We Australians love to sign up to subscription services. There are a plethora to choose from, including streaming music, audio book subscriptions, meditation classes, fitness trainers, aircraft trackers and much more. Heck, I even pay for a service to remind me to water and fertilise my plants. (It’s called Plantin, if anyone is interested…)
However, video streaming services, are the ones that most of us subscribe to, and make up the bulk of what we spend. In Australia, this includes the likes of Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Paramount, Kayo Sports, Hayu, Apple TV+ and plenty of others.
Prices range from about $6.99 to $25 per month. Here’s a quick summary of costs per month.
| Netflix | $10.99 month | No free trial |
| Apple TV+ | $7.99 | 7 day free trial |
| Binge | $10 month | 14 day free trial |
| Stan | $10 month | 30 day free trial |
| Kayo Sports | $25 month | 14 day free trial |
| Paramount | $8.99 month | 7 day free trial |
| Amazon Prime Video | $6.99 month | 30 day free trial |
| Hayu | $6.99 month | 7 day free trial |
| Disney+ | $11.99 month | No free trial |
Many of us subscribe to multiple video streaming services. If we add up all of them, this is almost $90 per month, and that’s over $1000 per year! Even if you only had half that, so 4 services, that’s still around $500 annually. So how do you keep your costs down while still enjoying a broad selection of stuff to watch? Here are some cost-saving tips to get you started:
How to save on streaming services
- Explore free-to-air video on demand libraries such as 7Plus and Nine Now, ABC and SBS. They have some surprisingly large back catalogues with great content. A quick look on 7Plus and revealed Indiana Jones movies, binge-worthy box sets, etc
- Some streaming music services have free tiers but with ads (such as Spotify and Pandora, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Prime Music – free to Prime users). You can listen for free and pay if you want to remove the ads or add other features
- Sign up for an annual subscription and save over a monthly fee (Save 15% with Disney Plus annual subscription, for example)
- Choose family plans to avoid multiple family members signing up to the same service
- Consider basic or standard streaming tiers instead of more expensive Ultra HD / 4K and multi device tiers
- Search for discount codes online and free trial offers (A quick Google search for ‘streaming video discounts’ took us to a coupon site with ‘3 months free’ offers and $10 off Stan)
- Shop around for bundle deals (from Telcos, Foxtel, etc.) that include streaming movies, music, audio books, even games subscriptions in one. Telstra customers can get $10 off Kayo Sports per month, Foxtel subscribers can bundle their Netflix subscription into their package)
Also, don’t forget to:
- Set a reminder to cancel your a trial service before it ends as you’ll be charged for it
- Be wary of data costs, especially when trialing streaming TV/Movie services, as it can add up
- Stream only when on Wi-Fi, not over the mobile network
- Some services such as Netflix or iTunes allow you to download music/movies and watch later offline
