Consumers, despite their ultra-foul mood, are not pushing back with waves of cancellations that would keep a lid on streamflation.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
Inflation is in services, which is where consumers do two-thirds of their spending. These services include streaming, which may only be a small slice of a household’s monthly expenditures, compared to housing costs, healthcare, insurance, and other services. But inflation has raged in streaming as companies have jacked up their rates year after year by large percentages, and in 2025, they went all out, including +30% for Apple TV and +37% for Peacock Premium.
And consumers – who, according to all these consumer surveys, are in an ultra-foul mood and think the economy stinks to high heaven or whatever – are still buying the subscriptions despite these mega-price increases, and they’re paying the higher prices, instead of cancelling their subscriptions, and so the beating will continue until the mood improves?
Obviously, the only thing that could put a lid on those price increases would be a massive wave of cancellations that would push the companies to roll back those price increases. Companies can see the cancellations in real time after they announce the price hikes, and there are some cancellations due to price hikes, but the massive waves needed to push companies to roll back those price hikes just aren’t happening yet.
That this inflationary mindset among consumers persists and allows for inflation to continue to burn at red-hot rates in streaming services is a bad sign for overall inflation in services.
There were also some cancellations for various political or social reasons over the years, but those were unrelated to price hikes and didn’t trigger price rollbacks.
And then there is the flow of new subscribers, as households who hadn’t subscribed, start a subscription, and as households add more subscriptions.
Paramount announced price increases for Paramount+ on November 11, effective January 15, monthly:
- Essential (with ads): +12.5% to $8.99 (from $7.99)
- Premium (no ads): +7.7% to $13.99 (from $12.99).
Disney+ jacked up prices effective October 28, monthly:
- Basic with ads: +20.0% to $11.99 (from $9.99)
- Premium (no ads): +18.8% to $18.99 (from 15.99).
HBO Max hiked its prices in October, monthly:
- Basic with ads: +9.1% to $10.99 (from $9.99)
- Standard no ads: +8.8% to $18.49 (from $16.99)
- Premium: +9.5% to $22.99 (from $20.99)
Hulu also jacked up prices in October. It sells a large variety of bundles. Standalone Hulu with ads: +18.2% to $11.99 (from $9.99), monthly.
Apple TV announced price increases in August: +30%, to $12.99 (from $9.99), monthly.
Peacock jacked up its prices in July, monthly:
- Premium: +37.5% to $10.99
- Premium Plus: +21.4% to $16.99 (from $13.99).
Netflix raised its prices in January 2025, monthly:
- Standard with ads: +14.3% to $7.99 (from $6.99)
- Standard (no ads): +16.1% to $17.99 (from 15.49)
- Premium: +8.7% to $24.99 (from $22.99)
There are discounts available when subscribers pay for a year’s worth of subscription all at once up front. And subscribers can get discounts via joint promos with other companies, such as AmEx, which offers streaming credits on some of its cards.
There are also bundles of different streaming services available whose price, as hefty as it may be, is cheaper than the combined price of each individual service, harkening back to the bad old days of cable TV bundles.
And consumers can downgrade from an ad-free service to an ad-supported service and save some money or add more subscriptions without driving up the total too far.
Companies have spent billions of dollars buying sports programming, and they have shuffled programming around, and some have stripped some programming from basic streaming services. So prices alone may not reflect the whole picture.
Since 2019, subscriptions have soared, according to the WSJ:
- Disney+ +172%
- Apple TV +160%
- Peacock +120%
- Hulu +58%
- Paramount+ +40%
- Netflix +38%
- HBO Max +23%
Yet, despite the price increases, households keep adding streaming services: The number of streaming services subscribed to by households that have streaming rose to a record 4.5 services per household on average in 2025, up from 4.2 per household in 2022, and up from 1.6 in 2015, according to the WSJ.
And households keep spending more on streaming: Average subscription revenue per household that subscribes to streaming rose by about 37% in three years to $38 in 2025 (from $30 in 2022), and by 280% since 2015.
Which tells us something about our always astonishing “Drunken Sailors,” as we’ve lovingly and facetiously come to call them: Whatever foul mood they may be in, according to consumer sentiment surveys, they just keep spending more, even on discretionary services, such as streaming, and even when prices get jacked up by the double-digit percentages.
