2025 is the year streaming became unaffordable – here's how to beat the price hikes

Music and video streaming just keeps on getting more expensive, but this year I think it reached a tipping point. With Netflix, Disney+, Spotify and Apple TV all putting up their prices, the current model seems unsustainable – how much can people really pay for their entertainment?

If you're feeling the pinch, I'll share a trick that can still let you binge yourself silly without paying the same high prices. But more on that later.

The only way is up

In October, Spotify increased its prices for the third time in 15 months. What makes it even more galling is that the firm held the price of its Premium tier at £9.99 for years prior to 2023. You now pay £3 more a month than you did before July 2023 – an increase of £36 a year.

Admittedly you now get Lossless quality as part of the package, which Spotify announced the month before its latest price rise. But it's still a lot more to pay, especially when you consider the other price rises we've seen this year.

Disney+ also raised its prices for the third time in three years. The Standard tier – the cheapest without ads – is now £9.99 a month, but if you want 4K and HDR, it'll cost you £14.99.

In August, Apple TV+ (as it was then known, prior to its name change) raised its prices by £1 a month. That might not seem like a big increase, but how's this for context: Apple TV is now twice as expensive per month as when it launched in 2019. Yowzer.

Rounding out our list, Netflix was the first streamer to hike its prices this year, and by a whopping £2 a month for its Standard tier.

Considering that the average Brit subscribes to 3.3 streaming services, you can see how these costs soon add up.

Unless, that is, you find a way around them.

Pause for thought

Time was you could take advantage of a free trial, but now most services have grown wise to that and eliminated them. But there is another way.

Just cancel one or more of your services for a time. Then wait until there's a decent amount of stuff on there you want to watch, resubscribe, and then cancel again once you've binged it all. It's simple to do, and could save you a packet.

I have subscriptions to Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, as well as a Sky Q box. Prime Video and Sky are paid for annually (Prime Video as part of my Prime subscription), and so can't be paused. But there's nothing to stop me cancelling Disney+ and Netflix.

Except for my children, that is. But if it wasn't for them constantly chaining Bluey, Spidey And His Amazing Friends, Is It Cake? and more, I would do it in a heartbeat.

It makes perfect sense. I haven't watched anything on Prime Video since The Assassin back in July, so if I could pause my sub, I would. It would also let me watch at my leisure – with the latest series of Only Murders In The Building, Disney+ dropped new episodes weekly, but if I only reactivated my subscription once they were all live I wouldn't have to wait seven days between episodes.

I could happily go large chunks of the year without Netflix, as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the first thing I've been interested in watching on the service in months. (And yes, I have been able to resist Champagne Problems.)

You don't have to cancel all your subscriptions. You could even cycle through each one at a time, rinsing Disney+ for a month, then Netflix, and so on. By the time you get back around to Disney+, it's bound to have a fair amount worth watching.

So take a deep breath, and hit pause on your subscription. Unless you have to be the first to see a new series, and can avoid spoilers, it's a simple way to save a few pounds. Remember: with streaming services, you're only ever renting the content, it's never really yours to own. And the second you resubscribe, it's all there again, with more besides. It's like you were never gone – but your bank balance says otherwise.

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