Analysis: a basket of the top US streaming services will cost $87 per month this fall, vs. $73 a year ago; the average US cable TV package costs $83 per month
Top studios turn screws on customers with price rises that rival expensive cable TV bundles — The era of cheap streaming is ending … Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to . Bluesky: @epro.social . X: @taylor_w_c and @tvgrimreaper See also Mediagazer Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : It's official, cord cutting is now more expensive than cable. — Subscribing to the top US streaming services will cost $87 this autumn, compared with $73 a year ago. Meanwhile the average cable TV package costs $83 a month. — This isn't sustainable and I expect one or more of these streaming services to throw in the towel within the next year or two. … Bluesky: Emil Protalinski / @epro.social : Sure, but the difference is that with streaming, I can pick and choose. If I want to pay 15%, I can just subscribe to Netflix. If I want to subscribe all of them and cancel the ones I don't like anymore, I can. — Cable sucks because it's all or nothing, not because it's expensive. [embedded post] X: Taylor Clauson / @taylor_w_c : if the streaming basket were significantly more expensive, i'd still want it. i call it the “not having to deal with comcast customer service premium” @tvgrimreaper : Analysis: FT makes a nonsense comparison between a divisible “basket” of streaming services and an indivisible cable TV package. You can pick and choose among the first. The second is all or nothing (that's why it's the best entertainment business ever). See also Mediagazer Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next
Context & Ripple Effects
Streaming’s original value proposition was lower-cost, more tailored viewing, but a 2018 analysis noted that proliferating services and exclusive catalogs still left viewers paying for content they did not watch. By 2020, studios’ exclusive-platform strategies were requiring households to combine four or five services.
This pricing snapshot shows the cumulative consequence: a basket of leading services now exceeds the cited average cable package. Related coverage also found sharp increases in ad-free streaming prices, indicating that the gap is being closed partly by making ad-supported plans relatively more attractive.
First-order effects
- Households subscribing across the leading services face an $87 monthly bill this fall, above the cited $83 average cable-TV package and up from $73 a year earlier.
- Streaming providers gain more revenue per retained ad-free subscriber, while customers face a clearer reason to reduce the number of services they keep at once or consider ad-supported options.
Second-order effects
- Services with less essential viewing may be most exposed to rotation and cancellation as consumers compare each monthly charge against substitutes; subsequent data showed higher cancellation rates among major services.
- The price advantage that helped streaming compete with traditional TV weakens, increasing the appeal of bundles and other offers that reduce the visible cost of maintaining several subscriptions.
Third-order effects
- If exclusivity remains fragmented while prices rise, streaming competition is likely to shift from standalone subscription acquisition toward retention, bundling, and monetizing viewers across price tiers.
- The sector’s long-running unbundling of television could produce a re-bundled consumer experience, though the durable outcome depends on whether providers can retain users despite higher churn.
The trend: Streaming is moving from a cheap unbundled alternative toward a higher-priced, tiered subscription market shaped by fragmentation and consumer churn.