You Can Stop Spending $800 or More a Year on Streaming. Do This Instead - CNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Tech > Services & Software > Streaming Services If you have the will -- and patience -- there's a way. Remember when Hulu was free, and Netflix was $8 per month? Streaming TV isn’t the deal it used to be, with price hikes, extra user fees and sports packages that can bring your monthly streaming bills shooting up to $200 or more. Every year, we’ve seen costs rise for services like Netflix, Peacock, Philo and Disney's platforms, where the average price for just an ad-based plan starts at $9 per month. Slim packages like DirecTV’s Genre Packs and YouTube TV’s skinny offerings beef up the bundle game, but all of these extra choices put me in the position of a coach trying to figure out who to cut. CNET’s latest survey found that on average, we’re spending more than $200 a year on subscriptions we’re not using. If you’re holding onto six different streamers just to keep up with a couple of shows, it m