How streaming got worse in 2023 (and what you can do about it)

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated the best streaming developments of 2023 with our annual cord-cutter awards, and I mentioned wanting to wind down the year on a positive note.

But now, I’ve decided to do the opposite.

After all, this was the year in which streaming providers made their heel turn, sullying their services in hopes of squeezing a few extra dollars from customers. You can still save money with cord-cutting, but it’s gotten a bit harder thanks to a handful of noxious industry trends. Here are the worst of them, and what you can do in response:

Price hikes everywhere

Under pressure from Wall Street to focus on profitability over growth, streaming services reached for the most obvious lever at their disposal: Raising prices. A rundown of notable streaming price hikes in 2023:

• Netflix raised its Basic plan from $10 to $12 per month and its Premium plan from $20 to $23 per month. (The Standard plan remains at $15.50 per month.)
• Disney and Hulu enacted too many price hikes to listhere.
• Paramount+ raised its Essentials plan from $5 to $6 per month and its Premium plan from $10 to $12 per month.
• Peacock raised its Premium plan from $5 to $6 per month and its Premium Plus plan from $10 to $12 per month.
• Max raised its standard tier from $15 to $16 per month, while moving 4K video to a new premium tier at $20 per month.
• Apple TV+ raised prices from $7 to $10 per month.
• YouTube TV jumped from $65 per month to $73 per month.
• Frndly TV raised prices by $1 per month.

I’m not sure this strategy is sustainable when customers are spoiled for choice and can easily cycle through different services, but in the near term it satisfies the goal of having more profitable customers—albeit potentially fewer of them.

What you can do about it: As regular pricing rises, streaming services may become more dependent on special promos to lure in new subscribers. Be merciless about canceling services you don’t need, and keep an eye out for comeback deals and seasonal sales along the way.

Ad-free TV becomes a luxury

As streaming providers have realized how lucrative ad-supported streaming can be, they’ve started charging a higher premium for commercial-free viewing.

The most notable example is Disney, which in October raised the ad-free price of Disney+ and Hulu by $3 per month each while its ad-supported pricing stayed the same. Netflix has also raised prices on some of its ad-free plans (see above) while keeping its ad-supported plan at $7 per month. When Peacock and Paramount+ raised prices earlier this year, their ad-free plans both jumped by $2 per month, versus just $1 per month for ad-supported viewing.

What you can do about it: If you’re willing to invest some extra time and effort into your TV setup, you can use PlayOn to record video from ad-supported streaming services, then skip through the commercials. PlayOn has even created a calculator showing how you can save this way. An over-the-air DVR is also worth considering to record local channels from an antenna.

Password sharing gets harder

After years of embracing password sharing, Netflix changed course in 2023 and started cracking down on the practice. Subscribers must now establish a home location, and Netflix will block remote access on TV devices after an undefined grace period. Customers who want to add a remote household must pay an extra $8 per month.

Netflix says it’s been successful, and its competitors have noticed. Disney has already said it will embark on its own password-sharing crackdown in 2024, and others could follow as they search for new sources of revenue.

What you can do about it: Remember that these are fishing expeditions, and streamers must walk a fine line between building incremental revenue and hindering legitimate usage. With a little coordination, sharing with close family members is still doable, for instance by rotating home locations or limiting usage to mobile devices.

Streaming catalogs contract

At the tail end of 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery broke the unwritten rule of streaming by pulling Westworld and several other original series from the HBO Max catalog. The idea that streamers would let go of original programming had previously been unthinkable.

But in 2023, the practice has become commonplace, be it for tax write-offs, licensing to other services, or avoiding residual payments. Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, and Starz have all culled programming from their catalogs, while Warner continues to pull content from Max. It’s another way in which streaming TV has entered its bean-counting era.

What you can do about it: Don’t assume that a show you intend to watch will be available forever, especially if it’s not all that popular, and use services like Reelgood (or your streaming player’s search feature) to see if departed shows wind up elsewhere. If all else fails, the aforementioned PlayOn can be useful for archival purposes.

ATSC 3.0 channels get locked down with DRM

ATSC 3.0, the new over-the-air broadcast standard also known as NextGen TV, is still getting off the ground, but that hasn’t stopped broadcasters from saddling their channels with encryption. By locking down over-the-air TV, they’ve hindered viewing on external tuner boxes, weakened over-the-air DVR, and even caused playback problems on some smart TVs. It’s another textbook case of DRM punishing legitimate users—including the early adopters most likely to champion the new standard—in the name of preventing piracy.

What you can do about it: Remember that ATSC 1.0 isn’t going away until at least 2027, and it will likely stick around for even longer. Over-the-air DVRs that use the old standard are still solid investments today, and if you have one already, there’s little harm in riding it out until the bitter end.

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