Streaming Prices Keep Rising, and Services Keep Splitting Up

Disney+ and Hulu prices go up for existing US subscribers starting with their first bill on or after October 21, 2026. Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery say their merger is expected to close on October 6, though it had not closed as of October 2. For you, that means a higher bill on most Disney+ and Hulu plans and, so far, no announced changes for HBO Max or Paramount+ subscribers. Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+, Apple TV, YouTube Premium, ESPN and Amazon's ad-free Prime Video tier also cost more than they did a year ago.

"Splitting up" means different things at different companies. Warner Bros. Discovery planned to split in two and is instead being sold whole to Paramount. Comcast has already spun off its cable channels. Disney is folding Hulu into Disney+ and selling ESPN as its own app.

For your budget, the useful response is the same either way: pay for fewer services at once, and time each one to what you actually watch.

Key takeaways

• As of October 2, 2026, ad-free Netflix Standard is $19.99 a month, Disney+ Premium $21.49, HBO Max Standard $18.49, Peacock Premium Plus $19.99, Paramount+ Premium $13.99 and Apple TV $14.99.
• Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery say their merger is expected to close on October 6, 2026; as of October 2 it has not closed. Warner's earlier plan to split into two companies is now described in its filings as "previously proposed."
• In an illustrative example, keeping six subscriptions on their cheapest plans all year costs $839.28. Keeping two and rotating the other four for three months each costs $407.64, a saving of $431.64.
• Almost every annual plan costs about 10 months of the monthly price. It saves money only if you would keep the service for 10 months or more.
• The FTC's 2024 "click-to-cancel" rule was struck down in July 2025 and has not been replaced. Cancellation is still covered by the older federal law ROSCA and by some state laws.

What it means for you

• Disney+ or Hulu subscribers: if you joined before September 23, 2026, the new prices apply from your first bill on or after October 21. Disney+ Premium goes from $18.99 to $21.49 and Disney+ with ads rises 50 cents to $12.49, while the ad-supported Disney+, Hulu Bundle stays at $12.99. Hulu now plays inside the Disney+ app, but the Hulu app and subscription still exist. See the price table and the Disney section below.
• HBO Max or Paramount+ subscribers: the merger is expected to close on October 6 but was still pending as of October 2, and no changes to subscriptions, prices or apps have been announced. See the Warner Bros. Discovery section and the FAQ.
• Prime members: Prime Video still comes with ads. Removing them now takes the Prime Video Ultra add-on, reported at $4.99 a month, which also carries 4K and Dolby Atmos, according to 9to5Google. See the table and the FAQ.
• Sports fans: ESPN Unlimited rose to $31.99 a month on September 17, 2026, and ESPN's site lists NFL Network in the plan. If you already have cable or Hulu + Live TV, you usually don't need it separately; the FAQ explains.
• Anyone with four or more subscriptions: rotating services cut one illustrative bill from $839.28 to $407.64 a year, annual plans pay only if you keep a service 10 months or more, and you cancel through whoever bills you. See the rotation, bundle and cancelling sections, and the audit at the end.

What the major services cost now

US prices before tax, checked on each service's own page on October 2, 2026, except entries marked "reported," which that page didn't show. Increase dates come from company help pages where available, otherwise from press coverage of announcements or subscriber notices. Check the sign-up page before you subscribe.

Two patterns show up in the table. On standalone Disney+, the ad-free plan took most of the increase: Disney+ Premium rose $2.50, from $18.99, while Disney+ with ads rose 50 cents and the ad-supported Disney+, Hulu Bundle didn't change. That pattern doesn't hold for every bundle: both versions of the Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max Bundle rose $2, according to Droid Life. Features are also being split into separate tiers: on Prime Video, 4K and Dolby Atmos moved behind the Ultra add-on, according to the same 9to5Google report.

What splitting up actually means

The term covers three different things: companies breaking apart, services merging, and sports or features moving into their own paid tiers.

Warner Bros. Discovery: from a split to a sale

In June 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a split into a "Streaming & Studios" company (HBO, HBO Max, the studios) and a "Global Networks" company (CNN, TNT Sports, Discovery, discovery+), due by mid-2026. On December 4, 2025 it agreed to sell the streaming and studio side to Netflix after the split.

