In a world where streaming services just continue to increase in price, the value of lower-priced subscriptions has become more important. According to a new study, low price is actually now the number one priority when considering the value of a streaming service.
What You Need to Know
- Price has become the strongest driver of perceived streaming value, with consumers increasingly prioritizing low‑cost options.
- Free services are now viewed as top‑value platforms, with Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel outperforming major paid services.
- In spite of price increases, consumers aren’t spending any more on TV this year than they have in the past.
According to Hub’s 2026 How to Monetize Video report, 21% of respondents now view low price as the top attribute when considering the value on offer with a streaming service.
While price has always been linked with value, the 21% in 2026 marks a significant increase on the 12% low price accounted for just a year before.
The next highest attribute directly tied to perceived value was live sports with 13%. Again, this marked an increase on the 7% live sports accounted for in 2025.
“Marketing that leads with ‘free’ and ‘low price’ will continue to capture consumers first,” said Jason Platt Zolov, Senior Consultant at Hub. “Signaling the value of unique sports content, bundled with a portfolio of premium content, will best match consumer priorities that keep them subscribing.”
Naturally, with price becoming more of a concern, there has been an increase in the general acceptance of ads as a means to keep costs low, and that appears to be the case here too.
No ads only accounted for 8% in terms of perceived value of a streaming service, and this marked no change from the year before.
Although no change, the expectation is there would be an increase – as is the case with low price and live sports – if it was still an increasingly important issue.
These findings also match a separate Hub study from earlier this year that suggested more than two-thirds would prefer to save money than pay extra for an ad-free streaming experience.
What appears to becoming slightly less important to perceived value is the availability of seasons and episodes.
For example, the availability of all seasons and episodes of a series dropped from 9% in 2025 to 8% in 2026, and all episodes becoming available at the same time (instead of weekly) dropped from 8% in 2025 to 7% in 2026.
Free Services Seen As Good Value Overall
With the price becoming increasingly more tied to value, it is not surprising that free services are now seen as good value in general.
In fact, Hub’s research found Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel all ranked in the top four places, with Tubi ranked number 1 overall.
All of these free services also ranked higher than many popular paid streaming services, including Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV, Disney+, and Netflix.
With more of a focus on value and saving money, the report also found that consumers now spend $82 on average each month on subscription TV services.
Considering this was understood to be around $85 in 2023, the data suggests consumers aren’t spending any more on TV this year than they have in the past, and this is in spite of subscription costs increasing significantly over the same period.
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