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How Much Are We Paying for Our Subscription Services? A Lot (nytimes.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Online subscriptions sure sound cheap, but what do a few bucks a month to watch TV shows, store photos online and stream music add up to? Quite a lot, it turns out. From a report: In 2019, we each spent $640 on digital subscriptions like streaming video and music services, cloud storage, dating apps and online productivity tools, according to an analysis for The New York Times by Mint, the online budgeting tool owned by Intuit, using data from millions of its users. That was up about 7 percent from $598 in 2017. We increased our spending the most last year on streaming TV services, paying $170 to subscribe to the likes of Netflix, Hulu and new entrants like Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus. While that was far cheaper than most traditional cable TV packages, which cost roughly $1,200 a year, it was up 30 percent from the $130 we spent on streaming TV services in 2017. Our spending on digital subscriptions is likely to only rise as more of our possessions become connected to the internet, like our television sets, home security systems and cars. At the same time, it will become harder and harder to keep track of all of the services we pay for.
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How Much Are We Paying for Our Subscription Services? A Lot More

How Much Are We Paying for Our Subscription Services? A Lot

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  • So? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:46AM (#59674720)
    Not surprising. We've cut the cable but still want the content it provided. We pay to be entertained. I personally believe the services I pay for are well worth the cost, which is why I continue to pay for them. If you're unhappy with what you're paying, consider cutting those you're not getting the most value from and find other, cheaper, sources of entertainment.

    • Not surprising. We've cut the cable but still want the content it provided. We pay to be entertained. I personally believe the services I pay for are well worth the cost, which is why I continue to pay for them. If you're unhappy with what you're paying, consider cutting those you're not getting the most value from and find other, cheaper, sources of entertainment.

      Yeah, I spend more than $640 a year on just my internet connection, so that $53 a month for people to watch TV or whatever isn't really all that bad.

      • Yeah, I spend more than $640 a year on just my internet connection, so that $53 a month for people to watch TV or whatever isn't really all that bad.

        I pay $960/year for my internet connection - but I'm not paying a dime for cable TV or video streaming subscription services. $53/month for it? No freakin' way!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So? Well, you're being ripped off. You and everybody else. First, the rates are ridiculously high, they are gouging you via excessive overpricing. Second, a lot of the stuff already received advertising revenue so they are stealing your time and charging you for it. Third, they corrupted the public domain and now they are charging you to use it. Fourth, they use their excess profits to corrupt your public institutions, and the free market as well. Five, they limit the content you get to see and they use it

      • What size is that rubber band you've got wrapped around your ass? What business is it of yours what other people feel is an acceptable rate?

        Don't like it, don't subscribe. Don't like it? Don't carp to me that I do.

  • monthly vs annually (Score:3)

    by Froze ( 398171 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:51AM (#59674740)

    A lot of people were paying over a 100 a month for cable, these prices are easily less than half what cable cost were and we get à la carte. ?Not sure I see any problems here.

    • You need to include the price of your internet along with any streaming services for a fair comparison. Right now a la carte is cheaper if you only have one or two services, if you're a heavy TV consumer a cable bundle is still similar or cheaper.

      • Re: monthly vs annually (Score:5, Insightful)

        by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:15AM (#59674832)

        I don't think you have to include your Internet subscription because you use that for things other than streaming content.

        With a cable package, Internet service is a separate line item and costs extra. But even with that service excluded, the cable bill alone is still between 80-120/month. With Internet, the bundled cable bill is closer to $180/month

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          "With a cable package, Internet service is a separate line item and costs extra."

          Not really because the cable/internet bundles provide the internet piece at lower cost. That $100/mo cable bill included internet.

        • Previous: Cable/Phone/Internet $210 / M Netflix/Hulu $20/M Current Internet $80 / M Netflix/Hulu $20 / M SIP trunk $35 / Y Significant savings

    • And you can cut services on a service by service basis. Right now, I have a Disney Plus/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, Amazon Prime (which I use for shipping more than music/video), and Netflix. If Netflix were to have no content that I liked, I could cancel it and focus on other services. Contrast that with cable where I can't cut out and stop paying for channels that don't provide me with entertainment I like. I'm paying a ton less than I used to pay for cable TV and the services have to compete for my dollars. It's

      • I agree. I pay for DirecTV Now, Hulu (ad free), Netflix, Amazon Prime and BritBox. Together, those services cost me about $120/month which is on par with what a cable package alone used to cost me from Comcast. Except that now I have about $50 worth of discretion that I can cut out at the drop of a hat.

