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 416.99)
- Premium: +9.5% to $22.99 (from $20.99)
Hulu also jacked up prices in October. It sells are 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 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
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This is why I pirate everything.
Canceled these long time ago
Disney+ +172%
Apple TV +160%
Peacock +120%
Hulu +58%
Good bye
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….
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.
This might be the dumbest shit I have seen on this site. Ignorant bs
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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?