Its board then judged Paramount Skydance's offer for the whole company superior, and Netflix waived its right to propose revised terms, according to Warner's second-quarter 2026 filing. That filing now calls the split "previously proposed."

Paramount signed the deal on February 27, 2026 at $31 a share in cash. Two lawsuits filed in July 2026, one by 12 state attorneys general and one by the Writers Guilds, held up the closing.

A federal judge approved the settlement with the states on September 30, 2026, and both companies said the same day that the merger is expected to close on October 6, subject to customary conditions. Until the deal closes, it remains pending. If it closes, HBO Max and Paramount+ will share an owner, but no changes to subscriptions, prices or apps have been announced.

Comcast and Versant: already done

Comcast completed its spin-off of most NBCUniversal cable channels on January 2, 2026. The new company, Versant, began trading on Nasdaq on January 5. Versant owns CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. Peacock is not on Versant's list, so Peacock subscriptions are unaffected.

The change matters mostly to cable and live TV customers, whose providers now buy those channels from a separate company.

Disney: Hulu goes in, ESPN comes out

Disney is moving Hulu into the Disney+ app. Since May 19, 2026, subscribers with both services can link their Hulu profiles inside Disney+. Hulu-only subscribers can also stream Hulu in the Disney+ app with the same login.

A Disney spokesperson said at the time there were "no current plans to sunset the Hulu app". Hulu's sign-up terms still say some content is only available in the Hulu app.

ESPN went the other way. Its full network lineup launched as a standalone app on August 21, 2025. ESPN Unlimited includes the cable networks, while ESPN Select carries only ESPN+ content.

ESPN's purchase of NFL Network closed on January 31, 2026, and ESPN's site now lists NFL Network inside Unlimited. Live TV services are splitting by genre in the same way: YouTube TV now sells a $71.99 Sports + News plan next to its $82.99 main plan.

Paid sharing

Netflix lets Standard plans add one extra member and Premium plans add up to two, at the prices shown in the table; Netflix's plan page offers no extra-member option on Standard with ads. Disney+ started rolling out paid sharing in the US in September 2024. Hulu's current price list includes Extra Member add-ons for Hulu ($6.99 with ads, $9.99 for Premium) and for the Disney+, Hulu Bundle ($7.99, or $10.99 for Premium). A login that used to be shared for free is now an extra monthly charge on top of a higher base price.

A full stack vs. a rotation

Rotating means subscribing to a service for the months when its shows or sports are on, then cancelling. The arithmetic:

Yearly cost = sum of (monthly price × months subscribed) for each service

Breakeven months for an annual plan = annual price ÷ monthly price

If the breakeven figure is higher than the number of months you would really keep a service, monthly billing is cheaper.

Illustrative example. Take a household that keeps six subscriptions on their cheapest plans all year (Apple TV has only an ad-free plan): Netflix Standard with ads ($8.99), the Disney+, Hulu Bundle with ads ($12.99), HBO Max Basic with Ads ($10.99), Peacock Premium ($12.99), Paramount+ Essential ($8.99) and Apple TV ($14.99). It already pays for Prime, so Prime Video with ads adds nothing.

• Full stack: $69.94 a month × 12 = $839.28 a year.
• Rotation: keep Netflix and the Disney+, Hulu Bundle all year ($21.98 × 12 = $263.76). Then take HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+ and Apple TV one at a time, three months each: 3 × ($10.99 + $12.99 + $8.99 + $14.99) = $143.88. Total: $407.64 a year, or about $33.97 a month.
• Difference: $431.64 a year, or 51% less, while every service is still available for part of the year.

The same six services without ads cost far more. Add the Prime Video Ultra add-on and the full stack comes to $114.43 a month, or $1,373.16 a year. At that level, moving just Netflix and Peacock to their ad-supported plans saves $18 a month, or $216 a year.

Rotation has costs too. Coming back means paying the current rate, so you lose any promotional price, or an older price you were still paying before a notice took effect. You may also miss a live event that falls in a month you skipped. And it doesn't work with annual plans.