In case you missed it:
Food Inflation: The Price Spikes of Beef, Coffee, Eggs, and Dairy
Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? You can donate. I appreciate it immensely. Click on the mug to find out how:
This is why I pirate everything.
Look Napster, we need to talk…
😆
Please don’t pirates are illegal
Get ready for more price increases next year as well. Except for Netflix, the other streamers don’t make enough money through subscription revenue to cover current expenses. The streamers are still in an arms race for premium content like sports. Those content acquisitions have yet to be incorporated into the streaming rates.
I wonder how much of this is also due to market manipulation.
The NFL now approves an annual schedule with games dispersed among Sunday, Monday, Thursday, occasional Saturdays. The televising of these games is a mix of streamers: ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, NFL Network, Peacock, Amazon Prime…..viewers have to subscribe individually or purchase costly packages of streamers.
The NFL orchestrates these contracts. Oligopoly power being exercised to the max.
For me, to pay $83.00 a month totaling $993.00 a year for YoutubeTV is no longer of value. Not just its monthly price but its ever increasing ads make sporting events unwatchable. I understand many people are OK with all of this but I’m out.
Exactly. What are people’s problems.
Canceled these long time ago
Disney+ +172%
Apple TV +160%
Peacock +120%
Hulu +58%
Good bye
I think people consider $1 minute in the big scheme, and do not consider it %12.5.
The same way it is only just $2 increase and not 20%
What is another $1 a month to see what I want.??
It is just $1.
That is most likely why there is no revolt yet.
People have not added up all the $1 and $2 increases for all their streams to see that it is alot at the end of the month or end of the year.
I get mine free through other products. I would never pay for any of that.
As a shareholder, subscription model was the best Silicon Valley “invention” (I know they didn’t invent it, but there was a day when you actually just bought perpetual licenses for digital products).
As a consumer I’m growing tired.
As a manufacturing worker that provides essential items (petroleum energy), I’m a bit exhausted by constant media attention any time prices come up modestly. Real prices are basically flat for decades. Yet we’re gouging consumers when there is a supply imbalance. Sure seems like the ones gouging sit somewhere in the south bay.
If people want lower carbon solutions, I think I can point to exactly where the extra $20-40/mo that would need to come from….
…..but renewable sources are the least expensive and least dependent on the petro-chemical market. Energy is sold by contract to the highest bidder, but the price to the seller can swing from good to bad in oil production. There are thousands of drilled oil holes waiting for the market price to make them profitable again. You fit into that category. Oil production is more expensive as the oil depletes from the underground reservoir, now the sun doesn’t shine everyday or the wind blow everyday, but…….
We could make liquid hydrocarbons with 0 global warming potential at maybe a $1-2/gal premium to today’s prices. They would have no infrastructure build out impacts. No batteries that exist in order of magnitude larger sizes than the largest today. No issues with a month of gray February weather.
That’s a unacceptable market outcome. We’re talking a 33% market level correction to solve the problem.
Unacceptable. 500% SaaS inflation on Microsoft Word? Totally acceptable.
Hypocrisy. No one actually cares.
Too bad almost everything we need for modern civilization requires petroleum
Plastics
Rubber
Fertilizer
Solvents
Asphalt
Paint
Sealants
Syringes
Hoses
PCV
printed circuit boards
Lubricants
Foam insulation
Chemical plants
On top of that, refining the oil automatically creates gasoline and diesel. How do we dispose of the waste?
Waste or co-products?
O&G markets are also heavily influenced by political events/interventions.
As the climate change fear mongering abates (none of the predictive analytics have held up) and subsidies are reduced/eliminated, perhaps renewables prices will flex to true market price that accounts for external diseconomies (dead whales, fishing industry impacts, toxic wind props, politicization of where this infrastructure is located, water costs for solar panel cleansing, huge tracts of forest cuts, etc.) as well as base band reliability, battery creation and retirement/recycling and E2E distribution (end points).
In my own mind, renewables will fid its place as an adjunct, not a solution, and the weather vane still points to modular nuclear solutions with ramped up O&G in the “short-run” (10-30 years).
