Are Streaming Services Using More Content to Justify Regularly Raising Prices?

Unless you’re living under a fairly good-sized rock, it’s impossible to ignore the climbing costs of subscription video streaming. The price of streaming without ads has risen 25% industry-wide in the past year, and the cost of bundling several streaming services together is now approaching the monthly price of a cable subscription. New information put together by Reelgood indicates that despite recent high-profile content cuts, nearly all services are still increasing the size of their streaming libraries.

• Data compiled by Reelgood shows that streaming libraries have grown almost across the board in the past two years.
• Apple TV+ and Peacock have risen the most, and both have raised prices within the last year.
• Prime Video is the only streamer that has seen its library contract, as it prepares to incorporate ads for all streaming customers next year.

How Much Have Streaming Libraries Grown Since 2021?

The past two years have seen precipitate growth in streaming libraries for essentially all of the top streaming services on the market. Peacock has clearly found its footing since 2021; its TV library has grown almost 210% in that time, and its movie library has exploded by more than 420%.

Apple TV+ has seen both its TV and movie catalogs jump by more than 300% since 2021. Those two services are the leaders, but every streaming platform has expanded its library in the past two years other than Prime Video, which has seen small declines in both its count of TV and movies.

What’s causing these increases? In some cases, it’s easy to say; Max, for example, saw a large influx of TV shows when HBO Max and discovery+ merged earlier this year, as a wide variety of unscripted discovery+ titles were put next to HBO shows on the same service for the first time. Peacock has found its footing from a content perspective in the last few years, seemingly locating the right balance between originals and library shows. Peacock and Apple TV+ are also fewer than four years old, so it makes sense that both have had precipitate growth in the past two years.

Which of These Growing Streamers Has Raised Prices Recently?

Of the streaming services listed above, nearly every one has either raised prices or announced that future price increases were oncoming in the past year. The lone exception again is Prime Video, which will force users to accept ads or cancel their subscription in 2024, but has not announced the price of its current tier is increasing.

Apple TV+ raised subscription prices to $9.99 per month in late October, doubling the subscription price in less than a year. Peacock also increased its rates this season; the NBCUniversal streamer increased rates from $4.99 to $6.99 for its ad-supported plan and from $9.99 to $11.99 for its ad-free plan over the summer.

Streamers are bent on becoming profitable businesses by any methods necessary, which is why price increases and the introduction of ads seem inescapable for streaming customers. It’s unfortunate, but at the very least streaming platforms are demonstrably adding more content to justify the increasing rate of a subscription— with the notable exception of Prime Video.