Streaming Price Hikes Are Getting Smaller — and Ads Are Why
The big three streaming services — Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon — have cut the size of their average price increases nearly in half, from 24% per subscription in 2023/24 to 14% in 2025/26, according to research firm Ampere Analysis reported by Deadline on 24 August 2026.
In plain dollar terms, the average monthly price rise dropped from $1.67 to $1.54. Not a dramatic fall on its own, but the direction is clear: the era of steep, repeated hikes is cooling.
The story underneath those numbers is about how the platforms make money. Ad-free tiers — the plans where you watch without commercials — saw average rises of $1.61. Ad-supported tiers, the cheaper plans that include advertising, rose by only $1.21. That gap is widening. Streamers now have a financial reason to keep the ad-supported options cheap: advertising has become a core revenue driver, not a side experiment. The cheaper the plan, the more eyeballs on the ads.
Password-sharing crackdowns play a part too. By charging extra for members outside a household, platforms squeeze more value from audiences they already have — reducing the pressure to raise the base subscription price.
The three giants are not behaving identically. Netflix's price increases have stayed broadly stable. Disney+ has shifted most clearly towards smaller rises. Amazon, which bundles its Prime Video service with a broader Prime membership, made the fewest increases of the three.
Where you live also shapes the bill. Western Europe saw the largest average rises over the past three years — $1.86, or 16%. North America followed at $1.79, or 15%. Central and Eastern Europe saw a smaller dollar rise of $1.68, but that translated to a higher percentage jump of 18% because starting prices there are lower.
Ampere's read on why the hikes are shrinking is straightforward. Streaming markets are maturing. They are more competitive and more saturated. That means platforms are running up against a hard limit: what consumers are actually willing to pay. The headroom for bigger increases is narrowing.
The wider financial picture explains why platforms can afford restraint on pricing. Global streaming subscription revenue grew 14% in 2025 to reach $157.1 billion, according to a separate Ampere Analysis report published in March 2026. That figure has tripled in five years, and Ampere forecasts it will pass $200 billion by 2030. Revenue is still climbing fast — it just does not need to come from bigger and bigger price hikes on the monthly bill.
For subscribers, the practical takeaway is simple. The ad-supported tier is where platforms are competing hardest on price, and that is unlikely to change while advertising revenue keeps growing. The ad-free experience will keep getting more expensive, just not as sharply as it did a couple of years ago.
