Three Quick Tips to Reduce Transmission Costs
1. Subscribe selectively
Instead of subscribing to multiple streamers at once and watching a few things on each, pause subscriptions until there’s a lot you want to watch on a particular service (jump to our “jumping subscriptions” guide below).
2. Go down a level
If you’re not watching a lot of things shot in 4K HDR with spatial audio, you don’t really need the Super Mega Ultra tier for that streaming service.
3. Buy a package
Some transmitters are cheaper if you buy them as part of a package, such as a phone contract with transmission included or a multi-service package like Apple One.
Streaming is a little different from the days when all you needed was a single Netflix subscription. To watch all of today’s great shows and movies, you need to have a big budget to cover the cost of not only Netflix but also Disney+/Hulu, HBO Max or Now TV, Paramount+ and Apple TV and Prime Video and more.
With a little forward thinking and judicious use of your Reminders app, you can pause subscriptions that don’t offer the best value, reduce the price of subscriptions you want to keep, and share streaming with family members who don’t share the same roof. I’ve found that doing this will save me over 50% in 2026, and there’s no reason you can’t make similar savings.
In this article I will mainly quote UK prices because that is where I live, but tips and savings will also be the same elsewhere. Here’s how to reduce the cost of your streaming subscriptions without sacrificing the best shows and movies.
The basics
1. Go down a level
The Super Mega Ultra plan complete with 4K UHD, HDR, and spatial audio is great, but how many of the shows you’re watching were filmed with those features?
Going from 4K to 1080p means big savings on Netflix. The Premium 4K plan costs $24.99 / £18.99 / AU$28.99, while the standard costs $17.99 / £12.99 / AU$20.99, a saving of 46% here in the UK.
Similarly, Disney+ costs £14.99 a month for up to 4K in the UK, but only £9.99 for 1080p. That’s a 50% savings per month if you downgrade.
If your TV isn’t large or very close to your couch, you may not be able to see much of a difference between 1080p and 4K, especially if your TV does a decent job of upsampling from Full HD.
2. Accept ads
Yes, ads, especially randomly injected ones, are annoying. But switching from ad-free plans to ad-supported plans can save you a ton of cash; For example, moving from Netflix Standard to Netflix Standard With Adverts reduces the price from $17.99 / £12.99 / AU$20.99 per month to $7.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 per month, saving 53%.
You can’t skip ads, but if you’re like me, you’ll quickly develop muscle memory for the location of the mute button on your TV remote, or get really good at picking up the phone for exactly 60 seconds.
3. Disown your children
If, like me, you have a child who moved away, you can save a lot of money by disowning them. Or at least, by not paying extra to share a streaming service with them.
Here in the UK, those extra member accounts for people who don’t share the same roof add £4.99 per month to your streaming plan on Disney+ or Netflix (or £5.99 if you share a Netflix ad-free plan).
Don’t worry, I’m not completely depriving my children. My Apple subscription is family-friendly, so they have Apple TV (and Apple Music). And that leads me to group.
4. Buy a package
One way to get streaming for less money is to get it in a package; For example, my Apple TV subscription is available as a standalone subscription or as part of an Apple One package.
If you’re already an Apple Music subscriber, you’ll find it cheaper to switch to Apple One than to buy Apple TV separately: in the UK, Apple One costs £18.95 for an individual subscription compared to £10.99 for Apple Music plus £9.99 for Apple TV. And you also get extra space in iCloud and Apple Arcade.
The family plan costs just £5 more and you can share your music, TV and Arcade subscription with up to five people.
5. Skip subscription
Look
Do you have all those basics covered and still want to save with cash transfer? Now we come to the most important (and possibly best) way to reduce your bills.
Pausing your monthly subscriptions can save you a fortune, although of course it’s not an option if you’ve prepaid for an annual plan.
I think there are two types of streaming programs. There are shows you absolutely have to watch right now because (a) they’re brilliant and (b) if you don’t, some clown on the Internet will ruin them for you. And there are the shows that are… okay.
For me the first includes programs like slow horses, Along the cemetery road, Rupture and Pluribuswhich just so happen to be all on Apple TV, so I’ll keep that subscription.
But I subscribed to other services only for specific programs: Now TV for Tthe last of usParamount+ for yellow jacketsNetflix for stranger things. And when those shows end, I don’t mind pausing those subscriptions until there’s more must-see TV.
Let’s look at the numbers. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to quote the unbundled pricing of Apple TV and Prime Video because otherwise it gets complicated.
If I hadn’t canceled or changed any of my 2025 subscriptions, my monthly bill would be:
- Netflix (ads) £5.99
- Paramount+ £7.99
- Now TV (ads) £9.99
- Apple TV £9.99
- Prime Video (ads) £5.99
- Disney+ (ads, extra person) £10.98
That’s a total of £50.93 per month (around $68 / AU$103).
Pausing the first three subscriptions and removing the Disney Bonus Member feature brings your monthly costs to this:
- Apple TV £9.99
- Prime Video (ads) £5.99
- Disney+ (ads) £5.99
That’s a total of £21.97 per month, a saving of 56%. And with subscription jumping I can swap subscriptions throughout the year, for example, swapping Netflix for Disney Plus for a month or two.
There are some caveats here. Streamers often offer promotional discounts that lower the sticker price, especially for annual subscriptions, although while that can save you money, it also prevents you from jumping between subscriptions.
There are also other ways to get some streaming services for less money, such as including them with a new phone contract or, in the UK, with Sky TV, Virgin Media or similar. But if you subscribe directly to individual streaming services, pausing them for a few months here and there can save you significant sums.
Would you like to donate in 2026? Here’s our cheat sheet table for the first few months of the year to help you formulate your subscription jump plan.
Our cheat sheet
Your tastes will probably be different than mine, so here’s a quick guide to some of the best new shows coming to Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and more in the coming months.
|
Month |
Service |
Shows/notes |
|
January |
Apple TV |
Kidnapping S2 (January 14), Drops of God S2 (January 21), Shrinkage S3 (January 28) |
|
January |
netflix |
Harlan Coben’s Runaway (January 1), His and Hers (January 8), People We Meet on Vacation (January 9), Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (January 15), The RIP (January 16), Bridgerton S4 Part 1 (January 29) |
|
January |
main video |
Steal (January 21) |
|
January |
Peacock |
Ponies (January 15) |
|
January |
maximum HBO |
The Pitt S2 (January 8), Industry S4 (January 11), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S1 (January 18) |
|
January |
Disney Plus/Hulu |
Polo to Polo with Will Smith (January 14), Wonder Man (January 27) |
|
January |
Supreme+ |
Scream 5 (January 14), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (January 15), Smurfs (January 15) |
|
February |
AppleTV |
The Last Thing He Told Me S2 (February 20), Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 (February 27) |
|
February |
netflix |
The Lincoln Lawyer S4 (February 5), The Night Agent S3 (February 19) |
|
February |
main video |
The Race Man (February 25) |
|
February |
Disney Plus/Hulu |
The Artful Dodger S2 (February 10), Paradise S2 (February 23) |
|
March |
netflix |
One Piece S2 (March 10), Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (March 20) |
|
March |
main video |
Scarpetta (March 11), Deadloch S2 (date TBC) |
|
March |
Peacock |
Ted S2 (March 5) |
|
March |
maximum HBO |
Rooster (date to be confirmed) |
|
March |
disney plus |
Daredevil Born Again season 1 (March 4) |
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