Your streaming services are getting more and more expensive

Transcription:

I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching today on TheStreet.

Wall Street ended its best week of the year as investors bet the economy was strong enough to avoid a recession but weak enough to convince the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates. Investors will be hanging on every word from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in the coming week. In addition, there will be new housing data and quarterly results from Lowe’s, Target and TJX, parent of TJ Maxx.

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On another note: If you feel like your various streaming media accounts are hurting your wallet – you’re right.

Media companies are raising streaming subscription fees left and right. Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock and Max have each announced price increases in the past five months. Netflix hasn’t raised prices so far this year, but it’s dropping its cheapest ad-free subscription plan. AppleTV+ had a big price hike at the end of 2023.

Sure, it’s a dollar here and a dollar there — but those dollars add up in an inflation-weary world. Media executives say the price increases are necessary to pay for all that content being created. CFO of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Max, said: “For a decade in streaming, an enormously valuable amount of quality content has been offered well below market value. And I think that’s being corrected.”

But the real reason streaming prices are going up has to do with cord cutting. Traditional cable television is losing viewers at a rapid rate, which means less ad revenue from advertisers to media companies. Lost revenue has to be made up somehow, and for now, streaming is the media industry’s best bet.

That will do for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, this is Conway Gittens with TheStreet.

Related: Netflix users are missing out on one of its cheaper options