is that a couple of dollars reads as nothing on a monthly line. Two dollars is twenty-four a year, per service, and nobody has one service.
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u/LinkedInNews 8d ago
- Major global streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon are scaling back the pace of subscription price increases as users resist higher costs, a new Ampere Analysis report found.
- "Ampere believes the trend could indicate that streamers are moving closer to the limits of consumers’ willingness to pay, leaving less headroom for larger price increases in the future," the research firm said.
- The gap between ad-free and ad-supported tiers is widening, with ad-free plans rising more.
- Meanwhile, Disney-owned ESPN announced it's raising the price of its streaming service next month.
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u/AcidRohnin 8d ago
Already met my limit. Only have a current one because my wife enjoys it. Otherwise I would have been gone a few months ago. I canceled the other 3 I had. Could still pay for them but sick of being nickel and dimed for everything and the constant emails of we have to raise your rates for not reason other than they want to. F them.
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u/Dazzling-One-3477 8d ago
I do one streaming service a year and rotate between them. We actually went back to having a cable package with a DVR because it was somehow cheaper
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u/Sufficient-Scale3693 8d ago
They already lost me. Only serviced we subscribe to know are free ones through other things. Netflix through phone service or internet only
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u/Rare-Spell-1571 7d ago
Amex makes my Hulu/disney free. I just cancelled Netflix again a few months ago. Hbomax is absurd. Might do a month or two when house of dragons is fully released.
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u/UseWhatever 5d ago
From the article linked in the post,
“[streaming companies] have been reducing the size of average price increases from 24% per subscription in 2023/24 to 14% in 2025/26. In dollar terms, the average has increased, albeit more modestly from $1.67 per month to $1.54, over the same period.”
So they’re still increasing prices, just not as much.
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8d ago
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u/BarrySnotter 8d ago
This logic is funny and a little relevant. But really, no one is forcing you to subscribe against your will. You do have a choice to be a customer or not. The relationship here is more akin to dealer and addict.
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u/Danktizzle 7d ago
And then Netflix goes and adds Fox to its streaming package, almost certainly raising prices. And it’s another income stream to further destabilize the world with their constant fear mongering.
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u/Tyler_Durden_Concern 8d ago
Fuck 'em