Anyone paying attention will have noticed that pricing of off-shore O&G companies (along with off-shore O&G discovery/development CAPEX) has escalated appreciably since July – same can be said for associated shipping companies.
The volatility in all of this has increased substantially. Caveat Emptor!
Meant to post …..O&G off-shore services companies…..
Note to the entity know as Wolf – Inflation is raging in just about everything…It’s OK if you’re late to the party – I can show you around.
BTW – what are streaming services? My mashed potatoes are more expensive, but still yummy.
Mashed potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I’ve never tried eating Streaming Services.
You have obviously read absolutely zero articles here about inflation — not even this article, not even the first paragraph of this article — or else you would not have made this comment. So read the inflation articles here to get an education:
https://wolfstreet.com/category/all/inflation-devaluation/
One of the themes in this article and my other articles on inflation is that inflation has been and continues to be in services, and this was another example of inflation in services.
“Inflation is raging in just about everything”
Ignorant BS. Since their peaks in 2022, price of gasoline has collapsed, used vehicle prices have plunged, new vehicle prices have eased, prices of consumer electronics have plunged, etc.
…….but has the price to the consumer been reduced to a 2% yearly increase the last decade? That’s the rub, Wolf. Yes, the attained rise in prices has fallen in industry’s that are cyclical. Any insurance is much more inflated and not coming down.
Inflation is in labors costs and spills over to everything else. The only solutions are to reduce wages or increase productivity. Which do you want?
Go to Trading Economics and you will see nearly every commodity is closer to 4 year lows than highs.
Get the government crazies to stop spending like drunken sailors. Ask the FR to at least rationalize its approach to OMC and rate setting actions that commit to funding gov’t excess – QE, as Wolf documents, was absolutely off the charts. He has also noted the lingering impacts of way excessive Covid stimmy monies.
Executive policies 2020-2022 and FR inability to make near real time decisions (it’s “transitory” rather than Houston we have a problem) led to large increases in the rate of inflation. This whole affordability meme currently roiling social media has its roots in that mismanagement. The irony is that the very folks who supported that mismanagement (to include Modern Monetary Theory enthusiasts) are the loudest wankers in this affordability theatre – across the political spectrum.
Abysmal gov’t. Deliberately obfuscating soapboxing. It’s an irresponsible mess….that is going to get worse given current political currents.
This might be the dumbest shit I have seen on this site. Ignorant bs
Be thankful you don’t see the shit Wolf deletes (from people like me, et al)!
Redundant,
I delete your stuff when it’s a result of digging through the internet until you find something you don’t understand and then spin a grand theory out of it, on the foundation of what you don’t understand, which is what you do, and have been doing for years. And more recently, I have to deal with AI-generated stuff on this site, and much of the time I delete it, hallucination or not. This is the reason why I have encouraged you over the years to start your own blog so you can post whatever. And you have done so and have your own Substack, and that’s where this stuff belongs — not here. Your comments when you actually stay away from AI and internet search generally pass.
I get language practice from the phenomenal amount of dubbing Netflix does, worth every penny. I would pay even more. The *motivated* professionals and youth of other countries are developing fantastic English skills this way.
PlutoTV – free
Tubi – free
Plex – free
Roku – free
No streamflation hitting me!
Same here, and there are many other lesser known free channels you didn’t mention (e.g. Kanopy, Fawesome, RetroMovie, etc.) with hundreds of additional top-tier movies that do not overlap the ones you have mentioned. The only thing my household “buys” at this point is Prime, which has benefits outside of streaming.
LOL
Use the “evil” Russian internet yndx and see any movie you want….free. Cyber wars are here!
I’m right with you! I cut cable 2 yrs ago, tried YoutubeTV then cut it when they continued to rise rates for BS programming(when I said “goodbye” to youtube they offered to rollback price for 6 months LOL. So now I just pay for fiber connection which is provided by my city (!). Thing I love is because such a small place 22k population, I get a human on the phone for anything related to connection. Plus, i leave for an extended vacation, I turn off service, no charges! Easy. I have a feeling that the remaining cable/phone/voice big corps are kinda like heading for extinction. Oh and throw in the steaming services,their content is bread and circus.
