91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Watch CBS News
MoneyWatch

Download this: Subscribing to digital apps has gotten a lot more expensive

By
Mary Cunningham
Reporter, MoneyWatch
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. She previously worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
Read Full Bio
Mary Cunningham

/ CBS News

The pain of higher prices today isn't limited to things like food and health care costs. Americans now pay 19% more for TV, music, news and other digital apps than they did in 2020.

So concludes a recent from DepositAccounts, an online platform owned by LendingTree that allows users to compare bank accounts. Researchers looked at 15 widely used subscription services, ranging from streaming platforms like Hulu and Spotify to online video tool Zoom Pro, to assess how their prices have changed over the last six years.

"We've kind of gotten used to seeing notes from these subscription services saying we're raising our costs by $1, $2, $3, which doesn't seem like very much," Matt Schulz, a chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, told CBS News. "But when you factor in that some people subscribe to 10 or 15 different things, a couple of dollars a month extra on all of those adds up to real money over the course of the year."

Some Americans are pulling the plug. A January survey of 2,000 people by DepositAccounts found that one-third said they had cancelled at least one paid digital subscription in the last six months due to cost.

On average, subscribers pay for 4.5 services, which amounts to $84 a month, or $1,008 annually, according to a separate analysis by DepositAccounts.

Big hikes for Disney+ and Apple TV subscribers

Subscribers to Disney+ are now being charged $18.99 a month for an ad-free plan, more than double what they were paying six years ago when adjusted for inflation, the analysis found. Disney upped the price for the streaming platform's ad-free tier, while bundling plans with Hulu and ESPN, in September 2025.

Apple TV subscription costs have also surged, with the cost of a standard plan for the online video service jumping 108% from 2020 when adjusted for inflation, according to DespoitAccounts. 

Streaming now accounts for the largest share of TV viewership, at around 48%, outpacing broadcast and cable, according to .

Not all digital platforms have gotten pricier. For example, subscription costs for Apple's iCloud storage platform are down nearly 20% since 2020, while Apple Music prices have sunk more than 12%, according to DepositAccounts.

Edited by Alain Sherter

In:

© 2026 91³Ô¹ÏÍø. All Rights Reserved.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
const link = doc.createElement('link'); link.rel = 'stylesheet'; link.href = '/fly/fly/bundles/cbsnewscontent/css/cmp-banner.min.css?v=fd53910ecf4604072044ab7c46d9b028'; doc.head.appendChild(link); doc.body.innerHTML = CONSENT_MESSAGE; } else { el.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', CONSENT_MESSAGE); } }); } function hidePrivacyMessage() { // Remove from the main document document.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); // Remove from inside any iframes document.querySelectorAll('iframe').forEach(iframe => { const doc = iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document; doc.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); }); } function activateGatedScripts() { // Handle both new format (cmp-gated-script) and old OneTrust/Ketch format (optanon-category-4) const gatedScripts = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('script.cmp-gated-script, script.optanon-category-4')); // Activate scripts sequentially with a small delay to avoid timing issues let delay = 0; gatedScripts.forEach(function(placeholder, index) { setTimeout(function() { // Skip if already processed if (placeholder.hasAttribute('data-cmp-processed')) { return; } placeholder.setAttribute('data-cmp-processed', 'true'); const newScript = document.createElement('script'); newScript.type = 'text/javascript'; // Try new format first (data-cmp-src), then fall back to old format (data-src) const src = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-src') || placeholder.getAttribute('data-src'); if (src) { newScript.src = src; } else if (placeholder.textContent) { // Inline script - just copy the content newScript.textContent = placeholder.textContent; } // Handle new format attributes (data-cmp-attrs) - for both inline and external scripts const attrs = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-attrs'); if (attrs) { const tempDiv = document.createElement('div'); tempDiv.innerHTML = '
<\/div>'; const tempAttrs = tempDiv.firstChild.attributes; for (let i = 0; i < tempAttrs.length; i++) { // For external scripts, allow defer/async. For inline scripts, skip them (not valid) if (src || (tempAttrs[i].name !== 'async' && tempAttrs[i].name !== 'defer')) { newScript.setAttribute(tempAttrs[i].name, tempAttrs[i].value); } } } // Copy other attributes from old OneTrust format for (let i = 0; i < placeholder.attributes.length; i++) { const attr = placeholder.attributes[i]; // Skip attributes we've already handled or don't want to copy if (!['class', 'data-src', 'data-type', 'data-cmp-src', 'data-cmp-attrs', 'data-cmp-processed', 'type', 'async', 'defer', 'src'].includes(attr.name)) { newScript.setAttribute(attr.name, attr.value); } } placeholder.parentNode.replaceChild(newScript, placeholder); // If external script, manually trigger window.onload handlers after it loads // This handles widgets that use window.onload for initialization if (src) { newScript.addEventListener('load', function() { // If page already loaded and script set a new onload handler, trigger it if (document.readyState === 'complete' && window.onload) { const originalOnload = window.onload; window.onload = null; // Clear temporarily to prevent loops originalOnload(); // Execute the handler } }); } }, delay); delay += 500; // 500ms delay between each script to allow full loading }); } cbsoptanon.onScriptsReady(function(cmp) { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (!allowed) { showPrivacyMessage(); } else { activateGatedScripts(); } }); cmp.ot.awaitInitialConsent(function(consent_model) { cmp.ot.addOnConsentChangedHandler(function() { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (allowed) { hidePrivacyMessage(); activateGatedScripts(); } else { showPrivacyMessage(); } }); }); }); });