Predicting a specific price increase in the world of streaming can be difficult, but the one thing you can count on is that a price increase will eventually come. Fubo and and Philo have already increased in price in 2024, seemingly ruling them out of another one this year.
Technically, Hulu Live TV is expected to be the next to actually increase in price as Disney has already confirmed the price increase is coming. As that price increase is already confirmed, we are focusing on unannounced price increases here.
With this in mind, we expect DirecTV Stream to be the next major live TV streaming service to increase in price. More specifically, we expect the cost to increase between November and January. If we were the betting type, we’d bet on the price increase arriving in November.
DirecTV Stream has increased in price four times since the beginning of 2021, according to the Streaming Better Price Increase Tracker. Three of those price increases arrived in January while the other landed in November. Essentially, November-January has become the new DirecTV Stream price increase window.
More telling in our opinion is that the most recent price increase is the one that arrived in November.
Considering DirecTV Stream increased the price in January of 2021 (through a rebrand), January of 2022 and January of 2023, the company could have simply stuck to the same pattern and announced an increase in January of 2024.
Instead, DirecTV brought the next price increase forward to November, resulting in two price increases within the same year. We expect this wasn’t a one-off but an indication of DirecTV Stream’s price increase cycle being brought forward in general, leading to our prediction of a price increase in or around November.
While we wouldn’t be surprised if a price increase arrives sooner than November, we don’t expect that to be the case.
DirecTV recently launched a ‘best price ever‘ promotion that reduces the cost of a subscription down to as little as $49.99 a month for the first three months. Considering that deal is available until September 5, those signing up over the next month will be covered through September, October and November.
In our experience, it is not unusual for the major live TV services to launch ‘best‘ or ‘lowest‘ price deals shortly before a price increase arrives, so a price increase landing between September and November remains a possibility.
That said, with the Hulu Live TV price increase taking effect in October, it stands to reason that DirecTV will avoid increasing the price before then. Delaying the price increase until after will allow DirecTV Stream to appeal to customers that might be considering switching away from Hulu Live TV in the weeks following the price increase.
With the cost of Hulu Live TV rising to $82.99 a month, DirecTV Stream will be $3 cheaper each month. Upping the price earlier than October 17 would make DirecTV Stream more expensive than Hulu Live TV at the new price, potentially lessening its appeal to those looking for a cheaper option.
All of which further leads us to assume a November price increase to be the most likely outcome. Of course, DirecTV could surprise us and opt to not increase the price in 2024 at all, and while that’s certainly a possibility, we don’t think that tallies with reality.
Based on our tracking of price increases over the years, you have to go as far back as 2020 (when the service was operating as AT&T TV Now) to find a year when DirecTV Stream didn’t increase in price. Even then, however, the question of whether a price increase was implemented is up for debate.
In April of 2020, AT&T TV Now lowered the price of its entry-level Plus plan down to $55 a month (from $65). While an unusual move, HBO was removed from the base plan at the same. This was a head of the launch of HBO Max (now Max) and equated to the loss of $15 in streaming value.
So while DirecTV Stream (as AT&T TV Now) didn’t increase in price in 2020, new subscribers technically paid more for less than those that signed up before the change.
Not to mention, this paved the way for a $15 price increase in January 2021, increasing the cost to $5 more than it was before the price drop.
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