From £6.99 to £18.99: How Streaming Prices Have Changed Since 2014

When Netflix launched in the UK, subscribers paid £6.99 a month. That same Standard plan now costs £12.99. Ten years later, the market looks completely different: multiple price tiers, advertising plans, password-sharing restrictions, and annual price hikes have become the norm.

So how much have prices really gone up – and what does it mean for viewers?

Netflix: +86% on the Standard Plan

The Netflix Standard plan has risen from £6.99 in 2014 to £12.99 today – an increase of 86%. The Premium plan has gone even further, climbing from £8.99 to £18.99, a rise of more than 110% over the same period.

In 2023, Netflix scrapped its cheapest ad-free Basic plan for new subscribers. Anyone wanting to watch without adverts now has to pay at least £12.99 a month. A cheaper ad-supported tier exists at £4.99 – but with up to five minutes of ads per hour.

Amazon: The Silent Doubling

Amazon Prime Video held its price at £5.99 a month from launch all the way through to September 2022 – the first change since 2014. The monthly fee then rose to £8.99. In early 2024, Amazon introduced advertising into its standard tier. Subscribers who want to keep watching without ads pay an additional £2.99 per month, bringing the real cost to £11.98 – effectively double the original price.

Disney+: From Budget Option to Full Price

Disney+ arrived in the UK in March 2020 at £5.99 a month and positioned itself as the affordable alternative. Since then, the Premium tier has risen to £14.99 – a 150% increase from the launch price. Even the ad-supported tier, introduced as the entry-level option, increased from £4.99 to £5.99 in autumn 2025.

Advertising as a Second Price Increase

Platforms have found a subtler way to grow revenue without triggering the backlash of a straight price hike: making ads the default. Every major service now has a cheaper ad-supported tier – but the real effect is to push the cost of ad-free viewing higher. Subscribers are not just paying more; they are paying more to keep what they already had.

The strategy has consequences. Research shows that 24% of UK subscribers have already cancelled at least one service in response to price increases and the introduction of advertising.

What Viewers Are Actually Spending

A 2024 study found that UK households spend an average of around £40 per month across all streaming subscriptions – roughly £480 per year – across an average of 3.3 services. Further findings from recent subscriber research:

- 1 in 3 UK viewers feel they are paying too much for streaming

- More than a quarter have access to more services than they regularly use

- 1 in 3 plans to cancel at least one subscription in the next 12 months

- Password-sharing restrictions have pushed many to either pay up or cancel

The Free Alternative

This is exactly where ad-supported free streaming makes its case. Platforms like wedotv offer access to films, series, and live TV with no monthly fee – no credit card, no subscription, no price hike around the corner. For viewers dealing with subscription fatigue, it is not a compromise. It is a different model entirely.

Conclusion

What began as an affordable revolution in home entertainment has become an expensive habit. The combined cost of Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ in the UK now rivals – and in many households exceeds – the old cable package streaming was supposed to replace. The question is no longer whether prices will keep rising. It is how many subscribers will keep paying.

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