Will Streaming Price Hikes Backfire? The Era of Subscribing & Unsubscribing

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As streaming services initially appeared on the scene, they were seen as challengers to traditional cable providers. Cable television was often criticized for being expensive, cumbersome, and overly centralized, with limited choices and little control over viewing schedules. Streaming platforms offered a fresh, technological solution at a much more affordable price. However, over the years, streaming services have evolved into something resembling the initial cable model in many ways. Today, an endless barrage of price hikes is a common issue within the streaming industry.

This year, our team at TopMob has been monitoring price increases on major streaming platforms, and we found that there have been four such hikes in just eight months. Although these price increases appear to be beneficial for the streamers so far, one might wonder if streaming services truly possess an unlimited capacity to raise subscription fees. Could it be possible that this continual increase in costs may eventually drive consumers away? We’re now entering an age where people will be subscribing and unsubscribing frequently.

In the early days of streaming, there were only a handful of streamers available, and no one had ever subscribed to any channel because they didn’t exist before. At that time, the main goal for streamers was to expand their subscriber base. The initial source of income for them came from new subscribers. To attract these new subscribers, streamers would provide an exceptional user experience to make viewers think, “This platform is fantastic! I want to be part of it.” However, nowadays, the emphasis on providing a great user experience in streaming has diminished as most people are already subscribed to a streamer. It’s no longer profitable to try to attract new subscribers to a platform that has reached its market saturation.

Love is sharing a password.

— Netflix (@netflix) March 10, 2017

As a result, we aim to boost income from our current user base, which has led us to consider advertisements, stricter password policies, and price increases. It’s not surprising that in the past, streamers rarely featured ads and generally overlooked or even promoted account sharing due to prioritizing user comfort and satisfaction. However, we’re now witnessing a decline in the quality of user experience, while simultaneously dealing with continuous price hikes. Furthermore, the growing number of streaming platforms has significantly increased the overall cost of streaming, at least tripling it.

In essence, what does this situation imply for consumers? At one point, it seemed that consumers had limited choices, either paying higher prices for streaming channels or missing out on their favorite shows and films. However, with persistent price increases, it appears a third choice has arisen. Nowadays, the concept of “subscribing and unsubscribing” to streaming platforms is more prevalent than ever.

It seems that based on personal experiences shared among friends and online feedback, there’s a growing trend towards short-term subscriptions to streaming services. People tend to sign up when they want to watch a specific TV show or movie that has just been released, enjoy the content, and then cancel their subscription. The ongoing increase in costs coupled with a perception that the long-term value no longer outweighs the cost is leading to this shift. It appears that there might be one primary platform that users want to keep accessible at all times, but the era of long-term subscriptions across multiple platforms seems to be waning.

From a viewer’s standpoint, it makes perfect sense to join and leave streaming services as needed. By signing up for just a brief period and binge-watching an entire season of a new TV show, along with other content, then canceling the subscription, viewers tend to save money in the long run compared to buying the entire season outright. Canceling also prevents unnecessary costs when there’s no more content to watch. In this manner, viewers can avoid being stuck with higher-than-desired payments and still enjoy their preferred shows.

Subscribing and unsubscribing from different streamers might not be a flawless model due to instances where viewers may want to rewatch content from a platform they’ve previously unsubscribed from. Yet, given financial constraints, it’s often necessary to maintain subscriptions only to a select few streaming services.

If the trend of subscribing or unsubscribing for short periods becomes popular, streamers might face a potential increase in prices as it could lead to significant financial losses. For instance, paying $12 twice a year ($24) compared to $6 twelve times a year ($72) shows a substantial difference. Streamers would stand to make three times more money with the less expensive option. While it’s unlikely that revenue will be severely affected by short-term subscribers at this point, there seems to be an increasing interest in this approach. Should everyone adopt this pattern of subscribing and unsubscribing, streamers might find themselves considering price reductions quite soon.

It seems quite possible that continued increases in streaming platform prices may eventually have negative consequences. Sustaining such price hikes over an extended period might not be sustainable.

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2025-09-11 21:33