Streaming Subscription Prices Are Getting Ridiculous: Here Are Some Free Alternatives
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At what point did streaming stop being an alternative to cable and started feeling like cable with extra steps?
Netflix wants money. Disney+ wants money. Your sports package definitely wants money. The worst part isn’t even the price increases. It’s the fact that content is scattered between three, four or seven services. Before you know it, you’re paying close to or over $100 a month just to keep up.
You’re not alone, either. Recent surveys found that US households are paying an average of $69 every month on subscriptions. And that’s only for video streaming. The good news, though? There are still plenty of ways to entertain yourself without handing over another monthly payment.
Free Streaming Services
Ironically, the best alternative to paid streaming might be... free streaming.
Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, and similar platforms have been quietly building audiences for years. Most people ignored them because Netflix was cheap and convenient.
Now Netflix isn’t quite so cheap anymore. Sure, you’ll sit through ads. Then again, most paid services seem determined to show you ads these days anyway. The difference is that Tubi isn’t charging you twenty bucks a month first.
Free Poker Sites
Not everybody wants to spend their evenings watching television. Sometimes, free poker games on a lazy Tuesday afternoon is just what the doctor ordered.
Poker sites have become surprisingly popular among people looking for something a little more interactive than sitting through endless episodes of Law & Order. The best platforms, like the official PlayWSOP, use play-money formats, so there’s no financial risk involved. You can jump into a tournament, play a few hands, and log off whenever you feel like it.
It’s also a lot harder to spend an hour scrolling for something to watch when you’re actually busy doing something.
Digital Libraries
Here’s something a lot of people forget. Your library card is probably worth more than one of your streaming subscriptions. Services like Libby and Hoopla give users access to audiobooks, ebooks, movies, magazines, and plenty of other content without charging a monthly fee. Or any fee, for that matter.
The funny thing is that many people already have access to these services and never use them. Meanwhile they’re paying for five different streaming subscriptions every month. And probably don’t use two of those five.
YouTube
You knew this one was coming.
Every time a streaming company announces another price increase, YouTube just keeps existing. Need a documentary? It’s there. Need a podcast? Also there. Need a three-hour video about a topic you didn’t care about five minutes ago? Somehow there too.
Sure, the ads are becoming increasingly more unskippable and increasingly more obnoxious, but YouTube is de facto one of the biggest entertainment hubs on the planet, largely because it never tried to lock everything behind a paywall. For now, at least.
Have We Reached the Price Limit?
Streaming companies spent years convincing people that adding one more subscription wasn’t a big deal. Then came another one, and another, to the point that a lot of consumers are finally looking at their bank statements and wondering what happened.
And make no mistake, the latest round of price hikes isn’t going to be the last. Just watch as streaming companies bemoan “challenging market conditions” to bump up another 10-15%.
That’s why free alternatives are getting attention again. They’re not necessarily better than Netflix or Disney+, but people are getting tired of paying for everything. And judging by those subscription bills and the fact that 23% of Americans pay upwards of $100 on them, that trend is probably not going anywhere anytime soon.