Streaming Price Hike History: Here's How Much Platforms Increased Prices Over The Years

Published Sep 25, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones). Things seem to be getting more and more expensive these days, and that goes for streaming too. Of course, this didn't just happen overnight for any product, especially those delightful things that fall under the entertainment umbrella. Consuming media has always come at a cost, and as the options improve, that cost gets a bit higher. The idea of streaming movies and TV shows on our various devices is, in the grand scheme, rather new. It's a form of entertainment that evolved and took over extremely quickly, and our pocketbooks have just been along for the ride. Streaming as we know it today was more or less born in 2010. That's when Netflix first began offering a subscription that exclusively gave viewers access to an online library of movies and TV shows. Prior to this (and for some time after), this company functioned as a DVD rental service, but cutting out both the DVD and rental elements and replacing them with pure convenience massively shifted the entertainment industry as a whole. Sixteen years later, the average U.S. household is subscribed to about four paid streaming services at a time (via Variety). Ad-free isn't quite the standard anymore either, so the cost of consuming media without frequent interruptions has gone up even more. Morning Brew on X posted a breakdown of how these ad-free subscriptions have changed since their launch, and we've taken a closer look to confirm just how much more these platforms are charging and what model changes they've used to justify it. Netflix Custom Image by Vanessa Piña Launch: November 2010 - $7.99 Today: $19.99 (+150%) Yearly increases for the past three years Current Standard with Ads: $8.99, Premium: $26.99 When Netflix first offered its streaming-only subscription option, separate from its DVD plans, in 2010, the price was $7.99 a month. At this point, the only option was ad-free and unlimited, and it wouldn't be until 2022 that the platform introduced its first Standard with Ads plan. Still, Netflix decided in 2013 to limit the unlimited (via Flixed). Tiers were introduced to dictate how many screens could use the same account at the same time, and these reliably increased in cost by about a dollar every year or two from then onward, with a handful of breaks. When ad-supported came into the picture in 2022, it cost $6.99 a month. Hulu Launch: September 2015 - $11.99 Today: $21.49 (+80%) Three increases in the last five years Current with Ads: $12.99 Hulu first launched in 2007, but it was some time before any ad-free subscription option was offered. In those early days, it was all free, ad-supported, and thoroughly in the beta stage. In 2010, around the time Netflix introduced its exclusive streaming option, Hulu introduced a $9.99-per-month expanded library. There were still ads, but paying the subscription fee would give you access to a lot more content. Then, in 2015, "Hulu No Ads" (Premium) hit the scene for $11.99 a month (via THR). Prices once again increased reliably, and Hulu's monthly subscription price is now the same as Disney+'s, since it is now an automatic bundle. Apple TV Launch: November 2019 - $4.99 Today: $14.99 (+200%) Yearly increases for the past four years Annual Plan: $119 Apple TV never played around with ads, so its subscription shifts over the years are a lot less complicated. The platform launched as Apple TV+ in 2019 at $4.99 a month (via The Wrap), with a yearly plan at $49.99. This didn't change until 2022, when the monthly rate rose to $6.99 and the annual rate to $69. Apple continued on this trajectory, increasing the monthly price by a few dollars every handful of years rather than the dollar-a-year model embraced by other streamers. Today, Apple TV is $14.99 a month, which is considerably lower than many of its competitors, but still 200% higher than when the subscription launched. Disney+ Launch: November 2019 - $6.99 Today: $21.49 (+207%) Yearly increases for the past five years Current with Ads: $11.99 Disney+ is another platform that was ad-free from day one, but later introduced an ad-supported package for a dollar more than that original ad-free subscription. In 2019, it cost $6.99 per month to access Disney+'s library. In 2021, the price went up by a dollar, and in 2022, the ad-supported tier launched, taking over the $7.99 price tag while Disney+ Premium (ad-free) went up to $10.99 a month. By this point, Disney already owned Hulu, so that library was added in as a bundle in a handful of different forms. Every year between 2022 and 2026 saw hikes, and the Premium plan increased by a whopping $10.50 over that period. HBO Max Image via HBO Max Launch: May 2020 - $14.99 Today: $18.49 (+23%) Three increases in four years Current Basic with Ads: $10.99, Premium: $22.99 It took HBO a little longer to shift its attention from network TV to streaming. HBO Now launched in 2015, but it was tied specifically to cable. HBO Max didn't come along until May of 2020, and cost $14.99 a month. An ad-supported tier was added in 2021, and things stayed mostly the same until the big "Max" rebranding of 2023, which brought ad-free to $15.99 (with an Ultimate/Premiere tier at $19.99 a month). Of course, we are now back on HBO Max, and in 2026, the ad-free tier costs $18.49 a month. It isn't cheap, but it's only a 23% increase since launch (via HBO Max). Peacock Launch: July 2020 - $9.99 Today: $19.99 (+100%) Yearly increases for the past four years. Current with Ads: $8.99, Premium with Ads: $12.99, Premium Plus: $22.99 The year 2020 also brought the introduction of Peacock's batch of subscription tiers. That early model included a free ad-supported tier, Peacock Premium (which still had ads) at $4.99 a month, and Peacock Premium Plus (with mostly no ads) at $9.99 a month. The platform's first price increase didn't come until 2023, when the free tier was dropped, Premium jumped by a dollar, and Premium Plus went up by two dollars. From there, Peacock bumped its prices up by a few dollars per year (via Variety), in addition to adding a couple of ad-supported options. Now, since 2020, Peacock's ad-free subscription has increased by 100%. Paramount+ Launch: March 2021 - $9.99 Today: $13.99 (+40%) Three increases in four years Current 'Essential': $8.99 Paramount+ was originally CBS All Access, and, like with HBO, the service was attached to cable. 2021 was when that big rebrand happened, and Paramount+ launched with a $4.99 ad-supported plan and a $9.99 ad-free subscription. When Showtime came on board with Paramount+ in 2023, the ad-free price increased to $11.99 before it was bumped another dollar the next year. 2025 gave subscribers a break, but this year brought another major rebranding to Paramount+ Premium. Free trials were dropped entirely, with-ads went to $8.99, while the ad-free experience currently costs $13.99 a month.