Hulu, Netflix, AppleTV+ and more streaming services increased their prices in 2023: ‘Stream-flation’

Major streaming services raised their prices in 2023, in several cases for their ad-free plans, as Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+ and more all saw major price increases or subscription plan changes. 

Netflix bumped up the price of two ad-free plans, including its basic plan and its premium plan, towards the end of October, CNBC reported. The premium plan increased from $19.99 per month to $22.99 per month.

The streaming service’s profits exceeded expectations in the third quarter, after a crackdown on password sharing. 

Netflix announced a new set of packages in November and axed its traditional $11.99, ad-free subscription. The streaming service offered a new standard, ad-supported plan for $6.99 per month, as well as a standard, ad-free plan for $15.49 per month.

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The standard, ad-free plan includes an option to add an extra family member that doesn’t live in the same household, as the streaming service now prohibits password sharing outside a single household.

“Welcome to the decade of ‘streamflation.’ It’s a lot easier to raise prices when the competition is doing it at the same time. Companies are now chasing profits and subscribers at the same time. This is what they call the boil the frog theory. Streaming companies will continue to raise prices until enough subscribers jump off the platform. Until that happens, you can expect steady increases from all of them until you are back to the cost of your old cable bill,” Ted Jenkin, the CEO of oXYGen Financial in Atlanta, told Fox News Digital. 

Disney raised its price for Hulu’s ad-free subscription package from $14.99 to $17.99 in October, which Disney CEO Bob Iger hoped would steer customers towards the ad-supported packages. 

The company also increased its price for Disney+ by $3, from $10.99 to $13.99. 

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The company also offers bundled plans for Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. 

AppleTV+ announced an increase in its price by $3 in October. 

The adjustment coincided with Apple making the costs higher for some other subscription services that it offers – Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple One. Apple One provides bundles of Apple subscriptions plus cloud storage. 

Amazon announced that they would start introducing ads to its Prime Video TV shows and movies in September, beginning in 2024. Subscribers can pay an extra $2.99 per month to enjoy an ad-free experience. 

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The Prime Video subscription is included in a subscription to Amazon Prime, which costs $139 per year. 

Earlier this year, Max, Paramout+ and Peacock all raised prices. Max raised its monthly rate for its ad-free subscription from $14.99 to $15.99 in January and added a more expensive plan in May after it merged with Discovery+.

The streaming service’s “Max Ultimate Ad Free” costs subscribers $19.99 per month, and includes the ability to stream on multiple devices at the same time, and to download movies or TV shows to personal devices. 

Paramount+ announced a price hike in September for their service, increasing from $9.99 to $11.99. Paramount’s CEO Bob Bakish said subscribers should prepare for more price increases in the next couple of years. 

“Our plan is to raise price again, this isn’t our only price increase. Whether we do that in ’25, or we do that in ’24, we’ll see,” Bakish said in September. “Again, early days, as we evaluate the cost impact of the price increase, but we believe there’s a lot of room to run there.”

Ad-free subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Max and Prime Video would have cost around $50 per month total at their original price points, according to CNBC. However, at their current rates, they would cost over $80 per month, the outlet report.

Fox News’ Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.