Today's Article

Escaping the summer heat to the air-conditioned comfort of a 6binge-watch is getting more expensive. 

"If your original plan was, 'I'll save money, I'll 7get rid of cable, I'll have one or two streaming services', now you need multiple streaming services. And you're 8more or less right back to what you were spending when you had cable 9the other day." 

Among streamers increasing prices this summer, NBC Universal's Peacock with higher prices for monthly and annual plans starting in July. Max, the streamer of Warner Brothers Discovery, CNN's parent company, will raise prices on its ad-free services by $10 to $20 annually starting in July. And Spotify will also 10boost costs for U.S. subscribers starting in July. The price hikes come as streaming media companies face their own increases in the cost of doing business as they expand content offerings to 11keep up with one another. 

"You have all these services all creating their own original programing, which is expensive to create. And 12in turn, you're going to have to pay a little bit more for those services." 

Nicholas De Leon, senior tech reporter for Consumer Reports, says streamers will likely experiment with different offers like lower price 13tierswith ads to keep inflation-14weary subscribers 15tuned in. 

"Expect to see more 16bundles, expect to see more promotions. If you buy this product, we'll throw in that service, that type of thing. So it's a little bit 17chaotic, but that makes it fun."