        Altogether, with my internet service, I pay about $185/month. Comcast, with Internet, used to cost close to $200/month. So I am still saving money.

      • Yes this. I like that I can subscribe to something, watch what I'm interested in and then drop the subscription. That was true for the Karate Kid reboot on youtube and the mandalorian on disney+, some HBO. It's not like I stay signed up to these things for the whole year. I've noticed that I and the family are watching far less on netflix recently - that may be the next to go.

    • What about other subscriptions: electricity, gas, rent? If they are going to roll up cloud storage and productivity apps, why not all of the other things many people use? Also, what about cell phones and internet access?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Electricity, gas, and housing payment are utilities, they are essential items that aren't optional. Internet access really should be included alongside the streaming services, internet is far less expensive alongside a TV bundle and you need a faster internet connection to support streaming services.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by guruevi ( 827432 )

          I'm not sure you understand that bundling doesn't save you money. Bundling typically requires you to buy a higher end cable package than you need (basic cable typically costs $15/month), an Internet connection at full price and a phone line you don't need at $35+/month, also you have to pay extra for a cable box ($10/month/TV) and a VoIP gateway ($5/month), if you want a DVR, add-on another $20/month.

          Also, the introductory prices are just that, introductory. Our bundle went from $80/month to $280/month in t

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            It's been awhile but the VOIP gateway is irrelevant you don't have to have a voice bundle for a bundle discount. All in the cable route was about $120/mo for both cable and internet and the internet only option is $70 (with taxes) with the annoying mandatory equipment fee even though I don't use their equipment. So that leaves $50 for streaming services to break even... of course we already had some streaming alongside cable so I consider those a wash. I'm assuming you are playing the usual game, threatenin

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by guruevi ( 827432 )

              Around here, TWC no longer provides a discount upon calling, since they are the only option for cable TV, threaten to leave and they say, okay, we'll cancel your account. Same goes for the mandatory boxes, no other option. Also, I don't want to be surprised one month and see a bill, then have to have a run-around for 2 hours before I get any discount.

              The bundle does require Internet + TV + VoIP to get a 'discount'. You can opt to get out of one package, but the price either stays the same or goes up.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Shaitan ( 22585 )

                Yeah, if you don't have any kind of competitor in the area that is a pita, in most places they've colluded to make sure there are exactly two. Usually the old cable company and the old phone company.

                "Also, I don't want to be surprised one month and see a bill, then have to have a run-around for 2 hours before I get any discount."

                Yeah, around here you have TWC (which sucks, I'd never use them) and frontier fios which is still decent because it was a solid fiber service under verizon but the frontier people s

  • "We" (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 )
    Stop with this "we" shit. You *don't* speak for me, and I didn't certainly didn't pay *anything* for any subscription in the last year, what-so-sever. You sound like a professor or some other variety of pompous jerk.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      I agree. It's a lazy way to title articles that seems to be a popular trend these days.

    • Wish I could mod you up Iâ(TM)m not a âoeweâ either.

    • > You sound like a professor or some other variety of pompous jerk.

      It's an article written for people with a Kindergarten mentality. You weren't going to click anyway.

      However, the Slashdot editing team should really auto-delete any submission with a clickbait title - to protect their unique brand.

    • Maybe the "we" they were talking about was themselves and their families and/or friends?

      You just read the "we" to include yourself.

    • Re: "We" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymouse 2 ( 6383096 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:49AM (#59674968)
      You know who else can sound like a pompous jerk? People who get triggered by the use of a pronoun which may or may not include them in a group, but choose to interpret that pronoun as including them, then whining about it.

    • If you're included in the average, even if your contribution is $0, you're still part of the denominator.

  • Subscriptions are like Taxes (Score:3)

    by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:04AM (#59674782)

    Folks would get out the pitchforks and torches if it all came as one giant bill.

    When you break them into many smaller amounts, however, most people don't even realize how much they're paying. . . . . .

