Hub Entertainment Research’s 2026 How to Monetize Video study suggests the streaming business has entered a new phase. Affordability has become the defining factor in how consumers evaluate streaming services, with “low price” now accounting for 21% of a service’s perceived value, up from 12% a year ago, making it the single biggest driver of perceived value.
The findings point to a mature streaming market where free streaming services are delivering the strongest perceived value, live sports are becoming an increasingly important reason to subscribe, and bundles continue gaining importance as households look to maximize entertainment without expanding monthly costs. For streaming services, the challenge is no longer convincing consumers to add another subscription. It’s convincing them that an existing one still deserves a place in the monthly budget.
Consumers Have Reached a Spending Ceiling
The average household currently spends $82 per month on subscription TV services, unchanged since 2023.
When asked how much they would be willing to spend, respondents increased that ceiling to $93 per month. Hub interprets that increase as consumers acknowledging that inflation may force higher entertainment costs, even as actual spending remains flat.
That leaves streaming services with limited room to raise prices without giving consumers a stronger reason to subscribe or remain subscribed. The era of routine price increases supported primarily by bigger content libraries appears to be giving way to one where every additional dollar needs to be justified.
Price Now Defines Streaming Value
Hub asked respondents to rank the attributes that contribute most to a TV service’s value.
“Low price” increased from 12% of total value in 2025 to 21% this year, making it the single largest driver of consumer value perception.
Sports content nearly doubled in importance, rising from 6.7% to 13% of overall value, underscoring how live programming continues separating premium services from free alternatives.
Consumers also continue assigning significant value to:
- Ad-free viewing for premium subscribers
- Access to complete seasons and episodes
- The ability to binge-watch programming on their own schedules
Those latter two behaviors remain deeply embedded in streaming consumption years after Netflix established binge viewing as an industry standard. The broader takeaway is that consumers aren’t redefining what they want from streaming. They’re simply becoming far more selective about what they’re willing to pay for.
Live Sports Continue to Strengthen Premium Streaming
The increase in sports’ importance reflects the industry’s accelerating investment in premium live rights.
Hub attributes the jump to the growing availability of major sporting events across streaming services, including the Olympics and FIFA World Cup. As more leagues distribute games through streaming, sports become a stronger reason for consumers to maintain paid subscriptions throughout the year.
That trend helps explain why media companies continue investing heavily in expensive rights packages despite mounting pressure on profitability. Live sports remain one of the industry’s strongest retention assets and one of the few content categories that consistently gives consumers a compelling reason to keep paying month after month.
Free Streaming Services Are Setting the Value Benchmark
Consumers gave Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel the highest “Excellent Value” scores among all television services. Hub noted that those rankings align with Nielsen viewing trends showing continued audience growth for free streaming.
Among paid streaming services, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix clustered immediately behind the leading free offerings, demonstrating that premium services continue delivering strong perceived value despite higher monthly prices.
Hub also found that YouTube Premium subscribers awarded the service the highest value scores among premium offerings, reflecting the broader utility consumers receive from removing advertising across both video and music.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that paid streaming services are no longer competing only against one another. They’re increasingly competing against a growing ecosystem of high-quality free alternatives that continue resetting consumers’ expectations of value.
Bundles Are Becoming Essential to the Value Equation
The research reinforces why bundles continue expanding across the streaming business.
Bundled offerings lower the perceived cost of maintaining multiple services while combining premium entertainment with live sports and other exclusive programming. Rather than asking consumers to justify another standalone subscription, bundles spread that decision across a broader entertainment package that feels more comprehensive.
Hub Senior Consultant Jason Platt Zolov argues that marketing centered on “free” and “low price” captures attention, while pairing exclusive sports with a broader portfolio of premium content creates stronger reasons for consumers to remain subscribed.
The Streaming Wars Take
Hub’s latest research captures a streaming business where affordability now carries more weight across acquisition, retention, and product strategy.
Free streaming services hold the strongest value position. Sports give paid services one of their clearest subscription drivers. Ad-free viewing, complete libraries, binge access, and broader utility still support premium pricing.
The biggest takeaway isn’t that consumers want less streaming. It’s that they’ve become much more selective about what deserves a recurring payment. Pricing strategy, sports rights, bundling, advertising, and product design no longer operate independently. Together, they determine whether a service earns a place in the monthly budget. Every subscription has to earn its place inside a fixed household entertainment budget, and the streaming services that justify that monthly charge most convincingly will be the ones that continue to grow.
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