Not quite the same but similar – I had Amazon Prime a few years ago. When they changed the Amazon Music and moved it to a paid streaming type thing, even though I had already prepaid for the year, I didn’t cancel right away. I simply didn’t renew it. I’m not paying for Bezo’s yacht fuel for 15-seconds if he’s gonna be dirty about it.
Free cuz you are giving them your time to watch ads, which they receive revenue from.
Sure you can go do laundry or whatev when they come on.
YouTube is the worst, for these ads. 😩
I have noticed that my YouTube ads are significantly shorter than adds that friends have. My hypothesis is that Google uses income data from shopping habits, online income surveys, location data, etc. where data are aggregated with a formula to generate “optimized” ad time on YouTube per person per device. I suspect Google tiptoes the line to put in just enough ads for just enough time to get folks to either subscribe to YouTube TV or not reduce their YouTube watch time. For the few online surveys I’ve done, I’ve selected my income as below the poverty line.
Interestng… so lower income –> shorter ads?
How many ads a YouTube video has, what type, and even if there are ads at all, is selected by the content provider. And they all seem to do in-video promotions, too.
I just let the ads play while I do something else. Just like the Ads on TV.
One reason we don’t go to movies is because you can’t IGNORE the ads.
Adblock browser
Wish there was a way to record the free streaming services so I could skip through the ads.
Cable tv prices went up even more during this time frame. Once you’re committed to cord cutting, you can switch services without the hassles of contract terms or being without services. Additionally, you don’t pay FCC and local license franchise fee, forced to buy packages you don’t use, equipment rental, and whatever else the cable operator wants to stick to you. We’re currently on Hulu Live+ with no ads and saving over $100 vs Cox Cable who raised prices several times in less than a year despite no contract period expiration. Even with a contract, they manage to raise their prices.
Verizon is now the worst offender in the voice world. Every few months a $5 charge added. I call and ask why. 1st, can’t speak to human, stuck in endless phonetree, if I can get to human its from an call center where everyone speaks from prepared text. One human “person” told me the added charge was for 5G system, I told them they don’t offer 5G coverage in my out of the way location, then they said it was inflation. Its all a farce.
It’s for dividends
Now that cable and satellite are going the wayside, the cost of TV entertainment deflated tremendously. So, it’s not surprising people subscribe to three or four providers. The wise folks choose one, watch everything, and then move on to another.
They are wise to that strategy. It’s why all of them offer you endless streams of very low quality content.
Entertainment is an inferior good and excellent for coping with the enshitification of everything else. I’ve cancelled most services due to the price hikes and substitution with better content. Most people won’t.
I’m saying the inflation here is also a barometer of how bad everything else is and will probably persist if other inflation slows down. Job losses, anyone?
So companies are raising prices on something that can be cancelled with like 3 clicks, consumers are still paying it, and your answer is “they are doing it because everything sucks”
Okay lol
Many people prefer to distract themselves rather than face difficult problems and uncomfortable feelings. Why go to the gym and break a gnarly sweat when watching Netflix on the couch is an option tonight? Movie theater of all movie theaters accessible in the living room—anything you want to watch. These streaming platforms make entertainment access frictionless.
I refuse to be hijacked by them.
If you asked people if they want to live 20-30 years longer they would almost all say yes.
If you asked people if they want to recoup 20-30% of their waking hours each day to use however they want by not “watching TV” in all its forms they would likely refuse.
a bunch came “free” with my spectrum package but that cable price went up. I’d rather cheaper cable bill and no apps
Cancel my subscription to the e-ressurection. Send my credentials to the e-house of detention. When the movie’s over, you still own the disk, still own the disk, still own the disk.
Cause the movie is your special friend…
Canceling services is fairly easy. Canceling them in a household with multiple viewers and a variety of preferences is, unfortunately, more difficult.
But this getting ridiculous. Thanks!
You could simply cancel all of them and then let individuals decide what they personally want to see, paid for individually.
We gave the kids an recreation/entertainment allowance (rather than paying for things ourselves), and discovered they have a marvelous talent for prioritization and frugality!
Our streaming here is Prime (which we have for other reasons), Spotify and a special $8/month app focused on a sport we love.
