As part of rationalizing all my streaming services, I canceled Apple TV+ a while back and seeing the announcement today that Apple is jacking up rates 30% from $9.99/month to $12.99/month I am glad I did.
I actually canceled most of the streaming services but ironically, I ended up getting some of them back as add ons to other services I already have. For example, I get HBO Max or whatever is called now for free as part of my fiber internet connection.
I get Peacock free as part of my Instacart membership. I think T-mobile plans have Netflix for free but they include ads and I don’t want ads when I watch TV so I pay for the premium subscription.
I have Amazon Prime which provides the video service although that now has ads and there isn’t much I watch on Prime anyway. I am considering canceling Amazon Prime now but that’s a post for another day.
One service I had offered Duolingo for a period of time, I think 6 months free but I never signed up for it.
In any event, inflation on these services is as crazy as everything else.
ESPN just debut a new all-in-one service for about $30/month and since I’m not a sports aficionado, I will be steering clear of this service. This brings me to one other story…..
I travel quite a bit, I’ve been to six countries this year so far and I will likely hit 4 to 6 more before the year ends. I used to create video collages of my journeys and then invite family over to watch them but I stopped doing that now. Part of the issue was every time people came over they inevitably wanted to watch some sports game (NBA, MLB, NFL, etc) and I don’t have any services for sports. On a couple of occasions I had to sign up temporarily for a month to get the show on and I’m not doing that anymore.
The cost of food and entertainment has gotten out of hand and I simply don’t want to shell out the money to do these family gatherings. This is now the new normal and if it’s impacting well off people like me, I am sure it’s doing similar or worse to most people.
Comments Disabled
Normally, I’d ask for your thoughts but I’m getting a bunch of spam that I have to clean up so I have temporarily disabled comments. Will add them back on later in the year.