    • My property taxes do come in one giant bill actually. It is my single largest expense too. And there seems to be a total disconnect between most members of my town between property taxes and city/school bonds. Somehow most do not understand the impact of more bonds, but I blame that on the city/school advocates who falsely state that bonds will not increase your property taxes. Sheeple.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          Healthcare will go down if they do it right, at the very least with Sanders plan they cut out the insurance company but once it is a public system controls will start to go in. In the past three years I went from having great coverage for a wink and smile to an increase of over $1200/mo on my insurance and that is for insurance with a giant deductible and poor coverage after it's met that absolute bottom priced option. Everything I actually pay on healthcare (and I pay for all my healthcare thanks to the d

          • Sander's own state ended up balking at trying to implement the same style of system that he proposes [forbes.com]. We'd get far more savings if we allowed Americans to purchase drugs from other countries or opened insurance companies up to additional competition, because there are several states or municipalities where there's a de facto monopoly when it comes to healthcare insurance providers.

            If you wanted to control prices, the best legislation you could pass would be requiring hospitals the post and list the cost

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Shaitan ( 22585 )

              Keep drinking the kool-aid. I haven't lived in a state with a de facto monopoly but I can assure you it isn't any better in the other states. The biggest hike was when they decided the hospital would no longer pay the doctor... but the cost for the hospital didn't go down. Instantly doubling of already overpriced care.

              The free market answer has been tried, it is what got us to the paying dramatically more for low quality care position we are in now. You could have a better result than we have now by opening

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Shaitan ( 22585 )

                  Anecdotally my Canadian friends indicate your issue with Canadian healthcare waits is seriously overstated in articles such as that one. England being concerned about the quality of their NHS doesn't mean it isn't better than what we have. According the prosperity index the United States is ranked 59th globally in terms of healthcare. The United Kingdom ranked 23rd. Canada at 25th. So the shitty healthcare they are concerned about definitely has room for improvement and yet still blows our healthcare system

                  • I completely back up the Canadian health care system. Three times it has saved the lives of my immediate family. When life is in danger, care is immediate and efficient. The people who complain are people who need optional surgeries, like a new hip. Sometimes they are plain impatient, sometimes they do have a point that it is a bit long to wait in pain and bedridden if that is in fact the case. Our system should be easy to make a lot better, but unfortunately there are layers of bureaucracy that are ha

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by Shaitan ( 22585 )

                      Oh yes, there are definitely problems here in the US. Primary physicians take on Nurse Practitioners and PA's because they can't keep up, despite the availability of higher priced urgent care centers. I can get in to see one of the Nurse practitioners within a month here in a more affluent urban suburb but actually seeing the doctor if needed has to be booked out about 3 months in advance. New patients can't even enroll unless they are family of an existing patient.

                      Urgent cares can usually get you in same d

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ahodgson ( 74077 )

        Income tax is by far my biggest expense.

        Property tax + city utilities is a fairly distant second.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Trulak ( 1971012 )
      Except not because I actually enjoy the things I pay for in the subscriptions. And it's voluntary. Neither of which can be said of taxes. I have Amazon Prime, Hulu/Disney+/ESPN+, Xbox Live, and Spotify for $52 a month/$624 a year. I don't include the internet bill in this because I would have that regardless and I do a lot more than just stream with that (not the least of which is working, which makes money which makes internet an investment not a cost). Other than the Xbox, I can enjoy these services from

    • Folks would get out the pitchforks and torches if it all came as one giant bill.

      The few dollars for $SERVICE1, $SERVICE2, and $SERVICE3 are even easier to get 'buried' when they are lines on your credit card bill between the lines of $RND_CHARGES.

    • Welcome to California. My property tax comes in two installments of thousands of dollars each.

      I can set up an escrow with the bank to help me save up for the payments. For a fee of course.

  • Just DVD's (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:05AM (#59674786)
    All I pay is $8/month for Netflix DVD rentals. I don't know how the whole world has time to be streaming stuff constantly. I've got too much shit to do.

    • All I pay is $8/month for Netflix DVD rentals. I don't know how the whole world has time to be streaming stuff constantly. I've got too much shit to do.

      This, I considered music streaming subscriptions a few times, but mobile bandwidth costs are something I just don't want to pay for beyond my base minimal data cost.

    • > I don't know how the whole world has time to be streaming stuff constantly. I've got too much shit to do.

      You too can pay for an excuse to fuck off and be lazy!

      And then ... this is the best part .. you can complain about the consequences.

    • All I pay is $8/month for Netflix DVD rentals. I don't know how the whole world has time to be streaming stuff constantly. I've got too much shit to do.

      Do you have kids or a family of any sort?
      Because it doesn't sound like it.

      • I don't see how family would change anything. I certainly wouldn't spend money so that my kids sit around and watch TV all day. They'll have to get bored of network TV and go outside or play video games like I did.