Streaming price increases seem bad when viewed in isolation, but compare to what people used to pay for cable. I used to pay $180/month for 200 channels of ad-filled garbage. Now if 5 streaming services cost less than $100/month with better content and no ads, not a bad exchange in my book. And because series seasons are 1 or even 2 years apart, I can cancel services while waiting for new seasons. Last month I cancelled Apple, and will re-up for new seasons of 4 series I care about.
That said, I fear the era of consumer technology getting continuously cheaper is over, or at least on pause for the foreseeable future.
Now it’s internet that has gone up instead.
I cannot even watch Apple TV. Their production value and acting is just weird.
No offense but I think it’s because they pretend Canada is the US.
You’re filming in Canada, look I can tell. Stop trying to trick me into thinking it’s the US. If it was the US in the 50’s.
At least LowDown had the decency to film in Oklahoma, yeah it looks painful but you can tell it’s not friggin Canada. (Which I’m sure is beautiful in its own way…I’d come here too though… lol)
Yes. Apple TVs style is strange. I noticed it with their show Silo-which is all indoors inside a studio set or green screens I suppose.
Also, being filmed in Canada or USA is interchangeable to most of the world. It looks “North American” enough.
I get why people are still paying for the streaming services. Still much cheaper than going to a movie. And it matches a lifestyle which has become even more sedentary.
Also there’s the fear of missing out and the ability to actually discuss the latest shows at work, for appearances.
I think streaming services can probably jack up the prices even further before people start to quit
Predator Badlands made $90 million in its opening weekend I think.
That’s like nine million people spent $10 to go see a hunty monster thing with half of Elle fanning strapped to its hunty monster back.
There’s the problem, right there.
It’s amusing that you think movies in a theater still cost $10. I worked in a movie theater in college but I’ll never set foot in one again. Much cheaper just to watch it at home.
Hoopla and Kanopy are also free, I use both with my library card.
Morningstar the investment review service is also free thru some libraries.
$249 value , a year.
Thanks I’ll check my library for content availability.
Anyone remember when cable first came out.
The selling point was…..pay for the service and there will be no ads.
That didnt last long. Now saturated with ads
I watched “cable TV” for the first time in Marin in the mid 70’s. Cable was not available in the most of San Mateo County until the early 80’s (right about the time MTV – that always had commercials started). I am not a big sports fan or TV watcher so I have never had cable TV at home (like my parents) but we have a ($364.98/month) cable package from Optium at the cabin since most AirBnB renters want cable TV.
Currently i am streaming star trek Picard, i bought a year of paramount on sale. Smart money is active and showing their intent the last 15 minutes of each trading day. in the last 9 out of 11 trading days they have sold that last 15 minutes with good volume in the SP 500. Dow 30 ripped 2000 points in 4 days to new highs, the AI bubble looks fractured to my eyes no official confirmation yet. buy the rumor sell the news event with the official end of the govt shutdown with the house. Where is the liquidity after the liquidity suck up?
It’s easy — and valid — to bitch about this, but in the context of entertainment, it’s still the cheapest option. What would it cost to take a family of 4 to the movies? $100 + $50 on popcorn and soda? You could sign up for almost all of the streaming services and break even. Which is why no one goes to the movies anymore.
When was the last time you went to a concert? Or a play? I was an avid concert goer in my younger days. Today, I’m not laying out $200 for a ticket to contribute to some aging has-been’s retirement fund. I’ll stay home and watch the video.
Perhaps it will hit a wall at some point and subscribers will start to pull back, but as Wolf points out, the increases will continue until that does.
Brad,I agree concerts have become pretty damn expensive,been going since a kid of 12 in 1975 and have literally thru the decades seen over 500 shows,not so much these days.
I recently saw Tesla(the band,not the cyber dumpster) and 45 bucks for great seats,me beer and other items a bit more.
I recently paid 150 a seat and saw ZZ Top(great show!),that said,was 3rd row dead center and worth it to me.
I can see families on a tight budget cannot afford these prices and others that are much higher for many shows/sporting events ect.
That said,as I stream for free everything others pay for(thank you!)can stretch budget for a few shows.
“recently paid 150 a seat and saw ZZ Top”
Their beards gotta be like 12 feet long by now.
so Wolf hasn’t addressed beardflation? I see them everywhere these days.
