By Josh (written by a human, but the image above was AI created. What is METFLM anyway? And look at that Paramount logo!)
I was taking my daily morning walk this week when I got a notification about Netflix increasing their prices for the second straight year.
Then, I kept walking and didn’t think of it again.
The increases range anywhere from $1 per month to $2.50 per month depending on what plan you have, but honestly, could you say how much you pay now for any of these services? I don’t. All I know is I get it subsidized through my T-Mobile plan and I pay extra to have no ads which might be an extra $7 or $8 a month? I dunno, but I also never think about it.
And that’s the thing with Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, Paramount, Peacock, HBO Max, or whatever streaming service you use: we forget how much we spend, we get annoyed or ambivalent whenever news comes out about an increase, and then we move on.
(FWIW, I still think the annual combined costs are still less than my cable TV bill used to be, but with more options. Kind of.)
Anyway, here’s a few LEGAL ways I have tried to save money on streaming services through the last few years because I am cheap or frugal as my dad used to put it. Maybe some of these might help you or maybe some of these you have already done. (And yes, you could always password share, illegally stream, etc.) If you have a good one, let me know in the comments or hit me up on social (my X is linked above, same name for BlueSky).
The caveat with all this: watching sports is really difficult to stream hop and I feel like makes it harder for people to easily check out games that aren’t of the NFL variety. It depends on your budget and your taste for having to deal with it all.
Use existing perks to get a free/reduced subscription
Mobile phone providers are the first stop here. Regardless of who you use, most seem to offer deals with all the big players (minus HBO Max), most times covering the ad tier version at minimum. If you’re an Xfinity subscriber, you can get a free Peacock account depending on what level of service you have and I’m assuming other cable/satellite providers offer similar options.
This all might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to look into this, especially those in their 50s or above.
To ad or not to ad
Nearly every streamer has an ad tier and some are more tolerable than others. It’s a throwback to the 80s and 90s before we had TiVo, DVR, on demand, etc, etc. Well, I guess we had VCRs to fast forward through ads, but I digress.
A great way to reduce costs is to drop down to the ad tier. With some shows, ads REALLY get annoying (looking at you, Prime Video) while others aren’t so bad. The hard thing is once you have lived life with no ads, going back ain’t fun.
I also like to look ahead at what shows and movies are coming up that I might be interested in. Since I find I watch more on HBO Max and Netflix than I do on Prime Video, I tend to lean toward ad-free for those services. In general, you can pretty easily switch plans so if you do a bit of forecasting, you can pay up, binge up, and avoid the interruptions.
Write down what you watch for a month & then cancel some subs
When I made the decision to cut the digital cord (i.e. part ways with YouTube TV after their latest price hike), I planned ahead and started jotting down what I/we watched and DVR’d for a month. I then researched if any of those shows could be found on the other services I was paying for, so I wasn’t wasting money. A good example were TBS/TNT shows that were also available on HBO Max.
When there’s a show you really want to watch, just subscribe for a month and then cancel. If you get strategic, you can win the streaming war.
Sign up for Cord Cutter Weekly
I can’t remember when I signed up for this newsletter by Jared Newman but it’s a GREAT resource for finding deals on different services and devices, especially around Black Friday (something to keep in mind for this November). Jared is a smart guy and just wrote this piece for PC World on how baseball fans can navigate this season with all the new ways in which fans will have to watch their favorite team (Fox/FS1, ESPN, Netflix, NBC/Peacock, TBS, AppleTV and your local RSN).
We’ll be stuck with price increases for the rest of our lives. Might as well try to strategize on how to save some money as we do.
