The Stream Report
Posts
Let's Talk About Price Increases

Let's Talk About Price Increases

April 13, 2021

If there's one thing that seems to be a guarantee with cord-cutting these days, it's price increases. We're into Q2 for 2021, the economy is swinging back to life, and cord-cutting numbers are going through the roof. Price increases are inevitable, but the question remains: Who's going to raise prices, and when?

Streamer's Spotlight: Who's Going to Raise Prices in 2021?

Now that we're halfway through April, it's time to start talking about cord-cutting price increases. For the past few years, price increases seem to have been something we can almost count on from most service providers. Predicting the date of when those price increases would come is not an exact science, but there are some clues we can glean from the past few years that might make our guesses a bit better than a 50/50 chance of being right.

Few Price Increases Happen in Q1 of Any Year

Digging into the data, we've found that very few price increases happen during the first quarter of any given year. There are some exceptions to this. For example, AT&T has a habit of increasing prices earlier in the year or announcing upcoming price increases in Q1 of a year. We've observed that occur this year (2021), and in 2019.

For its part, Netflix tends to announce and then introduce price increases at the beginning of the year, as well. It's increases prices for the past two years (2019 and 2020) in January.

Price Increases (or Announcements) Often Happen in Q2 and Q3

While Q1 tends to be silent for price increase among cord-cutting services, Q2 of any year (April through June) tends to have a high amount of activity, both in increases and announcements of impending increases.

For example, Philo announced its pseudo-price increase in late April of 2019. Google announced its 2019 Youtube TV price increase in early April, and then in 2020, announced its price increase in late June.

FuboTV has previously also increased prices in March, although its 2020 price increases were announced in Q3 of last year. And remember PlayStation Vue, which shut down in 2019? That company also announced its price increases in Q3, when they occurred in 2018 and 2017.

Who's Increasing Prices in 2021?

This leads us to 2021 price increases and the biggest question of all: Which services are going to increase prices this year? That depends on several factors, but we can make a few educated guesses based on past history.

YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV may forgo price increases this year. The $64.99 floor that both now have could be a breaking point.

However....

YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV will announce price increases if they renew RSN contracts. That's going to be a big one. Those RSN contracts aren't cheap, and both services maintained their price increases despite dropping RSNs. But if RSNs get back n the menu, expect to see a $5 to $10 increase announcement, as well, if not a package restructuring that adds an RSN pricing tier.

What about Philo, Sling TV, and FuboTV? Well, FuboTV has technically already increased prices this year after it dropped its cheapest Standard package. It was subtle, but it's there. As for Philo, we don't anticipate an increase, but the company could surprise us. The same goes for Sling, which rarely increases prices, but which did bump things up $5 per month in 2020.

This doesn't cover potential price increases for on-demand services like Netflix. These services are under less pricing pressure compared to live TV services, whose rates increases are forced on them by their broadcast agreements with networks. Netflix has been increasing prices gradually each year, so it might add one this year as well, but on-demand price increases may be unlikely to be widespread this year across the most popular services, if they happen at all.

This Week's Streaming Guide

1. Netflix True Crime Documentary 'Why Did You Kill Me' Available This Week

A mother uses MySpace to track down her daughter's killer. Based on a true story. Stream on Netflix this Wednesday, April 14. -

Watch on Netflix

2. New Discovery+ Show Picks up the Mantle of 'Kitchen Nightmares'

In this new Discovery+ show, restauranteur Todd Graves (Raising Canes) joins with celebrity guests to have save family-owned restaurants from failing. Stream on Discovery + this Thursday, April 15. -

Watch on Discovery+

3. AMC+ Bringing 'Spy City' to US This Thursday

This highly-regarded spy drama is coming to AMC+ this Thursday, April 15. Actor Dominic Cooper plays an MI6 agent headed to Berlin during the Cold War. -

Watch

on AMC+

4. History Channel Offers More 'Food That Built America' --- This Time with Deeper, Faster Dives

After the success of its previous

Food That Built America

docuseries, History Channel is now offering a remake that dives back in with fast-faced deep dives behind the personalities that built out food culture. Streaming on History Channel this Sunday, April 18 at 10 PM EST.

Watch History Channel Without Cable