This is part of my series about inflation in specific product categories. Not “bitching.”
Wolf, regarding inflation. I’ve seen a lot of sudden talk yesterday and today about the reverse repo program and how the Fed is basically going to restart QE and the markets will go through the roof. Do you think this will also cause inflation to surge or will it just push up hard assets? Or is it just the bologna sandwich?
People/media out there who say the Fed will restart QE soon are effing liars. Eventually the Fed will let the balance sheet grow with the size of the economy, as it ALWAYS DID before QE. Letting the balance sheet grow with the size of the economy is NOT QE. Those effing idiots out there that promote this BS are trying to manipulate the markets. But anyone above the janitor at Wall Street firms knows exactly what that means when the Fed lets the balance grow with the economy, and that this is NOT QE.
I blacklist commenters who abuse my site to spread these effing lies on my site. This is not funny.
Here is the Fed’s balance sheet before QE, before 2008:
Wolf,
What exactly was the Fed buying (growing its balance sheet) during the time period on the chart?
And, looking at the Slope and working backwards, was the Fed “balance sheet” a lot closer to…zero, in 1999?
It was engaging in repos (which is why the chart is so jagged), lots of repos. And in terms of securities, it had T-bills mostly.
Getting back to this has been their goal. We shall see if they can do it and stay independent, or if they get subsumed into the current insanity. I only give it 50/50.
There are a lot of crazy outcomes we hope to avoid to return to stability, and this was a time that for all the other problems on the way, was supremely stable.
Keep up the good work, and hope for the best.
Wolf
Can you show any charts of that pre .com bubble?
The time series I can download from the Fed only goes back to 2002. The Fed has the weekly balance sheets posted going back to 1996, but not in time series format. So it would be a lot of work for me to put this together.
But someone (Nicholas Fries) dug through the archives for an academic paper, “Insights from the Federal Reserve’s Weekly Balance Sheet, 1976-2017.” And those are his charts.
Chart #1 (blue line) shows total assets in dollars 1975-2015. You see how they steadily increased from 1975 to 2008, and then ballooned.
Chart #2 (red line) shows total assets as percent of GDP: throughout that time from 1976 to 2008, the balance sheet has grown with GDP. The balance sheet has always grown with the economy until QE was used and the TGA was added in 2009, both of which caused the assets-to-GDP ratio to balloon.
Thank you for the chart. That doesn’t ring any alarm bells for you? They didn’t have those “spikes” we’ve had since 08 prior to .com
Its been the same bubble continually reflated no? The only strategy they seem to employ is fake it till you make. Except i don’t think we actually have the available cheap energy to “make it”.
The spikes since 2008 have rung huge alarm bells — and this site is full of them. But we had $2.4 trillion in QT, and now they’re making baby steps back to the pre-2008 period in terms of shedding all their MBS and shift from long-term securities holdings gradually to T-bills and repos.
Wolf,
These are the very helpful charts I was looking for.
With all the shortcomings of GNP (one wonders why not GDP…), the second chart really tells the tale of American macroeconomic destabilization post 2000.
1) Continuous relative macro decline,
2) Punctuated by periodic massive crises due to half-*ssed “solutions” to #1,
3) “Salvaged” by the Fed printing money to buy Treasuries (and occasionally other crapola) to keep interest rates from exploding,
4) Yielding, inevitably, more (sometime much more) domestic inflation than there would have otherwise been the case.
Apple TV generally puts out good content but I just subscribe for one month and binge watch that service and cancel. But as others have mentioned streaming services, despite their price hikes, are still a deal compared to most other forms of entertainment such as concerts. It really too bad on concerts as artists could legally only allow transfer of tickets, not resell, but for whatever reasons, outside of Robert Smith, they don’t. 2 tickets to see you Cure at Shoreline cost me $80 total. Would have been double that or more if robots bought up all tickets and put up for resale.
To me these streaming services are much like satellite radio. I enjoy the service but I am only willing to pay so much for it. I currently have so many entertainment options that I cannot possible consume them all. Most have been added to my Spectrum cable service. If that starts increasing by much I will be cutting.
