I canceled all my streaming services to get these Black Friday streaming deals

On November 29, 2024By Littum

This year, we’ve all consumed a lot of content on streaming services — and only our bank accounts feel a little lighter. With all that holiday shopping still to be done, you might think this is a good time to cut back on your entertainment budget and cancel your streaming services.

You are right … and wrong.

Every year, after my turkey and TV binge, I cancel all my streaming services during Black Friday weekend. But here’s the catch: I resubscribe to all of them and take advantage of the excellent Black Friday streaming deals.

Americans now pay an average of $61 a month for four streaming services, according to one Deloitte report. That’s a whopping $732 a year. Of course, you don’t need to subscribe to every streamer every month. In fact, here at Tom’s Guide, we recommend that you churn — canceling a service for a month or two, then subscribing again down the road when there’s a new show or movie you really can’t miss.

But at this time of year, it’s better to cancel everything and turn around to sign up again. I’ll explain exactly why and how—and the four Black Friday streaming deals you absolutely shouldn’t miss.

Quick links

4 can’t miss Black Friday streaming deals

Give yourself the gift of Black Friday streaming deals

Every Black Friday/Cyber Monday, most streaming services offer some kind of discount. But generally these offers are only available to new subscribers (in some cases returning subscribers who canceled a while ago).

There is a super simple way to get around this fine print: Sign up with a different email address.

You probably already have one (or a few). But if not, just go to one of the many email services with a free tier, like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, etc.

So here’s how I do it 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 before the planned date.

Then I use my new email address to sign up for the streaming offers. In my opinion the best every year are Hulu, Peacock, Max and Paramount Plus.

The best streaming deals right now are for annual plans, which means you can’t really shell out for these services every month. But since they’re so deeply discounted, it’s worth the price.

Just don’t forget to set the reminder to cancel next year.

Is there a Netflix Black Friday deal?

Unfortunately, the answer is: no.

Historically, Netflix has rarely offered discounts on its plans, and that includes not participating in Black Friday deals.

So Netflix is sticking with its usual monthly prices: $6.99 for the standard ad-supported plan; $15.49 for standard ad-free; and $22.99 for Premium with 4K ultra HD.

But since you’re not locked into a discounted annual plan, Netflix is the easiest streaming service to churn. They know it too, which is why they’ve shared the seasons of their hottest shows (“Stranger Things,” “Cobra Kai,” “Emily in Paris,” “Outer Banks,” “You,” etc.), forcing you to keep Netflix to watch the rest of the new episodes.

Is there an Apple TV Plus Black Friday deal?

The answer is also: no. Which is a bummer, because Apple TV Plus is on fire right now with the excellent shows “Shrinking,” “Silo,” and “Bad Sisters” all currently streaming.

But you can get Apple TV Plus for free for three months with the purchase of an Apple device (if you’ve never had a free trial before). See our guide to the best Black Friday Apple deals.