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Ad-free streaming is a luxury now
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Ad-free streaming is a luxury now
Steady price increases are pushing viewers toward cheaper, ad-supported tiers.
by Emma Roth
Emma Roth
News Writer
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
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Jun 28, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC
Image: Apple TV Plus
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Ad-free streaming is a luxury now
Steady price increases are pushing viewers toward cheaper, ad-supported tiers.
by Emma Roth
Emma Roth
News Writer
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Follow See All by Emma Roth
Jun 28, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Follow See All by Emma Roth
is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.
This isThe Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about the streaming industry, followEmma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Streaming was once a reprieve from cable. Not only could you watch whatever you wanted at any given time, but you didn’t have to sit through five-minute-long commercial breaks. And the best part was the price: Netflix, for example, cost just $7.99 / month when it launched its standalone streaming service in 2010. Amazon’s Prime Video was the same, offering ad-free streaming as a perk with its Prime membership. Hulu was an outlier at the time, but that’s because it allowed you to stream ad-supported TV shows and movies for free. It later added a $7.99 / month Hulu Plus subscription, with limited advertising.
But the commercial-free streaming model was so appealing that when companies launched rival streaming services, most made them ad-free by default. Disney Plus cost $6.99 / month when it launched in 2019, followed by the $4.99 / month subscription to Apple TV, and the launch of HBO Max’s $14.99 / month streaming service. (There were some exceptions, of course, like Paramount Plus, which launched with ads for $4.99 / month, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which offered some titles for free alongside a $4.99 / month ad-supported tier with access to all of its shows and movies.)
As the streaming industry matured and viewers settled into the services of their choice, many executives soon realized that they couldn’t make money just by adding new subscribers in an already saturated market.
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