Cost of Streaming TV Services

When Disney Plus came out, everyone was telling me how great this streaming TV service is. My students were trying to watch it in class. My kids had heard that there were a ton of great shows on it. Even adults were excited about the classic Disney movies that they used to watch as kids.

Just like Netflix used to be, Disney Plus was the Next Big Thing. And the number of people who instantly subscribed to it showed just how big it would be.

Over the first month, it was estimated that 24 million people subscribed to this service. And at a cost of only $6.99 per month, it is something that everyone in the United States can afford.

Right?

Monthly cost of streaming TV

Even before Disney Plus was released, there were dozens of streaming TV services to choose from. Huge names like YouTube TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have millions of subscribers. There are also smaller streaming TV services perfect for those who like sports, individual channels, or movies.

However, each of these streaming services comes at a cost.

As we can see from the monthly costs shown in the table, the cost of streaming TV services are not unbearable for the average middle class family.

Annual cost of streaming TV

However, these costs get a little more substantial when they are looked at on an annual basis.

Instead of looking at a monthly cost of $6.99 or even $49.99 per month, looking at the annual cost helps to give us a better picture of what we will actually pay. A cost of $6.99 for Disney Plus almost seems irrelevant, but an annual cost of $83.88 should make us question whether or not we should subscribe.

Of course, when we are looking at the costs of anything, it usually makes sense to look at more than just the monthly or annual costs. It helps to look at our costs over a longer timeframe.

Ten year cost of streaming TV

Instead of just looking at the basic costs of streaming TV over a ten year period, I also like to look at the opportunity cost of this money. In other words, what would happen if I invested this money in the stock market and received a moderate return of 8%?

As we can see by this table, we are no longer looking at a simple cost of $6.99 per month for Disney Plus. Instead, over ten years, the cost of Disney Plus balloons to $1,215.

And after 30 years, the cost of Disney Plus is $9,502!

The true cost of streaming TV

No matter what, I never want to say that anything is too expensive. If you value something, then it makes sense to find a way to pay for it. With my philosophy of Life Before Budget, I feel that we should always figure out what makes us happy in life and do it.

No exceptions.

However, even though we should never forgo doing something because of cost, money is finite. Therefore, it always makes sense to determine the cost of something before we do it.

I know that you and I won’t subscribe to Disney Plus for 30 years, so the 30 year cost of $9,502 seems to be irrelevant. But . . . maybe this cost isn’t actually that irrelevant.

We won’t subscribe to Disney Plus for 30 years, but we will subscribe to something.

Maybe we will subscribe to a music service like Pandora Plus at a cost of $4.99 per month. Maybe we will spend more and subscribe to a food delivery service like HelloFresh at $69 per week. Or maybe we will use a clothing service like Stitch Fix that charges an average of $55 per piece.

We will definitely subscribe to something.

And as we subscribe, it always makes sense for us to consider more than just the monthly cost. What may be considered as a small and almost irrelevant cost of $40 per month will seem different if we consider that it will end up costing us almost $7,000 over ten years (or $54,000 for 30 years).

What do you think about before getting a new monthly service? Let us know in the comments below.

And thanks for reading!

~Nathan

Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?

• You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
• You can get motivated and get out of debt.
• You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.

But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!