Three Simple Tips to Help You Cut Your Streaming Costs
1. Subscribe selectively
Instead of subscribing to multiple streamers at once and watching a few things on each, pause your subscription until you want to see a lot of content on one particular service (check out our guide to upgrading to a subscription below).
2. Go down one level
Unless you watch a lot of stuff shot in 4K HDR with spatial audio, you don't really need the Super Mega Ultra tier for this streaming service.
3. Buy a package
Some streamers are cheaper if you buy them as part of a package—like a phone contract with a streaming package, or a multi-service package like Apple One.
Streaming is a little different from the days when all you needed was one Netflix subscription. To watch all the big shows and movies today, you need a big budget to cover not only Netflix, but also Disney+/Hulu, HBO Max or Now TV, Paramount+ and Apple TV and Prime Video and much more.
With a little foresight and smart use of the Reminders app, you can pause subscriptions that aren't delivering the most value, lower the price of subscriptions you want to keep, and share streaming with family members who don't live under the same roof. I estimate that this will save me over 50% in 2026, and there is no reason why you couldn't achieve the same savings.
In this article I'll be mostly quoting UK prices because that's where I live, but the tips and savings will be about the same elsewhere. Here's how to cut the cost of your streaming subscription without sacrificing the best shows and movies.
Basics
1. Go down one level
Full Super Mega Ultra plan with 4K UHD, HDR Spatial audio is great, but how many TV shows you watch were filmed using these features?
Upgrading from 4K to 1080p means big savings on Netflix. The Premium 4K plan costs $24.99 / £18.99 / AU$28.99, and the Standard plan costs $17.99 / £12.99 / AU$20.99, which is a saving of 46% here in the UK.
Likewise, Disney+ costs £14.99 a month for up to 4K resolution in the UK, but just £9.99 for 1080p. That's a savings of 50% per month if you downgrade.
Unless your TV is large and/or very close to the couch, you may not be able to see a huge difference between 1080p and 4K, especially if your TV does a good job of upsampling over Full HD.
2. Use advertising
Yes, ads—especially random ads—are annoying. But switching from ad-free to ad-supported plans can save you a ton of money – so, for example, switching from Netflix Standard to Netflix Standard With Adverts drops the price from $17.99 / £12.99 / AU$20.99 per month to $7.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 per month, saving 53%.
You can't skip the commercials, but if you're like me, you'll quickly develop muscle memory for the location of the mute button on your TV remote or learn to pick up your phone exactly for 60 seconds.
3. Deny your children
If, like me, you have a child who has moved, you can save a lot of money by disowning him. Or at least without paying extra to share the streaming service with them.
Here in the UK, these extra accounts for people who don't live under the same roof add £4.99 a month to your Disney+ or Netflix streaming plan (or £5.99 if you're on an ad-free Netflix plan).
Don't worry, I'm not completely depriving my kids. My Apple subscription is a family subscription, so they have Apple TV (and Apple Music). And that brings me to the package.
4. Buy a package
One way to get streaming for less money is to purchase it as a package—for example, my Apple TV subscription is available as a standalone subscription or as part of the Apple One package.
If you're already an Apple Music subscriber, it's cheaper to upgrade to Apple One than buying Apple TV separately: in the UK, Apple One costs £18.95 for an individual subscription, compared to £10.99 for Apple Music, plus £9.99 for Apple TV. And you get extra. iCloud space and Apple Arcade have also been added.
The family plan costs just £5 more and you can share your music, TV and slots subscription with up to five people.
5. Change of subscription
Got all these basics covered and still want to save money on streaming? Now we come to the biggest (and possibly best) way to cut your bills.
Pausing your monthly subscription could save you a fortune, although of course this isn't an option if you've paid upfront for an annual plan.
I think there are two types of streaming shows. There are some shows you absolutely need to watch right now because (a) they're great and (b) if you don't, some clown on the Internet will ruin them for you. And there are shows that… okay.
For me the first includes shows like Slow horses, Down Cemetery Road, Severance pay And For manywhich coincidentally is on Apple TV, so I'm going to keep that subscription.
But I subscribed to other services only for specific programs: Now TV for The's the last of usParamount+ for Yellow JacketsNetflix for Stranger Things. And when these shows end, I don't mind putting my subscription on hold until there are more must-watch shows.
Let's look at the numbers. For simplicity's sake, I'll list separate prices for Apple TV and Prime Video because otherwise there will be confusion.
If I did not terminate or change any of my subscriptions for 2025, my monthly bill would be:
- Netflix (advertising) £5.99
- Paramount+ £7.99
- Now TV (advertising) £9.99
- Apple TV £9.99
- Prime Video (advertising) £5.99
- Disney+ (advertising, additional person) £10.98
This is total £50.93 per month (about US$68 / AU$103).
Suspending your first three subscriptions and removing the additional Disney membership feature will result in the following monthly charges:
- Apple TV £9.99
- Prime Video (advertising) £5.99
- Disney+ (advertising) – £5.99.
This is total £21.97 per month, saving 56%. And with rotating subscriptions, I can change subscriptions throughout the year, like trading Netflix for Disney Plus for a month or two.
There are a few caveats here. Streamers often offer promotional discounts that lower the price, especially for an annual subscription – while this can save you money, it also prevents you from jumping on subscriptions.
There are other ways to get some streaming services for less money, such as by including them in a new phone contract or in the UK with Sky TV, Virgin Media or similar. But if you subscribe directly to individual streaming services, pausing them for a few months here and there could save you some serious cash.
Unusual donations coming in 2026? Here's our cheat sheet for the first few months of the year to help you formulate a plan to switch subscriptions.
Our cheat sheet
Your tastes will likely be different from mine, so here's a quick guide to some of the best new shows coming to Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and other platforms in the next few months.
|
Month |
Service |
Show/notes |
|
January |
Apple TV |
Hijacking S2 (January 14), Drops of God S2 (January 21), Shrinking S3 (January 28) |
|
January |
Netflix |
“Harlan Coben's Getaway” (January 1), “His and Hers” (January 8), “People We Meet on Vacation” (January 9), “The Seven Dials of Agatha Christie” (January 15), “Rest in Peace” (January 16), “Bridgertons 4, Part 1” (January 29) |
|
January |
Prime Video |
Steal (Jan 21) |
|
January |
Peacock |
Pony (Jan 15) |
|
January |
HBO Max |
“Pitt S2” (January 8), “Industry S4” (January 11), “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S1” (January 18) |
|
January |
Disney Plus/Hulu |
Pole to Pole with Will Smith (January 14), Wonder Man (January 27) |
|
January |
Paramount+ |
Scream 5 (January 14), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (January 15), The Smurfs (January 15) |
|
February |
Apple TV |
The Last Thing He Told Me, Episode 2 (February 20), “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Part 2” (February 27) |
|
February |
Netflix |
Lincoln's Lawyer Episode 4 (February 5), Night Agent Episode 3 (February 19) |
|
February |
Prime Video |
Running Man (February 25) |
|
February |
Disney Plus/Hulu |
Artful Dodger S2 (February 10), Paradise S2 (February 23) |
|
March |
Netflix |
One Piece S2 (March 10), Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (March 20) |
|
March |
Prime Video |
Scarpetta (11 March), Dedloch S2 (date to be announced) |
|
March |
Peacock |
Ted S2 (March 5) |
|
March |
HBO Max |
Rooster (date to be confirmed) |
|
March |
Disney Plus |
Daredevil Born Again Season 1 (March 4) |
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