Microsoft increased the price of their Xbox consoles and Game Pass service by a lot this year. They did get hit with massive cancellations and no one is buying their video game consoles anymore. Streamers may put up with price increases, but gamers are pushing back. Microsoft price increases did get a bit out of control though. Game Pass Ultimate went from $20 a month to $30. Ouch!
Good to know.
The last time I was a gamer was when the Atari 2600 was hot, but I’ve maintained a very casual interest since then.
I did kinda have a feeling that MS Xbox was fading as a major competitor in the space – I guess that only leaves Sony Playstation, computers, and smartphones, right?
Nintendo as well. I’m not sure if they’re a true competitor or simply doing their own thing. Mind you both PlayStation and Nintendo also increased their prices, but not to the greedy extent that Microsoft did.
Also Steam just announced new hardware. So they may eat Microsoft’s lunch regarding hardware going forward. They already ate it with gaming PC storefront after all.
Yes. Technically you can game on the phone, and that’s were most of the money seems to be. Though most gamers prefer consoles or PCs, but if prices get too high, gamers tend to balk and push back.
Maybe streamers can take a page from the gamers book and not compare streaming to going to concerts/film theaters or going on vacation or whatever-but to the actual activity of streaming itself and push back. Concert tickets got really expensive and people stopped going. Going to the movies got expensive so people stopped going.
I’ve often thought that the used console/game market was ripe for growth (I know there is already a market there, just small relative to the “new” market).
Basically because having patience and be willing to be one generation behind might allow for 50%+ cost savings on consoles/games. Not that different from used cars – with potentially higher savings.
it is interesting to hear that MS/Xbox was willing to lean hard on price increases (I always perceived them as #2 to Sony, in the running to catch Sony…but just never making it).
Baselined against against a $6-7 venti latte streaming is a great deal even at prices higher than these.
The market has demonstrated it will bear higher prices per person per hour than these.
When kids are door dashing burger king for $15-20, they are not going to balk at paying similar prices for many hours of content a month
This attitude — widespread among consumers — that the subscriptions are a good deal is exactly why the streamers can keep jacking up prices like this. Consumers encourage companies to jack up prices. That’s how you get inflation.
Inflation, paid for with Klarna.
Can I pay it in 16 installments?
Norway makes it possible!
How did they even ok this company? Some US Senator just thought Norway wasn’t capable of such evil.
“That’s how you get inflation”
Well, er, maybe that’s how you *keep* getting inflation…but I think there are a few much bigger players who play a much bigger role in initiating it…
I have been watching Youtube free movies with an ad blocker. I will be canceling Netflix again soon. I subscribe for a year, cancel for a few years….I’m in cancel mode again.
Am I the only one with a VPN and torrent software?
People hate waiting for stuff to download.
Everyone sane here is afraid of lawsuits friend.
Big Media has deep pockets
The good news is you can get by just fine without any of these services.
Yes, that’s why they’re “discretionary” services, unlike insurance or housing costs, which is why the lack of push-back from consumers about these price hikes is so concerning.
Yes discretionary. I don’t see any mention of the TV over airwaves that’s available similar to when I was a kid(68) what 50 years ago .
When I lived overseas I managed without tv cable or streaming . Books were terrific
The key is discretionary and I don’t see many here sounding an alarm about canceling except for those that already have canceled . A bunch of sailors here for sure wanting digital content .
I have 1 Amazon prime and supposedly paramount plus with my Walmart account but I can’t get it on my streaming box
Concerning but very consistent with another wave of inflation incoming.
Demographics might play a big role in demand for streming services as the population grows older. In addition to being a part time landlord, I work in home Healthcare because schedule is somewhat flexible and allows me to work up until (and beyond) I decide to start collecting SS. Currently 2 out of 3 clients I work with are mostly or completely immobile and have TV on all the time. One brags about all her streaming options the other I’ve observed a neighbor stop in periodically to pay the monthly internet/streaming bill (something like $150+) because he can’t afford it himself. It’s all they have to pass the what time remains of the time on Earth. They will cut what they spend on cat food before they give up streaming. Thank goodness I canceled my online TV decades ago when I was shocked at Comcast prices and doubled down on physical media but that too has its own unique inflationary issues.
