Sep 11, 2026 12:01pm PT

Streaming Prices Continue to Balloon: Is ‘Streamflation’ at a Breaking Point?

By Todd Spangler

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Todd Spangler

NY Digital Editor

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Streamflation Illustration

Variety

Death. Taxes. Price hikes on Netflix, HBO Max and more.

It’s become an inevitable part of modern life: The major entertainment streaming services have been regularly upping their fees — for some, the increases have come once a year. The average price of ad-free streaming services increased 54% from 2021 to 2025, according to research firm Forrester. That’s well over the estimated 16% cumulative U.S. inflation rate over that period, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

And the hikes keep coming. Apple TV and NBCUniversal’s Peacock raised rates in August, the fourth time each has done so in four years. “Consumers are fed up with streaming price hikes,” he says. “Every price hike designed to increase profitability triggers consumers to conduct their own cost-benefit analysis and ask, ‘Is this still worth it?’”

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The cost of everything in the U.S. from gas to groceries keeps rising, and “I think people are starting to choose which long-form content platforms they want to be with — and which ones they don’t,” says Brian Pitz, senior equity research analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Netflix, the sector’s market-share leader, has the lowest risk of getting hit by cancellations thanks to its “deep bench of content,” Pitz says. Disney’s ESPN Unlimited service will be 7% more expensive, effective Sept. 17. Those increases come after Netflix raised rates on U.S. plans earlier this year, as did Paramount+.

Part of the reason for the surge: To attract subscribers early on, some providers came out of the gate with very low rates. Today, as the streamers face pressure to grow profit margins, even as all are continuing to spend more on content, the biggest lever they can pull is the subscription price.

But the steady drumbeat of higher rates threatens to pinch Americans’ wallets and may spur them to scrap less-watched services, says Mike Proulx, VP and research director at Forrester. Netflix also made the decision to bifurcate its revenue model with the intro of the lower-priced ad-supported plan in 2022. That has helped it retain more cost-conscious customers. Most of its rivals also offer lower-priced ad plans, with Apple TV the only big service that remains ad-free.

But Netflix has already twice raised the price of the ads plan in the U.S., from $6.99 a month four years ago to $7.99 in 2025 and $8.99 in 2026. That’s still “an amazing entry point” that represents “an incredible value,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters asserted on the company’s Q2 earnings call in July.

The pace of the industry’s relentless price hikes will have to cool off at some point. U.S. households spend an average of $69 a month on streaming services, according to Deloitte’s 2026 digital media trends report. And 41% of Americans surveyed said the content available on the services they pay for isn’t worth the price, with nearly half looking to cut costs in this area.

Longer term, providers will need to reassess the value equation of their services based on generational shifts in content preferences, says Stephanie Dolan, principal in Deloitte’s U.S. media and entertainment practice. What she means: Gen Z consumers spend 1.5 hours per day watching user-generated content on platforms like YouTube, significantly more than older generations. To meet that demand, streamers will need to adjust their content mix accordingly.

Netflix, for one, has started to ink content deals with YouTube creators like Mark Rober, Drew Binsky and Kevin Langue. But all the players in the streaming segment, Dolan says, will need to figure out “what younger consumers consider entertainment worth paying for.”

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