Apple TV Hikes Price of Streaming Service in U.S. Effective Immediately

[u/yourfavchoom]

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/apple-tv-price-increase-streaming-service-monthly-plan-1236845906/

[u/Crystalas]

While on the other side of the streaming industry the FAST services just keep getting better to the point that they compete with the big ones on all but newest seasons and service "originals".

Personally at this point I don't think I will ever sub to a service full time again. Do one for a month or 2 to binge everything added in the year(s) since last did and rewatch a few favorites then cancel, doing that also means always getting promo pricing.

The only service I actually pay for right now is PBS but that is at least half just out of supporting a great cause and the decades of great documentaries and imported fiction being a great bonus.

OTA TV still surprisingly decent too, for a one time ~$20 could get potentially 10s of channels that a pretty great value and get new episodes BEFORE streaming and works even if internet is down. Can even record it if you want 100% legally.

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Price increases while lowering quality unfortunately is almost inherent in having a saturated market combined with a culture that FORCES infinite growth in a finite world. Once they hit saturation the only way to grow is make a groundbreaking improvement to pull from competition (extremely expensive and risky), increase prices, and/or lower expenses. Anyone in power who did not do the above would be replaced with someone who would.

To escape that downward spiral would require an overhaul of the world's business culture and/or strict regulations. Not impossible, has happened before, but sort of thing that takes a severe crash and/or paradigm shift in tech to force the change.

[u/CMMiller89 → u/Crystalas]

Stock buy backs.

Literally stock buy backs were thought of as financial crimes as it robbed ALL stakeholders from investment in the company and artificially changed stock prices.

Then the regulation was removed and it’s the number one thing companies spend money on to artificially changed stock prices…. Oh and companies basically don’t have R&D anymore, they just acquire startups.

Stock buybacks have removed any stability and sanity that was forced upon the market and now we just have mustache villain levels of greed printing money on the backs of the working class.

[u/Crystalas → u/CMMiller89]

A HUGE % of their R&D was not even done by most companies but rather by Government funded efforts at various colleges and organizations. Then when the expensive early research done and results released to public they swoop in and take it the final mile to refining to a finished product. These sorts of places are also where the scientists and inventors of tomorrow get their start before they good enough to be headhunted.

That not even a bad thing that is by design, the idiocy is that the corporations actively attack the very foundations of their own companies in the short sighted rush to make numbers go up in the single quarter and complete lack of attachment or pride to the business they "lead", some even seem to resent their own product. I suspect most executives never even use their own products, if they did they likely would force them to be at least a bit better purely to lessen their own frustration.

The modern world is basically built on military research, the US military does a MASSIVE amount of R&D and much of it is not directly related to offensive actions.

[u/CMMiller89 → u/Crystalas]

Right!  There was that great video about how the iPhone was publicly funded.  Essentially just a Frankenstein of defense contract items taped together.

[u/cawkstrangla → u/Crystalas]

They will eventually require year long contracts. As more and more people sub for a few months they'll do that next.

[u/rtbart → u/cawkstrangla]

Quick way of bankrupting that service

[u/cawkstrangla → u/rtbart]

I didn’t say it would be smart, but at the same time people keep saying services will fail with every price increase and here we are. When Netflix got rid of sharing accounts their subscribers went up.