Consumers May Be Underestimating Their Willingness to Pay for Streaming Video Services

More than half of Americans aren't willing to pay more than $20 per month for a collection of streaming services, according to a recent survey from The Trade Desk and YouGov. Of the respondents, 59% said they won't pay more than $20, and another 16% said they wouldn't pay more than $30.

But those percentages are considerably different than just two years ago. A similar survey from January 2018 found 74% of respondents weren't willing to spend more than $20, including 32% of respondents who weren't willing to spend anything on streaming.

A lot has changed in that time. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) increased its pricing by $2 per month, Disney (NYSE: DIS) launched Disney+, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) launched Apple TV+, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) have streaming services coming out in the near future, and various niche streaming offerings have come and gone. All the while, the price of traditional pay-TV continues to climb and virtual multichannel video programming distribution (MVPD) competitors have started raising their prices to be more in line with traditional distributors.