What a Bundle of Top Streaming Services Will Cost You This Fall

The era of budget friendly streaming could be coming to a close as major Hollywood studios tighten their grip on customers with price hikes comparable to that of costly cable television "bundles" that consumers abandoned years ago. 

This fall, a bundle of prominent U.S. streaming services will be about $87, up from $73 just a year prior, the Financial Times reported. 

This surge is due, in part, to popular streaming services like Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery and others raising their prices as companies deal with Wall Street pressure to boost revenues and recoup significant investments in content. 

Notably, the average cost of a cable package is about $87 per month, according to SmartMove, with the cheapest option being roughly $45, and the pricier option is about $130. 

Only recently, Americans relished the perks of Hollywood’s lavish era, where media companies, flush with content and big budgets, flooded audiences with an abundance of programming at a fraction of the cost of regular pay television.

Lured by affordable prices, consumers embraced streaming services, leading to a decline in cable subscriptions. According to software company Samba TV, fewer than half of American adults have a cable subscription. 

The prospect of streaming was bright. Disney+, for instance, acquired 100 million subscribers in just 16 months with a $6.99 subscription fee, according to the FT.

Behind closed doors, media executives were plagued with concerns about an imminent crash, the publication wrote, as the billions they invested in TV shows and films dried up. With a significant rise in interest rates over the past 18 months, coupled with strikes in Hollywood, the anticipated crash materialized. 

Companies like Warner Bros and Disney, for example, shifted their business models, announcing substantial layoffs and raising subscription prices, as they looked to curb billion-dollar streaming losses. 

Even Netflix, one of the more affordable streaming services, ditched its basic $9.99 ad-free monthly subscription for a new, higher rate, of $15.49.

David Rogers, a professor at Columbia’s Business School and author of The Digital Transformation Roadmap told the Financial Times that from a business perspective, “the evolution of streaming in this direction was inevitable,” adding that “prices were destined to rise.” 

Some analysts, however, suggest streaming giants take into consideration just how much consumers are willing to pay for the incremental price hikes. 

Rich Greenfield, an analyst at financial research firm LightShed Partners, told the Financial Times that at a certain point, “you’ve got to watch out for people unsubscribing.”