With Black Friday, the biggest sales event of the year, falling on November 28, it’s time for the age-old question to rear its head for any type of product: Should I wait for Black Friday to get a streaming subscription?
Here, we’ll take a look at previous Black Friday deals, offers that we’ve seen throughout the year and the regularity of discounts that appear for different streaming services. It’s always tempting to wait for Black Friday in case there’s a deal on what you’re looking for, but as it’s a month away, streaming deals are rare as it is, and there’s no guarantee, is it worth waiting? Especially with lots of sci-fi content worth catching up on and big releases coming out that are worth preparing for.
How Much Do Streaming Services Usually Cost?
Streaming service | Notable content | Price per month |
|---|---|---|
Disney Plus | Star Wars, Marvel | From $11.99 |
Apple TV | Murderbot, Severance | From $12.99 |
Netflix | Stranger Things | From $7.99 |
Prime Video | Fallout | From $8.99 ($14.99 for Prime membership) |
Paramount Plus | Star Trek | From $7.99 |
While different streaming services vary in price, especially once you factor in bundle prices, all major services cost a comparable amount. The price range is usually between $7.99 a month and $11.99 a month, with a couple of outliers.
If you’re looking to stream the Star Wars movies in order, the Marvel movies in order, Alien: Earth in its entirety, the Predator movies in order ahead of Badlands, or the Avatar movies ahead of Fire and Ash, you’ll want a Disney Plus subscription. Plans start from $11.99 a month, which makes it one of the more expensive options, but there’s a lot of streaming for your money. We have seen Disney Plus reduced to just $2.99 in the last two Black Fridays, so while there’s no guarantee, this could be worth waiting for.
If Star Trek is more your thing, then you should look for a Paramount Plus deal as that’s the home of all Star Trek content. Prices for Paramount Plus start at $7.99 a month, making it one of the more affordable services available and in the past couple of years, we have seen discounts for a few months of access. We have seen a sizable deal in recent months, so we could see a Black Friday deal again, and while it could be a good one, we don’t think it will be world-beating.
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Apple TV is a streaming service with an ever-growing library of content and an ever-impressive lineup of sci-fi content. At $12.99, it’s one of the more expensive services, but we haven’t seen Black Friday deals in recent years. This is a streaming service we’re less confident about seeing a Black Friday deal for, purely given the lack of offers we’ve seen in previous years.
If you’re eager to watch Fallout season two on Prime Video or the final season of Stranger Things on Netflix, you might be out of luck when it comes to Black Friday deals. Both streaming platforms historically don’t offer discounts, but given that both series don’t come out until around or after Black Friday, it could be worth waiting… Just in case.
What are the best streaming services?
For a comprehensive round-up, you can check out our guides to the best streaming services and the best value streaming services. But, when it comes to determining the best streaming services, it really depends on what you’re looking for and how you define “best”.
Disney Plus and Apple TV
If you’re looking purely at sci-fi content, then you’ll want to consider Disney Plus and Apple TV. Disney is the home to the Star Wars and Marvel franchises and you can get the Alien and Predator franchises through Hulu for a little extra cost (and Hulu will be merging with Disney in 2026). Apple is excelling with its original content and a lot of it is quality sci-fi viewing. These two are the stand-out options if sci-fi is your biggest consideration, even if Paramount Plus is the home of Star Trek.
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Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
If it’s strictly value you’re looking for then you should consider Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Netflix is one of the cheaper streaming services and has a seemingly endless library of content. You’ll never be able to sit there and watch everything, or even a significant amount, of what Netflix has to offer. You get Prime Video included with an Amazon Prime membership, and while you can get Prime Video on its own, a Prime membership gives you exclusive offers, speedy delivery, and subscriptions to other streaming services like Prime Gaming, Audible and much more.
Generally speaking, streaming deals are few and far between, so if you do see one, especially for one of the major streaming services, you should snap it up. We do sometimes see offers for the best streaming services during Black Friday but it’s never a guarantee, so if there isn’t a deal for the service you want, you still get a lot of content for your money.
Deals we’ve seen previously
The whole reason we’re asking the question of if it’s worth waiting for Black Friday to get a streaming subscription is that we’ve seen streaming deals during the sales event before, so we could see them again.
In the last couple of years, we’ve seen Disney Plus retail for as low as $2.99 a month, which is significantly down on the usual price, which has just gone up to $11.99, as a starting price.
We’ve also seen Paramount Plus drop to just $0.99 a month earlier this year and varying deals from $2.99 a month and 50% off annual subscriptions in the last several years of Black Friday deals, so it could be worth seeing if another offer will present itself on November 28.
Other, lesser-known services, including Max and STARZ have been discounted in recent times too, so while that isn’t a guarantee of a deal coming soon for Black Friday, from experience, we would say it is more likely that we could see a streaming deal for these services over the likes of Prime Video and Netflix, which are rarely ever on offer.
Should I Wait For Black Friday To Get a Streaming Subscription?
This year, Black Friday will fall on November 28, which means it’s about a month away. Given what we’ve seen in recent years, we’re hoping to see some streaming deals and we certainly think we’ll see one or two, at least.
There’s never a guarantee of any streaming deals during the sales event and we can’t say which, if any, services will offer discounts. Having said that, if you’re itching to watch something specific now, then it’s never a bad idea to get a streaming subscription. All the best streaming services have huge libraries, so you’ll never be short of content.
But, if you’re in a position to wait a little bit, we would recommend waiting until Black Friday. You never know what deals might present themselves and if you’re patient, you could save big bucks on your next streaming subscription.
