Black Friday is closer than you think and one streaming video master says it’s the perfect time to begin cutting the cord on some of your streaming services.
Why? So you can score the deep discounts that the streaming services usually throw at consumers during the holiday season.
Jared Newman at Cord-Cutter Confidential said the trick is that when Hulu, Paramount+, and others release their discount promos, they only allow new and returning subscribers to take advantage of them. So, if you’re a Peacock subscriber when the network starts its promotion, you’re out of luck.
“That means if you’re still subscribed to those services a month from now, you’ll have a tougher time taking advantage of seasonal sales. Auditing your streaming subscriptions is always worthwhile anyway, so you might as well do it now,” he said.
Newman doesn’t know exactly what services will offer what promotions, but like other discount watchers, his intuition is that most companies will offer something very similar to what they did the year before.
Also, because a good number of streaming services raised prices this year, they’ll need to bring in new subscribers to offset the cancellations that those price hikes have prompted, and what better way to do that than a sale, right?
Here's how much you might save
With that knowledge in hand, here’s what he says consumers can expect to gain:
Hulu offered one year (with ads) for $2 per month. Newman noted that Hulu requires subscribers to be inactive for at least a month before they’re eligible for a comeback deal.
Hulu and Disney+ were bundled together at $5 per month for one year.
Peacock offered one year (with ads) for $1 per month.
HBO Max offered three months (with ads) for $2 per month.
Britbox offered two months for $2 per month.
Amazon Prime Video offered a slew of add-on channels at $2 per month for two months, including AMC+, Epix, and Hallmark Movies Now.
The Roku Channel offered premium add-ons for as little as $1 per month for two months, including BET+, Starz, and Lifetime Movie Club.
“Nearly all of those deals were available to both new and returning subscribers,” Newman said, “So canceling now might allow you to sign up again at a lower rate, without relying on secondary email addresses.”
“Keep in mind that with most streaming services, you’ll still get the full month for which you last paid, so there’s no need to wait on canceling. If you have a subscription that renews in three weeks, for instance, you can cancel now and keep using it until the billing cycle is over.”
The links you need to cancel
To help out consumers who’d like to try his idea, Newman was kind enough to offer links to each service’s account and cancellation pages.
One word of caution, however. Newman says that if you subscribed to a particular service through another company – such as signing up for AMC+ through your Amazon Prime Video account – you’ll have to go through that other service (Amazon Prime in this instance) instead of directly with the streaming service (in this instance, AMC+). The same thing applies to subscriptions through Roku and Apple.
Netflix account page, cancellation link
Amazon Prime account page, cancellation link
Disney+ account page, cancellation link
Max (formerly HBO Max) account page
Paramount+ account page
Peacock account page, cancellation link
Apple TV+ account page
Starz account page, cancellation link
Sling TV account page
YouTube TV account page
DirecTV Stream account page
Fubo TV account page
Philo account page