About 40% of Americans have cut back on streaming services in the last three months because of financial concerns, according to a recent report
Americans are quitting subscription streaming services in droves as the cost of living continues to climb, a recent report has found.
Streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu have become increasingly popular in recent years, but Deloitte’s 2026 Digital Media Trends report, released late last month, shows how Americans are getting frustrated over the cost to have their favorite movies and TV shows at the click of a button.
“As the cost of everyday essentials like food and housing remain high, many consumers are reevaluating their budgets and cutting back on nonessential expenditures,” Deloitte said in its survey results. “At the same time, prices for media and entertainment services continue to climb.”
I think the next big thing is affordable local entertainment. What’s old is new again. I could be wrong.
where is that offered?
local entertainment in my city is easily $100 a night now. For few hours.
Even when I go tot a cheap concert in a cheap place, it’s $25 to get in, and about $25 for two shitty drinks. $50 bare minimum, add food or any extras easily doubles. You want a place that isn’t shitty? those prices double or triple. Dive bars are now charging $10 for a shitty draft beer. 8 buck for a shitty bottle beer.
Most of the cost is the venue upkeep and the labor, which are fixed costs that keep escalating. it’s not the cost of the food and other stuff, that’s gone down.
The days of going out and hanging out for hours for $5-10 are never coming back. Every spot like that near me has closed, or cut back their hours to 10-3 or something mid-day only. even cheap places like coffeeshops have time limits for sitting down, like 30m tops or they have reduced/removed seating because they do not want people hangout there anymore.
things used to be cheap because wages were cheap and property was cheap. you could pay a retail worker 8 bucks an hour and rent a storefront for like 2-3 grand amonth. Now the workers get $20/hr and rent is 8-10K a month. So prices get doubled, and companies need to do everything they can to reduce costs by reducing hours to peak-traffic only. a lot of restaurants in my city are now only open from 6-9pm, because they can’t afford to let any table sit empty while they are open. they used to be open 4pm-11pm.