How much is streaming costing you? Australian price guide 2024

How many streaming services do you subscribe to? For most subscribers it’s at least two – and one of those services is probably Netflix.

According to a 2023 report from Finder’s Consumer Sentiment Tracker, 69% of Australians subscribe to at least one streaming service, with the average being two, and 62% of those people have Netflix as one of them. The report also found that we spend an average of 15.4 hours a week streaming, and that our average monthly streaming costs total $45, which comes in at $540 a year.

Those costs are in flux, however, as streaming services introduce more ad-supported tiers, and otherwise hike prices to keep up with inflation.

Let’s break down the 2024 costs of streaming, and see how much you’d be spending per month vs per year on each service.

Australian streaming costs at a glance

Read: What’s new to streaming this week on Netflix, Stan, SBS, BritBox, Prime, Binge, AMC+ and more

Streamers ranked: cheapest to most expensive

Coming in cheapest with only $5.99 to pay per month for their basic (with ads) plan is Paramount+, though you should note a couple of things: this cost is only valid until June, when the price will increase by a dollar to $6.99. This will put it directly on par with Netflix, which also offers its most basic (with ads) plan at $6.99 per month.

Paramount+ also offer the cheapest premium plan at $13.99 per month, which includes high quality streaming and no ads. It’s worth noting that this price is the same cost as Disney+’s most basic streaming subscription tier.

The next cheapest streamers are DocPlay, which has no ads, and Shudder and AMC+ (both available as add-ons to Paramount+). Each costs $8.99 per month, with their title offerings limited to documentaries for DocPlay, horror/thriller for Shudder, and AMC-produced titles (Interview with the Vampire, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad) for AMC+.

At $9.99 a month we have Prime Video, and it’s worth noting that price also includes Amazon Prime membership. That comes with all the bells and whistles advertised, such as free two-day domestic deliveries from Amazon for eligible items. It’s the only streaming subscription on the list that is tied in to a shopping service.

BritBox costs the same per month as Prime, but only offers British-made TV shows and films.

Binge, which is owned by Foxtel, is the fourth most expensive streamer on the list, with a basic, ads-included plan coming in at $10 a month. Removing ads will set you back an extra $8 per month, and premium streaming (for best quality picture and sound) is more than twice the original cost, at $22 per month.

Stan and Apple TV+ are the next most expensive, a $12 and $12.99 per month respectively. Aside from the 99 cent price difference, the main perk of Apple TV+ is its ‘always ad-free’ guarantee (at least for now). The Australian-owned Stan offers a no-ad plan at $16 a month, with premium streaming setting you back $21 per month, and an extra $15 to include Stan Sport.

The most expensive basic plan is currently Disney+ at $13.99 a month, with the main point of difference being no ads on the platform at all. Also, the premium subscription tier will set you back $17.99, which makes it the second cheapest premium offering on the list.

Netflix’s premium plan is currently the most expensive, at $22.99 per month, which puts it just above Binge’s premium no-ads plan.

How much do I spend per month vs per year on streaming?

The table above breaks down each streamer’s monthly costs, so let’s crunch some numbers on what it costs to have all of them. If I signed up to to every single one of the available services above from June 2024, on their best quality, no-ads plans, I’d be looking at a monthly cost of $157.91 – which translates to $1894.92 a year. Mind you, that’s just for me – I haven’t factored in the costs of adding any extra users on Netflix, for example.

If I decide I don’t mind a few ads scattered amongst my shows and movies, that monthly price comes down to $109.91, which means spending $1318.92 per year, a difference of $576, on streaming that occasionally has ads and lesser video quality.

Mind you, these calculations are based on a monthly payment basis, not a yearly one. A few of the streaming services offer discounts for paying on a yearly basis as opposed to a monthly one. Let’s outline those quickly: Prime offers an annual subscription for $79 per year, saving users $3.41 per month on streaming.

Disney+ offers basic annual streaming for $139.99 (saving $2.32 per month) and premium for $179.99 (saving $2.99 per month). Paramount+ also has two annual tiers, with basic at $89.99 per year (saving $2.49 per month) and premium at $124.99 (saving $3.57 per month).

BritBox also offers annual subscriptions for $99.99, saving $1.66 per month.

What can I watch on each of the streaming services?

ScreenHub publishes monthly and weekly guides to all the new film & TV titles available on each streaming service. You can look at those here and here, or by typing in the name of a service (i.e. ‘Stan’) in the search bar.

Are there any free streaming services?

Yes! Australia has a number of free-to-use streaming services, such as ABC iView, SBS On Demand, Brollie, Tubi, Beamafilm, Kanopy and Plex. You can read more about those services and what they offer here and here. The title offerings are not as limited as you may think, but the biggest drawcard for each service here is the $0 price tag.

Whatever streaming service you decide to use, always make sure to carefully read the current price guide, as well as the terms and conditions, to fully understand what you are signing up for and how much it will cost.