When bundles and annual plans pay

Bundles

Bundle savings are real but only count if you would otherwise pay for every service in the bundle. The figures below compare Disney's bundle prices with the standalone prices, using Hulu's own price list, where standalone Hulu costs the same as Disney+. The results match Disney's own "save 38%," "save 43%" and "save 36%" labels for the HBO Max and ESPN Unlimited bundles.

The ad-supported Disney+, Hulu Bundle costs 50 cents more than Disney+ alone, so it is hard to beat even if you watch little Hulu. The HBO Max bundle is a different trade-off. Keeping it all year (Netflix plus the $21.99 bundle, then rotating Peacock, Paramount+ and Apple TV four months each) costs $519.64 a year in the same illustrative example. That is $112 more than the rotation above, in exchange for HBO Max all twelve months and an extra month of each rotated service.

Disney also offers six-month price-lock plans for the bundle, such as $71.94 for six months of the ad-supported bundle. Its terms say that cancelling during those six months takes effect only at the end of the term.

Annual plans

Run the breakeven formula on the published annual prices and a pattern appears. Disney+ Premium ($214.99), Hulu with ads ($124.99), HBO Max and Peacock all price their annual plans at about 10 months of the monthly price, a saving of about 17%. The reported annual prices for Paramount+ and ESPN Unlimited ($319.99) follow the same pattern.

Prime's $139 works out to about 9.3 months. TechCrunch reported a $119 Apple TV annual price, which would be about 7.9 months, but Apple's own page lists only the monthly price, so check in the app before counting on it. An annual plan suits a service you keep all year anyway, and it costs more than monthly billing for anything you would rotate.

Carrier and card perks

Some phone plans include a streaming service. T-Mobile's page says Netflix Standard with ads is included with a qualifying Experience More or Experience Beyond line, and Hulu with ads with Experience Beyond.

On the card side, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred earns 6% cash back on select US streaming subscriptions. It also offers a statement credit of up to $10 a month for subscriptions bought on DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or Stream.ESPN.com once you enroll the card. It charges no annual fee the first year, then $95.

On the $69.94-a-month stack above, 6% comes to $50.36 a year if every service qualifies. Add the full $120 Disney credit, available only if you pay Disney directly, and the total is $170.36, which covers the fee. Without the credit, the 6% alone doesn't.

This is general information, not financial advice. Whether a card makes sense depends on all your spending, not just streaming.

Cancelling: what the law requires

The FTC's amended Negative Option Rule, known as "click-to-cancel," would have required sellers to offer a simple way to cancel that immediately stops charges. It is not in effect. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated it on July 8, 2025, shortly before its main compliance date. The court found the FTC had skipped a required preliminary regulatory analysis.

That ruling restored the 1973 rule, which covers only "prenotification" plans for goods, such as old-style book clubs, and doesn't reach most modern subscriptions. The FTC restarted the process in March 2026 with an advance notice asking for comments by April 13. As of October 2, 2026, its rule page shows no proposed replacement.

Two layers of protection still apply. The federal Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) covers subscriptions sold online. It requires sellers to disclose the material terms before taking your billing details, to get your express consent before charging you, and to provide "simple mechanisms" to stop recurring charges. It doesn't require a refund for the unused part of a billing period.

Several states, including California, Colorado, Vermont and Virginia, have their own automatic-renewal laws, which the FTC's notice lists. What those laws require varies by state.

The rest is in each service's own terms:

• Cancel through whoever bills you. If a carrier, app store or bundle partner bills you, the service's own cancel button may not appear. Netflix's cancellation help page sends those subscribers to their payment provider.
• Expect access until the period ends, not a refund. Netflix and Disney+ both end service at the close of the current billing period. YouTube TV's promotional terms say "no refunds."
• Downgrading is often enough. Moving from Netflix Standard to Standard with ads saves $11 a month. Moving from Peacock Premium Plus to Premium saves $7.

Frequently asked questions

Will HBO Max and Paramount+ merge into one app after the deal closes?

Nothing has been announced yet. Paramount's February 2026 merger announcement says the combination of "Paramount+, HBO Max and Pluto" creates one direct-to-consumer business, and it announces no app, plan or price changes. As of October 2, 2026 the deal has not closed, and any changes to apps or plans would come after it does.

