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Streamflation Is Breaking The Bank
Just take my money // Illustration by Kate Walker
The price of streaming services rose at a much higher rate than nearly every other consumer good last year — and was the only category to see a double-digit increase in inflation.
The Big Picture: While goods and services still feel unaffordable for many Americans, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation actually cooled overall — and in some cases, deflated. That’s great news for your upcoming grocery bills. But streaming platforms are bucking the trend, putting extra price pressure on consumers trying to keep up with an increasingly fractured landscape for movies and shows.
Behind The Scenes: It’s not just you — your streaming bill went up a lot last year.
The December Consumer Price Index shows inflation rose 0.3% month over month, for a 2.7% annual increase — not bad!
But the “subscription and rental of video and video games” category (which includes platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max) jumped 19.5% in December alone — not great!
Only this category has been such an outlier: “cable, satellite, and live streaming television service” (YouTube TV, Fubo) rose 1.1%, while “recorded music and music subscriptions” (Spotify, Apple Music) increased by the same amount.
Final Receipt: So, what’s driving the price surge? According to THR, sports rights are mostly to blame. In an era of spending contraction and fickle audience attention, sports have emerged as the safest of safe bets. The problem: those rights are skyrocketing in price, pushing entertainment conglomerates to raise prices just to stay competitive. And with ESPN and Fox launching their own standalone streaming service with sports as the flagship product, bidding wars are only going to intensify… along with monthly subscription prices.
Next Subscription: The days of cable may be gone for good, but whichever company offers the most attractive sports bundle could be the champion.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, & Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.