      • Kids can only demand what they experienced. If you never had streaming or internet fast enough to get YouTube. Then the kids will know of it through their friends but won't consider it a vital part of their daily life.

        I guess if your kids are demanding lots of TV time you can think about at what age you plopped them in front of the TV and what age you gave them a tablet

    • Re:Just DVD's (Score:4)

      by crow ( 16139 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:36AM (#59674906) Homepage Journal

      All I pay is $0/month for library DVD checkouts. I'm sure Netflix has a better selection, but my library has pretty much everything I want available in its network.

      That said, my family is pushing me to get Disney+.

      • If you have kids Disney+ is probably awesome. I'm not even paying for it (bumming a freinds log in) and now that the Mandolorian is on a break neither the wife or I have gone back into Disney+.
    • Most people really don't have time to watch all that stuff truth be told. It's the digital equivalent of buying groceries to cook all week, then ordering out and throwing half the groceries out.
      • The only reason it's so cheap is an economy of scale, though. Group A of 1 million peeople pays for access to show A, Group B of 1 million more pays for access to show B. If you only had Show A, you'd only get Group A paying, and the costs you'd have to pass on to them would double. Now scale this out to holding thousands of streaming licenses and a bunch of disparate little fandoms all pitching in to the greater whole, and you get the ultra low price points of a streaming service. /Not going to factor i

  • What about news subscriptions? (Score:3)

    by makomk ( 752139 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:28AM (#59674876) Journal

    This is an interesting article to see in the New York Times, given their reliance not just on subscriptions but also on dark patterns like subscriptions that automatically jump up in price by substantial amounts and allowing people to subscribe automatically online but requiring subscribers to contact them in order to cancel. Though to be fair, it looks like they've improved a little since people were complaining about this a few years ago - they now accept cancellation requests via email and not just phone, and it looks like the rate that subscriptions jump up to is no longer completely concealed.

  • Cellular Food For Thought (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kackle ( 910159 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @10:33AM (#59674894)
    This comment is only food for thought. With my short commute, I don't own a cellular phone as it's a tool I don't need. (It seems to require an explanation every time someone learns this.) I figure I save about $50 a month, which is $600 a year ($1000 before taxes). Every decade I "win" half of a (albeit cheap) new car, if I want one.

    The subscriptions mentioned in the summary are cheap compared to everyone in the family needing their own phone. It's just assumed it's mandatory.
    • $600/year is peanuts compared to what people pay for cars and housing. On the other hand, my wife and I pay a total of about $25 per month for our two cell phones. There are cheap plans out there if you look past the big vendors - we use Republic for her unlimited voice/text plan ($15+fees/month) and I have a seldom-used phone on Page Plus ($11 every four months for pay-by-the-minute). We did have to buy unlocked phones, a one-time expense of $150 or so, but the total is much less than we used to pay for

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kackle ( 910159 )
        Cool; I know there are cheaper plans out there--I was assuming heavy usage, like others do. But you're right, the low-use plans are less money than they used to be.

    • This comment is only food for thought. With my short commute, I don't own a cellular phone as it's a tool I don't need. (It seems to require an explanation every time someone learns this.) I figure I save about $50 a month, which is $600 a year ($1000 before taxes).

      $50/mo? Where do you live?

      In the U.S., you can get a basic calling/texting plan (no data) for $3/mo through T-Mobile Prepaid [ultramobile.com] (now rebranded as Ultra PayGo). Perfect for emergencies.

      For those who live in areas where T-Mobile coverage isn't that good, there's Red Pocket [redpocket.com] (AT&T MVNO) for $10/mo.

    • Is there no prepaid where you live? Here in Switzerland, I can have 500MB as a bundle on a prepaid card for 3.50, valid for 30 days.
      My daughter now has that, for the rare cases where she needs to look something up (public transit connection or so), or chat for upcoming arrangements, away from some known available WiFi. Otherwise, it's 0 usd to be reachable all year.
      As in most countries, receiving calls is free, but her second SIM is actually of a no longer available type that has 3000 minutes/month free

  • That's a pretty high number if you're talking about streaming subscriptions. $50/month is maybe what I would spend at my peak media consumption, but I'm buying content, not renting it. I have a library built up of shit I can watch again or share with others for free. Sure, it's mostly streams, but I have a perpetual license through the likes of Vudu (owned by Walmart). They're not going anywhere and it's all they do, so they have an interest in keeping people happy.