If I cancel Netflix while rotating, do I lose my profiles and watch history?

Not right away. Netflix's cancellation page says it keeps viewing activity, ratings, recommendations and account details for 24 months after the account closes, so restarting within two years brings that history back. It also suggests changing your password and signing out all devices after cancelling, so no one else in the household restarts the account.

Does a Prime membership include Prime Video without ads?

No. Prime Video comes with ads as part of the $14.99-a-month or $139-a-year membership. Since April 10, 2026, removing ads requires the Prime Video Ultra add-on, reported by 9to5Google from Amazon's subscriber email at $4.99 a month or $45.99 a year for annual Prime members. Ultra also now includes 4K and Dolby Atmos, which are no longer part of the standard tier.

Can I share my HBO Max account with someone who doesn't live with me?

Yes, for $7.99 a month plus tax with HBO Max's Extra Member add-on. Only one extra member is allowed per account, they must be 18 or older and in the same country, and they can stream on one device at a time. The add-on is available only if WarnerMedia bills you directly, not through an app store, a TV or internet provider, or the Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max Bundle.

Do I need a separate ESPN subscription if I already have cable or Hulu + Live TV?

Usually not. ESPN said at launch that pay-TV subscribers can use the new ESPN app through their existing package, and that Hulu + Live TV plans include the full ESPN Unlimited experience. Plans change, so check with your provider which tier your package includes before you pay $31.99 a month for Unlimited separately.

A 20-minute streaming audit

1. Make a list of every streaming charge from your last two card or bank statements, including charges through Apple, Google, Amazon or your phone carrier.
2. Compare each charge with the table above. Price increases for existing subscribers often arrive a month after new customers see them. Disney's arrives on bills on or after October 21, 2026.
3. Mark each service "watch every month" or "watch for a season." Only the first group belongs on an annual plan, and only if you would keep it 10 months or more.
4. For the second group, set a calendar reminder a few days before each renewal date and cancel through whoever bills you.
5. Check whether a bundle you'd use, or a phone-plan perk you already pay for, covers a service you are paying for separately.
6. Before you rejoin a service, check its sign-up page for the current price. Rejoining means paying the new rate.

Sources

• Netflix Help Center: Plans and pricing
• Netflix Help Center: How to cancel Netflix
• ABC News: Netflix increases prices (March 2026)
• Disney+: US plans and bundles
• Droid Life: Disney+ price increase (September 2026)
• Hulu: Plans and bundle terms
• Hulu Help Center: How much does Hulu cost?
• 9to5Mac: Disney+ and Hulu integration features (May 2026)
• The Walt Disney Company: Paid sharing on Disney+
• HBO Max Help: Plans and prices
• HBO Max Help: Extra Member add-on
• AlternativeTo: HBO Max price increase (October 2025)
• Peacock: Plans
• TVLine: Peacock price increase (August 2026)
• Paramount+: Plans
• The TV Answer Man: Paramount+ January 2026 price increase
• Apple: Apple TV
• TechCrunch: Apple TV price increase (August 2026)
• Amazon: Prime membership plans
• 9to5Google: Prime Video Ultra replaces ad-free add-on
• YouTube TV: Plans
• Android Authority: YouTube TV rises to $82.99
• 9to5Google: YouTube Premium US price increase (April 2026)
• ESPN: Streaming plans
• Engadget: ESPN price increases (September 2026)
• ESPN Press Room: Direct-to-consumer launch (August 2025)
• ESPN: NFL Network deal closes
• Warner Bros. Discovery: Separation announcement, June 2025 (SEC filing)
• Warner Bros. Discovery: Form 8-K on the Netflix merger agreement, December 2025
• Warner Bros. Discovery: Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026
• Paramount Skydance: Merger agreement announcement, February 2026 (SEC filing)
• Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery: Anticipated closing date (SEC filing)
• TheWrap: Judge approves Paramount settlement with state attorneys general
• Versant: Completion of Comcast spin-off (SEC filing)
• FTC: Negative Option Rule advance notice of proposed rulemaking (PDF)
• FTC: Press release on the March 2026 advance notice
• FTC: Negative Option Rule page
• T-Mobile: TV and streaming benefits
• American Express: Blue Cash Preferred Card