After years of inflation, Americans are used to sticker shock. But nothing compares to the surging price of streaming video.

Last week, Apple TV+ became the latest streaming service to raise its price—up from $6.99 to $9.99 per month—following the example of Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Netflix, which all hiked their prices in October.

Half of the major streaming platforms in the U.S. now charge a monthly fee that’s double the price they charged when they initially came to market. And many of these streaming services haven’t even been around for 10 years.

  • What the hell. Can people please cancel en masse already? Why are consumers putting up with this? The price increases stop once it’s not profitable anymore.

    • Chozo
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      131 year ago

      The price increases stop once it’s not profitable anymore.

      When has this ever happened?

      • Just to be clear, are you questioning whether there’s ever been a case where prices have been stable because a company is worried about losing customers? I mean, there are tons. We’re coming out of a 20 year period of historically low inflation. High inflation is recent, not inevitable.

        Consumer electronics are an obvious example. Smart phone prices actually dropped this year on soft demand.

      • I’ve been sailing the high seas for almost 20 years now. It’s never been easier to pirate things. Stremio and a well known service honestly beats all steaming services both in quantity and quality of the “catalogue”. At least for English language content.

    • @stella@lemm.ee
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      21 year ago

      This generation of consumers is even dumber than the last one.

      They pride themselves on getting taken for a ride because it gives them a sense of belonging.