The streaming offer is now very diversified in Switzerland.Image: Shutterstock
The streaming service Disney+ recently raised its prices once again, and it's not the only one. Almost all suppliers have revised their prices upwards over the last 18 months.
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Like many other aspects of our daily lives, Streaming subscriptions have seen a significant increase in recent years. More than half of platforms have increased their prices over the past 18 months. Here's an overview of the services where costs skyrocket the most.
The costs
In November 2024, Disney+ announced an increase in the price of its standard subscription without advertising, from 12.90 CHF to 14.90 CHF, an increase of 15.5%. When it was launched in March 2020, the only subscription available cost CHF 9.90.
Price increases have multiplied on other platforms. For example, market leader Netflix raised its prices for its Swiss customers in April 2024: the standard subscription now costs 20.90 CHF per month.
Sky Show introduced a new pricing structure in May 2024, also leading to increases. As for Apple TV+, its prices had already increased by more than 30% at the end of 2023. Amazon Prime has remained an exception for several years, since it offers a competitive price of CHF 9.99. Which makes it the cheapest international supplier. Only the German-speaking OnePlus service offers an even more economical subscription at CHF 6.90, but most of the content is in German.
Despite a significant increase in 2024, Apple TV+ is still among the three cheapest subscriptions. Note, however, that entry-level offers from Sky and Netflix remain more expensive than certain Full HD or 4K subscriptions.
Methodology
We compared the prices of standard subscriptions offered by the main streaming services available in Switzerland. Promotional offers with advertisements or without HD support were excluded from the analysis.
Various strategies to enrich catalogs
In addition to prices, the size of the catalogs differs depending on the platforms. Each company adopts a specific strategy: Apple and Disney are banking on their own productions, while Netflix and Amazon are investing in acquiring rights for third-party content. This approach allows them to offer a larger catalog, but not necessarily of better quality.
Netflix dominates with 7,663 films and series, closely followed by Amazon. On the other hand, Apple TV+ stands out for its small catalog, with only 252 titles. Its strategy is based on a limited number of high-quality productions to attract as many subscribers as possible.
However, Apple TV+ turns out to be the most expensive service per content, which is not surprising given its reduced offering. Amazon Prime, for its part, offers excellent value for money with an average cost of just 0.14 cents per content.
And for 4K fans?
The majority of platforms now offer content in 4K, but usually with extras. Disney, Sky and Netflix apply markups of 30 to 40% above the standard rate to access this quality, making them more than twice as expensive as Amazon Prime in this category.
Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ stand out by including 4K in their standard subscription, which allows them to offer the most attractive offers for fans of ultra-high definition content.
(Translated and adapted by Chiara Lecca)
Streaming is life:
Those who dream of an abolition of the rental value tax have suffered a big setback. The Swiss Tenants Association withdraws its support for the project. His chances of success are at an all-time low.
Currently, Swiss landlords are charged a fictitious rent which they must declare as income for taxes. In exchange, they can deduct interest expense and maintenance costs. This system contributes significantly to the tax revenues of the cantons, municipalities and the Confederation. But it is unloved and its elimination seemed to be on the right track.
