Your Favorite Streaming Service Is Only Getting More Expensive

"If there's one thing streaming services love more than a rebrand or a bundle, it's a price hike. In the past couple months, Peacock, Apple TV+, and even humble BritBox have raised their subscription rates. Asking customers to shell out more each month has been a part of the streaming business going back to the early days of Netflix, when it incrementally increased prices on certain tiers on an almost annual basis, and since more services began popping up to compete with the service in the past five or six years, they've been predictable additions to your streaming bills, some notable exceptions aside."

"To illustrate their ubiquity, we've rounded up as many as we could below - focusing on the major streamers' so-called "standard" paid monthly subscriptions with and without ads. For ease of comparison, we omitted stuff like bundles and tiers like Netflix "Premium" and Hulu + Live TV, as well as any services which haven't been around for at least two years or haven't had some sort of price increase. We'll update the Vulture version of this story with more services, too - and with the inevitable new price hikes when they roll out in a quarter or two."

"A few insights we noticed as we browsed the numbers: ➼ The prices for plans at Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Peacock have more than doubled since their respective launches.➼ Hulu's ad-supported rate actually dropped at one point - very much an anomaly.➼ Since launching in 2019, The Criterion Channel has never raised its prices."

Streaming services have continued raising subscription prices, with recent increases from Peacock, Apple TV+, and BritBox. Price increases trace back to early Netflix incremental hikes and have become common as more competitors entered the market. The roundup focuses on major streamers' standard paid monthly subscriptions with and without ads, excluding bundles, premium tiers, services younger than two years, and services without price increases. Notable patterns include more-than-doubling of launch prices for Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Peacock; an anomalous drop in Hulu's ad-supported rate at one point; and no price increase for The Criterion Channel since its 2019 launch. The list will be updated as new hikes occur.

Read at Vulture