It's the most wonderful time of the year — the rare moment when you can actually save money while still watching all your favorite shows and movies. Every year, I cancel all my streaming services around Black Friday. And then comes the fun part: I re-subscribe to all of them, scooping up all of the excellent Black Friday streaming deals. It’s a simple little hack many people never think to try, but it works — and it can save you a surprising amount of money over the next few months.
Americans now pay an average of $61 a month for streaming services, according to a Deloitte report. That's a hefty $732 a year. And the truth is, you don’t need to keep every subscription active year-round. At Tom’s Guide, we’re big believers in churning: canceling a service for a bit and returning only when there's something new you truly can’t miss. It’s the smartest move in an era when streaming costs keep creeping up.
I'll explain how I do it and recommend seven streaming deals you absolutely shouldn’t miss before they disappear. I'm still waiting to find out if Peacock and Paramount Plus will offer Black Friday deals, but in the meantime, check out these deep discounts.
7 best streaming deals I'm getting
- Disney+, Hulu bundle (with ads): $4.99/month for one year
- HBO Max Basic (with ads): $2.99/month for one year
- Apple TV: $5.99/month for 6 months
- AMC+ add-on via Prime Video: now $1.75/month for 2 months
- BritBox add-on via Prime Video: $2.75/month for 2 months
- YouTube TV: now $72.99/month @ YouTube
- Peacock Premium or Paramount+ Essential: free with Walmart+ Membership (now 50% off)
Give yourself the gift of streaming deals
Every Black Friday/Cyber Monday, most streaming services offer some kind of discount. But generally, these deals are only available to new subscribers (in some cases, returning subscribers who canceled a while ago).
There's a super simple way to get around this fine print: Sign up with another email address.
You probably already have one (or a few). But if not, just go to any one of the numerous email services with a free tier, like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, etc.
So, here's how I do this every year. First, Past Me already set calendar reminders to cancel the services I subscribed to during Black Friday week last year. So, I just make sure to cancel by the scheduled date.
Then, I use my new email address to sign up for the streaming deals. In my opinion, the best ones every year are Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount Plus. They are the ones worth investing in.
Some of the best Black Friday streaming deals right now are for annual plans, which means you can't really churn these services out monthly. But since they're so deeply discounted, it's worth the upfront cost.
Just don't forget to set that reminder to cancel next year.
Is there a Netflix Black Friday deal?
Unfortunately, the answer is: no, Netflix does not have a Black Friday deal. Trust me, I look every year, and it's always the same ... radio silence on their end.
Historically, Netflix has rarely offered discounts on its plans, and that includes not participating in Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals.
So, Netflix is sticking with its usual monthly prices: $7.99 for the Standard ad-supported plan; $17.99 for Standard ad-free; and $24.99 for Premium with 4K ultra HD.
However, since you aren't locked into a discounted annual plan, Netflix is the easiest streaming service to churn. They know this, too, which is why they've been splitting the seasons of their hottest shows ("Stranger Things" season 5 is being released in three volumes, for example), forcing you to keep Netflix to see the rest of the new episodes.
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