This year, inflation has impacted essential needs and wants like; food, Starbucks, McDonald’s hash browns, gas and now, streaming services.
Over-the-top (OTT) platforms offer no ad subscriptions, however, these services continue to increase prices. What is the ultimate strategy for raising the price? From the start, Netflix had every TV series and movies on their platform. Now, there are streaming competitors like Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+ and others that take those movies off Netflix’s shelf. Subscribing to one OTT (no ads) is $20 a month. Now, subscribing to multiple that are also $20 a month equates to someone spending $200-$300 a year on streaming services.
Netflix has always been known to have zero ads from the start. However, the service created the standard subscription (with ads) in late 2022. This incentivized them to increase the prices due to password sharing and multiple household logins. Netflix has two extra tiers that offer no ads but there are limits to these plans.
The Netflix features of the standard (no ads) plan offers to watch on two supported devices at a time, watch in high definition (HD), download to two supported devices at a time and an option to add one extra member who doesn’t live with you. The premium plan offers to watch on four supported devices, watch in Ultra HD, download to six supported devices, and an option to add two extra members who don’t live with you. This is according to the Netflix help center website on plans and pricing.
Originally, the Netflix premium was $17.99 and jumped to $19.99 by January. 2022. However, another increase happened earlier this year in January making premium subscription $22.99 monthly.
Delta student Beverly Prudente voiced her opinion on Netflix’s new policy on password sharing.
“My cousin let me use her Netflix account since COVID. I do remember hearing about Netflix cracking down on password sharing and resisting certain households sharing accounts. But once Netflix changed their policy, I couldn’t log into my cousin’s account anymore. I was pissed. I eventually got my own account but sometimes I feel like it’s not worth it,” Prudente said.
Disney+ was originally $6.99 a month when it came out in 2019 with zero ads. It increased to an extra dollar in 2021. By Dec. 2022, Disney+ offered the premium deal where the price was $10.99 with no ads. This past October, the streaming service increased its premium deal to $13.99 a month.
Recently, Hulu notified the no-ads subscribers that its price will spike from $14.99 to $17.99 by Nov. 19.
As an OTT consumer, there are cheaper options.
If you don’t mind watching the same ads on any of these services, you will be paying less than $10 per month. With the Netflix standard plan (with ads) $6.99 a month. Hulu’s regular plan (ad-heavy) is $7.99 a month. Disney+ Basic (ads) is also $7.99 a month.
If you’re looking for a better deal, college students can receive discounts from a few streaming services, with proof of enrollment:
- Hulu offers $1.99 a month (with ads – but don’t sleep on this deal)
- Paramount+ offers 25 percent off students’ subscriptions, making it $4.50 a month
- Amazon Prime offers students a six-month free trial. The student discount includes more benefits on top of being a Prime member. Once the trial is over it’s $7.49 a month.