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Use free trials
Many of the streaming services offer free trials, so you could sign up to one, binge-watch the shows everyone is talking about and then cancel before you are rolled over into a paid-for subscription. Read the terms and conditions very carefully to make sure you are not caught out.
Amazon Prime has a 30-day free trial, allowing you to check out shows such as The Girlfriend. Apple TV+ is running a free seven-day trial – maybe enough time to work your way through The Morning Show or Severance – as is Hayu (“the home of reality TV”). Netflix does not currently offer free trials.
Often you can only sign up once, but depending on the rules, if there are several people in the household, one person signing up after another may enable you to enjoy multiple trials with the same service.
Toggle between services
Many people are forking out for multiple TV streaming services then not watching much (or anything) on one of them every month.
If that sounds like you, rotate your services to save cash. If you are on a rolling monthly contract, which most people are, you can bail out at any time, sign up again when there is a series you really do not want to miss, then jump ship once you have watched it.
Andy Webb at the website Be Clever With Your Cash says: “You’re never going to get value for money if you are trying to watch three or four services at the same time. So pick one, binge it, then move on to the next.”
Quite a few TV shows and films are duplicated across two or more services – for example, at the time of writing, the Coen brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis was on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The JustWatch app and website can help you find where the content you want to watch is available.
Watch more ads
Some TV streaming services charge less for plans with adverts. Disney+ now costs £5.99 a month with ads, while you will pay £9.99 for the ad-free option. Netflix’s with-ads plan is also £5.99.
Some plans charge more for “better” picture and sound quality and the number of screens your household can watch at the same time. But are you paying for more than you need?
Get it free with something else
Lloyds Bank’s Club Lloyds current account lets you choose a different free perk every year, one of which is a 12-month “standard with ads” Disney+ subscription. This account has a £5 monthly fee that is refunded as long as you pay in £2,000 or more each month, so for many paying in their salary, that means their Disney+ is free. Barclays has just launched a similar offer where you get an Apple TV+ subscription.
Many mobile phone networks throw in cheap or free TV streaming. For example, if you are joining O2 or upgrading, you can get up to six months of Disney+ or Amazon Prime as your included “Extra”. EE has a number of offers where you can get at least three months of Apple TV+ thrown in.
Apple TV+ is included free for three months when you buy an Apple device
Meanwhile, Uber One, the ride-hailing app’s subscription service that usually costs £4.99 a month or £49.99 a year, sometimes throws in a free Disney+ subscription.
Of course, many people buy Amazon Prime for fast-track delivery and exclusive shopping deals and then get the TV and movies, too. It costs £8.99 a month or £95 a year.
You can share your services – if the platform allows this, of course.
“The biggest savings come from using multiuser plans, in my opinion,” says Hugo Cannon at CompareRock, a financial comparison platform.
He highlights how Netflix Premium (£18.99 a month) allows a household to watch four devices at the same time, and you can add up to two extra users who do not live with you for £4.99 each a month with ads or £5.99 without.
Disney+ lets you add extra members for either £4.99 or £5.99 a month.
Meanwhile, Apple TV+ lets you share your subscription with up to five family members.
Pick Now instead of Sky
“If you’re only interested in, for example, watching Premier League football on Sky, you can save money by getting a Now subscription instead of a full Sky package,” says Alex King at the finance platform Generation Money.
“With Now, you can get a subscription to a sports package via their app which gives you access to Sky’s Premier League football coverage without having a dish or box installed, and without being packaged up with other channels you don’t want,” he adds.
Pay annually
If you are committed to a particular streaming service, paying for a year upfront (where available) can save you money. However, the saving is not always great, and you need to be very sure you are going to make full use of it.
As of 30 September, the Disney+ standard plan costs £9.99 a month or £99.90 for a year, so committing to a year results in a fairly decent saving of £19.98. Amazon Prime is £8.99 a month or £95 for a year, so the saving there is £12.88.
At £43.99, the annual price of the Paramount+ basic plan offers a 26% saving when compared with paying the regular £4.99 a month over the period of a year. Hayu also has an annual plan for £43.99 and a monthly one for £4.99.
Now is offering a 50% saving when you sign up for 12 months’ access to Sky’s entertainment channels. You pay £4.99 a month, which is half the fully flexible monthly price of £9.99. For sports fans, Now is offering a six-month deal that lets you watch all 12 live Sky Sports channels for £28 a month – just shy of a 20% saving on the normal £34.99 a month.
Get a student discount
Many TV streaming services offer a student discount, either direct or via student discount websites such as UNiDAYS, TOTUM and Student Beans.
Students can get free access to Apple TV+ when they sign up for the Apple Music student plan, where you get one month free and then pay a special rate of £5.99 a month (the standard individual rate is £10.99 a month).
The three sites above all offer free Amazon Prime for six months followed by the lower student price of £4.49 a month. They also have various deals for Sky TV starting from £15 a month.
Threaten to cancel
You could start the cancellation process and see where it gets you. There is so much competition in the market, you are likely to be offered a retention deal, which can sometimes be 50% or more off for perhaps three or six months, says Dan Wilderness at the personal finance website the Financial Wilderness.
Ben Smye at the website Hotukdeals says Sky customers have talked on its forums about cutting their bills by more than 30% by cancelling existing subscriptions and waiting for retention offers.
Webb says: “If you’re still paying for Sky TV, moving over to Now will save you a packet … My top trick is to go through the [Now] pass cancellation process each month. Most of the time you’ll be presented with a lower price – this month, I knocked a £34.99-a-month Sky Sports pass down to £20.”
Cancel
Do you actually need to pay for any streaming services? With so many series and films available for free on the BBC iPlayer (if you have a TV licence), Channel 4, ITVX, STV Player and 5, you could take a “subscription break” and work your way through all the hot current shows, plus series such as Industry (iPlayer) and How to Get Away with Murder (Channel 4) that you never watched first time around. Channel 4’s service is particularly good for drama series and films.
Often you have to register and sign in to use these services. You will need a TV licence to watch or download anything on iPlayer.
