If your Christmas was anything like mine, then your bank balance could do with a bit of TLC this January. An audit of your subscriptions is as good a place to start as any, and I’d bet most of us are paying for a streaming service we rarely watch.
To subscribe to all the major streamers available in the UK would cost almost £50 a month – and that’s at the cheapest price available. Start paying to get rid of those pesky time-wasting adverts and you’re looking at a much higher bill.
But it’s hard to know which streaming services are worth keeping and which you can give the boot. Will you miss out on the Next Big Thing if you cancel your Netflix subscription? Are you wasting your money on a service that doesn’t even suit your viewing habits? And with the UK launch of HBO Max on the horizon, is a swap worth the effort?
Here’s everything you need to know about the state of all the major streaming services in 2026 – and whether they’re still worth your hard-earned cash.
Netflix
Cost: £4.99 a month for standard with ads, £12.99 a month for standard without ads, £18.99 a month for premium
Netflix is a tricky one: 90 per cent of the series and movies it produces are utter tosh – my thoughts are with anyone who recently sat through the entirety of Run Away – yet there are the odd gems that will blow your socks off. Think Adolescence, Baby Reindeer, Stranger Things (not withstanding that rather lacklustre ending).
It’s also an agenda-setter. Thanks to the sheer number of subscribers (there are more than 300 million of us worldwide), anything that makes it to the top of the Netflix chart is sure to take over the world, for better or worse. If you care about being part of the zeitgeist and sharing your hot takes on the latest drama on your socials, then cancelling your Netflix account would be a silly idea.
But if – like me – you regularly find yourself disappointed with the sub-par shows then perhaps it’s finally time to part ways with the OG streamer. If that seems too drastic, then at least reduce your membership tier to the £4.99 one – the ads are bearable, I promise.
Should you cancel? No, but definitely don’t pay more than £4.99 a month.
Prime Video
Cost: £8.99 a month or £95 a year
The world is split into two factions when it comes to Amazon: those who won’t touch Bezos’s operation with a barge pole, and those who think Prime next-day delivery is the best invention since sliced bread. If you’re in the latter camp, then you probably see Prime Video as just another perk of the £8.99 monthly fee. But if you’re paying that just for access to Amazon’s streaming platform alone, I’m afraid you might be wasting your money.
That is, if you’re watching it for TV series. When it comes to films, Prime Video has one of the biggest and best libraries, from old favourites like The Notebook and American Beauty to the latest releases. After all, £8.99 every month for an entire selection of movies is cheaper than just one night at the cinema these days.
If it didn’t come along with the rest of the Amazon Prime perks, I’d cancel my Amazon subscription without hesitation. Besides a handful of shows (Fallout, Clarkson’s Farm, Overcompensating) and the ease of watching a film I could probably stream elsewhere or simply rent, the streamer can’t offer much. But that next-day delivery isn’t half handy…
Should you cancel? Yes, if you don’t need use Amazon regularly enough to need next day delivery.
Apple TV
Cost: £9.99 per month or £89 per year
I’ve always exalted Apple TV (it recently dropped the +) as the best streaming service for high-quality original drama. Its big hitters are Severance, Slow Horses, Silo and The Morning Show – a slate with something for everyone, whether you love detective shows, sci-fi mysteries or hammy melodramas about an American news channel starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
If you appreciate quality over quantity, then Apple TV is the streaming service for you. Having said that, it is on the expensive side and months can pass by without anything decent to watch. My tip would be to only pay for the months when you know there’s something you want to watch available – when the series finishes, cancel your subscription and renew it when your favourite returns.
Apple TV also has had the clever idea to let us watch the first episode of a series for free, presumably in the hope that we’ll be hooked and sign up to watch the next one. I’ll certainly be doing that with the upcoming Margo’s Got Money Troubles, an adaptation of Rufi Thorpe’s hilarious novel starring Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Should you cancel? Yes, until Slow Horses or Severance comes back.
Disney+
Cost: £5.99 a month for standard with ads, £9.99 a month to £99.90 a year for standard, £14.99 a month or £149.90 a year for premium
I don’t know where I’d be without my monthly comfort watch of Disney classic The Aristocats. To me, that’s worth the £5.99 a month alone.
But Disney+ isn’t just cartoons and kids’ programmes. Integrated into the streamer is Hulu, which caters towards the more adult (not like that – with the exception of the brilliant Dying for Sex perhaps) end of the streamer’s output. While there is a good helping of trash – The Kardashians, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, both of which are regulars on my TV – there’s also hard-hitters like Dopesick, The Bear and The Lowdown.
With its comprehensive library of new and old movies and an impressive line-up on the way (I’m looking forward to The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale), Disney+ is a real all-rounder. And if you don’t mind the ads, £5.99 is somewhat of a steal. If you’re only going to keep one subscription, make it this one.
Should you cancel? No – Disney+ is underrated!
Now
Cost: £9.99 a month for an entertainment membership, £9.99 a month for a cinema membership, £34.99 a month for a sports membership, £5.99 a month for a Hayu membership
The future of Now is a bit up in the air. Its selling point has historically been that it’s the UK home to HBO shows – the big fancy American dramas like Game of Thrones, Succession and The White Lotus. But with HBO Max launching this March, I can only presume that all those series are going to migrate.
The original series that will be left leave a lot to be desired, though there are some gems to discover: The Death of Bunny Munro is a bleak yet moving adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel; The Day of the Jackal sees Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne take on the role of a ruthless assassin; and Mr Big Stuff is a laugh-out-loud sitcom. But £9.99 is very steep for just a handful of great shows – and if you’re wanting access to the Sky Cinema channels, you’re expected to pay another £9.99 on top of that (though you could of course forgo the entertainment membership and have the cinema tier alone).
Should you cancel? Yes, if the best shows move to HBO Max in March.
Paramount+
Cost: £4.99 a month for standard with ads, £7.99 a month for standard, £10.99 a month for premium
I see Paramount+ as the blokiest of streaming platforms. It’s home to Taylor Sheridan’s universe of cowboys and oil riggers, with Landman and Yellowstone representing the most popular series on there. There’s also Sylvester Stallone’s mafia drama Tulsa King and Guy Ritchie’s gangster series MobLand. So, unless your tastes lean to the macho, there’s not much variation in the offering.
It is, however, surprisingly good for parents, who need easy, quick access to Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol. There’s also a good selection of films, but not enough to rival the likes of Now’s cinema membership or Prime Video’s library. If you’ve got a subscription to Paramount+, you probably rarely find yourself scrolling through it anyway – best to cut your losses.
Should you cancel? Yes – there’s only so much testosterone one streaming service can take.
Discovery+
Cost: £3.99 a month for an entertainment plan, £30.99 for a TNT Sports plan, £33.99 a month for a combined entertainment and TNT Sports plan
There’s one reason and one reason only to subscribe to Discovery+ – the utterly mental world of 90 Day Fiancé, a trashy reality TV franchise that follows couples who live in different countries. It’s not for everyone, so if that’s not up your street, there’s no reason to pay £3.99 per month.
Unless you love sub-par true-crime documentaries, in which case by all means, waste your money.
Should you cancel? Probably, but not before you at least give 90-Day Fiancé the chance it deserves.