  • We cut our cord years ago, and for a good decade or more had a great HD rooftop antenna until I realized ... nobody flipping watches normal TV.

    If you try, be prepared for a barrage of about 6 commercial breaks per hour, high volume, and quite long. I think a 1 hour tv show is down below 40 mins now? (And fuck you very much Hulu and Amazon for including ads in a service I'm PAYING FOR ALREADY.) ...which makes me wonder who in the hell is paying the ridiculous $50+/mo for regular TV services streaming plans

    • TiVo added automatic commercial skipping back in. I haven't tried it, but I'm thinking of putting an antenna up because of that feature.

  • Not Really "Cutting The Cord" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @11:24AM (#59675152)
    I never understood the logic of "cutting the cord" with $100 cable/dish TV service only to subscribe to multiple streaming services and basically paying $100 with various subscription providers, just so you can watch the content on your phone/console/computer in addition to a TV.

    Unless being able to see it on your other devices is the reason.

    I cut the cord a long time ago and missed things like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and all those other shows people talk about.... and life has been just fine with an extra $100/mo in my wallet.
    • I think that people are desiring to watch what they want, when they want. Cutting the cord is about the freedom to do just that, without the issues of being on the Network TV schedule, time shifting with DVRs, or dealing with the barrage of commercials. I really get reminded of this when I have to travel and attempt to watch TV in the Hotel room...I go crazy from the commercials alone. People are just voting with their money, spending it to get what they want, rather than spending it to get what they are g

    • You don't see any advantage between paying one company $100 a month, and ten competing companies $10 a month each?

      Or on top of that, paying $10/month rent per tv in your house for set top boxes vs. you bring internet to it and it will work?

      It's all about choice. You can pay $10 a month and watch on anything, or you can pay $200 a month and watch more on anything. This is so much better than picking among $30+++ per month bundles plus more for the box in the kids room.

    • I never understood the logic of "cutting the cord"...

      It's just changing the cord.

  • While I am European, we have the following subscriptions as family:
    • 49,90EUR/month-- 1x -- Flat rate vDSL Internet.
    • 18,00EUR/month -- 2x -- 3GB/Month cellphone subscription. Lowest possible subscription (in my country) which does include European roaming.
    • 1,00EUR/month -- 1x -- iCloud subscription for her iPhone Backup
    • 49,00EUR/year -- 1x -- Amazon Prime, because the lady likes next day delivery, so I use the Prime Streaming thing. Alas, in my country there is no Prime Family sharing so if I want next day
    • yea electricity would probably skew the picture a bit i think here without the bare necessities like water and electrons its close to €100 a month for internet, me €9 for a vpn .. the folks have about i dont know €15 for a cellphone sub ? tv and everything else comes with the cable i think thats it i have very bad experiences with cloud storage, a.o. microcrud blocking me out of an account 'for no reasons given' and losing all data so i will never trust or pay for any of that, invest in fl
  • No one who defends their 'streaming service' habit counts the cost of their internet connection in that. Also wouldn't at all be surprised if their internet costs more than it did before they 'cut the cord' on cable and satellite TV, in part because ISPs like Comcast raised their rates, but also because they needed more bandwidth to not get shit-tier quality from their 'streams'. In the end they're all paying the same as they did for cable and satellite, and all these companies are laughing all the way to t
  • I pirate everything because I'm entitled to whatever entertainment I want for free! GIMME GIMME GIMME
    • VPN's are much cheaper than any of these services, and provides more than any ALL these services, combined.

  • You can save $10/month by not subscribing to the NY Times.
    Make it $20/month by dropping the Washington Post too.

    That's $240/year and you won't miss a thing

  • Let's see: a 14Tb HD is about 450$ right now. Get 3 in a raid for 28Tb, that's a lot of movies, and music and comics and books and porn... And you don't have to pay every year. And if you stop paying the content doesn't disappear. Just add an internet and a VPN subscriptions... And you can store your own stuff too, family pictures and movies, without having them face-scanned by grubby companies. The deal is pretty clear to me.
  • I may have missed it, but I don't think anyone has commented on this line from the article: " ... according to an analysis for The New York Times by Mint, the online budgeting tool owned by Intuit, using data from millions of its users." How deep into the EULA do you have to go as an Intuit customer to discover that they can mine your financial transactions, then sell the analysis to third parties? That is a far larger issue than how much you pay for entertainment.

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