Apple TV Raising Prices Again is a Symptom of a Bigger Streaming Problem
161% Increase in Streaming Fees
Today, Apple TV bumped its monthly subscription cost another $2 per month after a price increase last year. Does it have some of the best content of any of the streaming services with shows like Silo, Severance, For All Mankind and Widow’s Bay? Absolutely. Is the company taking advantage of that to increase prices again after only a year? It sure seems so. But it’s not just them… all the streamers are doing it.
Apple TV quietly entered the streaming wars in 2019 with the very reasonable price of $4.99 per month. The company started increasing prices in 2022 and have done so annually with the exception of 2024. Today, a month of Apple TV is going to cost you $14.99 per month.
Despite the frustration of prices going up yet again, Apple TV is still among the lowest ad free subscriptions among the most popular streaming services. Here is the current monthly cost of the following ad free streamers:
Netflix - $26.99
Hulu - $18.99
Max - $18.49
Peacock - $16.99
Disney - $16.99
Amazon Prime - $14.99
Apple TV - $14.00
Paramount - $13.99
Apple is among the cheaper monthly subscription services, but when do the increases stop? Seven of the streamers increased prices again this year. If you owned each one of the steaming services, you’d be paying $141.43 per month. And if you have Cable on top of that and internet? Your entertainment budget could be rivaling your utility bills. Your streaming bill back in 2019 was only $54 per month. That is a 161 percent increase!
Why is this happening? Has the cost of making entertainment gone up 161 percent in 7 years? No. But all of these companies have to not only prove their value to parent companies, but they also have to in many cases show growth to shareholders. And once you cap out your subscriber numbers, you have to start increasing your prices to show growth.
While there are still a lot of opportunities to grow subscriptions overseas, that’s not so easy here in the United States. The population growth rate in the U.S. was only 4% from 2019 to 2026 with the bulk of that largely driven by immigration. Top that off with the fact that most young adults are growing up and staying on their parents subscriptions, streamers are having a difficult time showing growth with the current U.S. customer base. Don’t be surprised when streamers start to limit the number of IP logins because as soon as they figure out that you aren’t going to cancel your subscription as a result, it’s going to happen.
What can you do about it?
- Stay on top of your monthly subscriptions. Don’t let the streamers take your hard earned money because you don’t like starting and stopping service. Only pay when there is something you like to watch.
- Binge seasons of your favorite shows and cancel them until the shows return.
- Canceling a subscription will frequently trigger a discount that you can take advantage of.
- Tell adult children with jobs depending on you to pay for streaming services that it’s okay for them to get their own subscription if yours is currently canceled.
- Limit the number of streaming services you subscribe to. Make them earn your money by providing content you just can’t miss.