Note to all loyal Wolfists, please check out Stremio + RealDebrid + Torrentio. Very easy to setup, no ads, everything (even live tv) for ~$3/mo. Search it on reddit, there’s good setup guides there.
Sadly the majority of people using stream services just never cancel the subs until the credit card they are using changes. Companies automatically charging people without ever forwarding a confirmation alert to inform the consumer. The blame all gets put on the consumer for “not cancelling”, but these practices are intentionally unethical.
Agreed…auto-charge, auto-renewal accounts for a *huge* proportion of subscription-based companies’ revenue stability.
Strip that out and 90% of subscription-based companies would collapse.
I was about to post that I wonder how many people simply forget about these recurring charges. I’d guess a lot.
The factors driving growth could be increased quality of the content, increased quality of the screens, and increased costs of alternative entertainment. Or the home page algo might have discovered that pushing content that matches the viewers’ tastes is more successful than pushing content with an extreme social agenda.
It’s interesting that when there are online games, online video chat, and online gambling, the sit-and-watch content is preferred. Maybe it’s escapism. People will pay to not see cities burn, etc. At least not their cities.
“the sit-and-watch content is preferred”
Very seldom discussed, but I wonder if there is a natural human biological brain phenomenon wherein passive viewing is much more *relaxing* (“turning my brain off”) than having to be engaged actively (online games = too activating, surprisingly closer to “work”).
Video games are very popular – but usually among the non-working. Heavily employed people I think overwhelmingly prefer passive TV.
Considering the monumental popularity of TV watching (in every form, in every nation, ever since it was created) I really do wonder if there is some degree of biological tie in.
Its the same as when we were small tribes sitting around a fire staring at it. Next you you have a fire watch how you’ll mindlessly stare at it like you would a tv. I am firmly in the belief that the field of psychology hasn’t been used to help people, but how to better manipulate them and control them.
You must have read Propaganda by Edward Bernays, the father of modern propaganda and mass persuasion. His ideas are the bedrock of modern mainstream communication.
No TV in my house. Hence, no cable.
I also don’t subscribe to any streaming services that charge money.
OTOH, I do watch YouTube. For the most part, I enjoy it.
It used to be that Netflix funded some stunning stuff, and they still do.
But I watched a real blooper the other day about weird bats and it had that Tucci guy in it… it was like a mix of Reign of Fire and Tremors 2… but worse, with what felt like no story or character arcs or anything.
Right now it’s my canary in the coal mine. Netflix, peak price, peak crap commissioning?
And Amazon Prime, half the time I can’t watch it as it crashes when playing adverts, or thru pause/reset and I watch advert after advert.
Plus their online shopping ends up taking days now.
I’ve got Rachel Reeves (the UK chancellor of the Exchequer) saying I need to pay more tax because I’m not a working person and I have broad shoulders because my house is a bit bigger than average.
Netflix and Amazon will be the first to go!
I may be old, but I find that most of the newer movies and shows on the streamers are 1) Not targeted at folks over 60, 2) Lack strong actors/actresses, 3) Story plots are often fake or overly complex, 4) Too woke – how many shows do you see of a minorty or white women beating the hell out of a big guy(s), that does not happen in real life
Someone, please tell me where I can watch good-quality TV, and I’ll pay for it.
Non existent for content in my opinion (68 yrs old) including sports
I will not be held hostage by streaming “services” that charge you then also commercial you to death, not counting your internet charge.
When I remodeled I had every room wired for a good old fashioned antenna on the house. There are 40 plus digital channels (granted 1/3 you don’t want) for free on the old fashioned commercials for tv model.
The expanded over the air selection was required by the govt when they allowed broadcasters to switch to digital obsoleting all the old CRT televisions.
Its funny, I talk to people my age even, 63, tell them I have an antenna and they say “whats that”? Under 50 is totally clueless about broadcast tv.
Consumer indoctrination into whats a necessity these days, lol.
Alright at least 1 has antenna !!
Thanks Wolf, great article! Understanding inflation in one area the economy helps makes sense of the rest of the changes in the economy and put things in perspective.
Besides plain price increases, streamers have relatively recently begun really cracking down on account sharing. That can have a similar effect to price increases while increasing the number of subscribers.