The average household pays for 4-5 streaming subscriptions. At £10-£15 each, that's £40-£75 per month disappearing on autopilot. But here's the question nobody asks: which of those subscriptions are you actually using enough to justify the cost?
A subscription you watch for 20 hours a month costs pennies per hour. One you watch for 2 hours costs pounds. Same price, wildly different value. Let's run the numbers.
How We Calculated
For each service:
Cost Per Hour = Monthly Subscription Price / Hours Used Per Month
We modelled three usage levels:
- Heavy user: 20+ hours/month on that specific service
- Moderate user: 8-12 hours/month
- Light user: 2-4 hours/month
Video Streaming
Netflix
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £10.99 | 25 | £0.44 |
| Moderate | £10.99 | 10 | £1.10 |
| Light | £10.99 | 3 | £3.66 |
Verdict: At 44p per hour for heavy users, Netflix is excellent value -- cheaper than any other form of visual entertainment. For moderate users at £1.10, it's still good. But light users at £3.66 per hour should consider cancelling and re-subscribing only when there's a specific show they want to watch.
Disney+
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £7.99 | 15 | £0.53 |
| Moderate | £7.99 | 8 | £1.00 |
| Light | £7.99 | 2 | £4.00 |
Verdict: Disney+'s lower price makes it slightly better value per hour at moderate usage. But the library is smaller, so heavy usage is harder to sustain long-term. Best value for families with children who rewatch content.
Amazon Prime Video
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £8.99* | 20 | £0.45 |
| Moderate | £8.99* | 10 | £0.90 |
| Light | £8.99* | 3 | £3.00 |
*Price is for full Prime membership; video is bundled with delivery, reading, and other perks.
Verdict: If you use Amazon Prime for deliveries anyway, the video streaming is essentially free -- making it the best-value streaming option by default. If you're paying only for the video, the value depends entirely on usage.
YouTube Premium
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £12.99 | 40 | £0.32 |
| Moderate | £12.99 | 15 | £0.87 |
| Light | £12.99 | 5 | £2.60 |
Verdict: YouTube Premium's secret is that heavy YouTube users watch a lot. At 32p per hour for heavy users, it's the cheapest video streaming per hour. The ad-free experience alone saves hours per month in skipped ads. But if you watch YouTube occasionally, the free tier is fine.
Calculate the real cost before you buy
Stop guessing. Skip or Buy shows you the cost per use of anything — so you only buy what's truly worth it.
Music Streaming
Spotify Premium
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £10.99 | 60 | £0.18 |
| Moderate | £10.99 | 25 | £0.44 |
| Light | £10.99 | 8 | £1.37 |
Verdict: Music streaming is some of the best-value entertainment money can buy. Heavy listeners at 18p per hour get extraordinary value. Even moderate users at 44p per hour are getting a great deal. Light users should consider the free tier instead.
Apple Music
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | £10.99 | 60 | £0.18 |
| Moderate | £10.99 | 25 | £0.44 |
| Light | £10.99 | 8 | £1.37 |
Verdict: Identical pricing and similar value to Spotify. Choose based on ecosystem preference, not cost.
Other Subscriptions
Audible
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy (2 books) | £7.99 | 16 | £0.50 |
| Moderate (1 book) | £7.99 | 8 | £1.00 |
| Light (skips months) | £7.99 | 4 | £2.00 |
Verdict: At £1 per hour for one audiobook per month, Audible is decent value. But if you're not finishing your monthly credit, you're paying for books you'll never listen to. Use the pause feature aggressively.
News Subscriptions (e.g., Times, Telegraph, NYT)
| Usage Level | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost Per Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily reader | £12-£26 | 15 | £0.80-£1.73 |
| Weekend reader | £12-£26 | 4 | £3.00-£6.50 |
| Rarely read | £12-£26 | 1 | £12.00-£26.00 |
Verdict: News subscriptions are only worth it for daily readers. Weekend-only readers should consider the weekend-only plans (often 50% cheaper). If you rarely read, cancel immediately -- free news sources cover the same stories.
The Subscription Audit
Here's how to evaluate your full subscription stack:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | List every active subscription and its monthly cost |
| 2 | Estimate hours used per month for each |
| 3 | Calculate cost per hour |
| 4 | Rank by cost per hour (lowest = best value) |
| 5 | Cancel anything over £3/hour unless it's essential |
Example Audit
| Service | Monthly Cost | Hours/Month | Cost/Hour | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | £10.99 | 40 | £0.27 | Keep |
| Netflix | £10.99 | 12 | £0.92 | Keep |
| Prime Video | £8.99 | 8 | £1.12 | Keep (delivery value too) |
| Disney+ | £7.99 | 3 | £2.66 | Think Twice |
| Paramount+ | £6.99 | 1 | £6.99 | Cancel |
| News app | £12.99 | 2 | £6.50 | Cancel |
| Total | £59.94 | Save £19.98/month |
Cancelling the two worst-value subscriptions saves nearly £240 per year.
The Subscription Rotation Strategy
You don't have to choose between having access to everything and cancelling everything. Rotate:
- Month 1-2: Netflix + Spotify (binge Netflix shows)
- Month 3: Disney+ + Spotify (watch Disney/Marvel content)
- Month 4: Netflix + Spotify (new releases)
You get access to all the content you want, just not all at once. Annual savings: 30-50% compared to running everything simultaneously.
Beyond Streaming: Apply This to Every Subscription
The cost-per-hour framework works for any recurring payment:
- Gym: £40/month ÷ 12 visits = £3.33/visit
- Meal kit: £50/month ÷ 4 deliveries = £12.50/delivery
- Cloud storage: £2/month ÷ daily use = £0.07/day
- App subscriptions: £5/month ÷ actual uses = varies wildly
If the cost per use is high, cancel. If it's low, keep. The maths doesn't care about loyalty, habit, or "I might use it more next month."