Streaming Gets Pricier in 2026: Cheaper TV at Home

The most noticeable step affects households with aerial TV. The provider of the private DVB-T2 offering raised the monthly price from 7.99 euros (NETZWELT) to 9.49 euros (NETZWELT) on 1 January 2026 – an increase of 1.50 euros per month, or around 18 euros per year. In addition, the prices for the prepaid top-up cards are rising in the second quarter of 2026 (NETZWELT). More than one million (NETZWELT) households in Germany are affected, often in regions where fast broadband internet is not yet available everywhere. Worth knowing: a price increase usually triggers a special right of cancellation (NETZWELT), which lets you end the contract without a long notice period if you do not want to pay the higher price.

Streaming has also moved upwards recently. With the largest subscription service, the ad-free standard plan now costs 13.99 euros (mydealz) and the premium plan with 4K 19.99 euros (mydealz) per month; only the entry-level plan with ads remains at 4.99 euros (mydealz). The major family streamer raised its prices on 1 October 2025 – standard with ads from 5.99 to 6.99 euros (streamwert), standard without ads from 9.99 to 10.99 euros (streamwert) and premium from 13.99 to 15.99 euros (streamwert). A well-known Apple service currently costs 9.99 euros (streamwert) per month in Germany, after prices already rose significantly in the US.

The effect: anyone holding several of these services at the same time in the most expensive plan, plus paying for aerial TV, quickly reaches over 50 euros per month. In the mockup above you can see a typical example – on the left the expensive full-plan stack, on the right a lean mix for a fraction of the cost. The reason these amounts add up so easily is mainly that small monthly prices barely stand out in everyday life. A household already pays for around 3.4 (Deloitte) subscriptions in parallel, often without all of them being used at the same time.

To make the prices comparable, it helps to look at the individual plan tiers. Almost all major providers today distinguish between a cheap entry plan with ads, a mid plan without ads and a premium plan with the highest resolution. The following overview summarizes common monthly prices in Germany for 2026. It also shows where it is easiest to save: per service, the jump from the ad plan to the premium plan often costs more than double, without many households noticing the difference in everyday use.

It is striking how far the range between the cheapest and the most expensive model spreads. Anyone willing to forgo every comfort stays with a single ad plan for under seven euros; anyone who bundles everything in premium packages quickly ends up in the range of several dozen euros per month. This is exactly where the saving strategy comes in: the cheapest plan alone does not produce the saving, but rather the decision about which plan tier is really needed and how many services have to run at the same time.

The most effective lever in streaming is called overview. Because a household holds several subscriptions in parallel on average (Deloitte), many pay month after month for services that are not being used at all right now. Streaming subscriptions are usually cancellable monthly – so a pause costs nothing and can be reversed at any time. Anyone who watches their favourite series in one concentrated month and then pauses the service pays a fraction of what a year-round running subscription costs for the same content.

In practice, pausing often fails not from a lack of will, but from the operation: in which menu do you cancel, how do you pause correctly, and how do you bring the service back later without re-entering all your data? That is exactly where we help on site. We set up the accounts so that subscriptions can be paused and reactivated in a few steps, and store the access data in a safe place. How this sensibly looks for several people in a household is also described in our article on technology for families.

Before another subscription is added, it is worth looking at what is already available without extra cost. The media libraries of the public-service broadcasters offer films, series, documentaries and news on demand – financed via the broadcasting fee that most households pay anyway. Alongside them, so-called FAST channels have established themselves: ad-funded streaming channels that, like classic TV, show ongoing programming but arrive over the internet. They cost 0 euros extra and are directly available on many smart TVs and sticks.

For many households that only occasionally watch something specific, the combination of media libraries and FAST channels is already enough. Only when certain series or films are available exclusively on a paid service is a single subscription worthwhile – and then ideally on the ad plan and only for as long as the content is actually being watched. Especially for older people who watch few but regular programmes, a lean, tidy solution is often the best. How we set this up patiently and clearly is shown in our article on technology for seniors.

A price increase on aerial TV is, for many, the reason to think about switching to streaming. This does not require a new TV: if your set has a free HDMI port, a small streaming stick makes it streaming-capable. The stick is plugged into the HDMI port, supplied with power and connected to the Wi-Fi – and media libraries, FAST channels and subscription apps run directly on the old TV. According to a current market overview, the prices for good sticks have risen recently, but good devices still remain within a manageable range (teltarif.de).

A stick has two big advantages: it is the cheapest solution, and it can later be swapped for a newer model without touching the TV. A streaming box is essentially the same, only larger and more powerful – it often has a network connector for a stable LAN cable and suits many apps at once. Which variant fits depends on your TV, your viewing habits and your Wi-Fi. For the stick to run reliably, the Wi-Fi at the location should be stable; how to eliminate dead spots is described in our article on faster Wi-Fi throughout the house and in detail on the page about Wi-Fi optimization at home.

Many of our customers know that they are paying too much for TV, but shy away from the effort of checking, switching and setting everything up themselves. This is exactly where we come in. During a home visit in the Hildesheim and Leine valley area, we look together at which services you actually use, which plan tier is really needed and where a subscription can be paused or an expensive contract replaced by a free source. We then set up the smart TV, stick or box, tidy the home screen, store the accounts securely and explain the operation to you calmly.

Neutral advice matters to us: we only recommend what suits your habits and your budget, and we push neither for unnecessary devices nor for expensive plans. If in the end a single remote is enough for you to find everything you want to watch, we have reached our goal. An overview of our work can be found on the page about tech help in Hildesheim, and you can arrange an appointment conveniently via our contact form.