The ultimate guide to cheap (or free) streaming, news, and media subscriptions

Remember when Netflix cost $9 per month and The New York Times website was free? Well, the days of online media feeling like a bargain are long gone. Today, it’s become a costly convenience.

But there are still great deals to be had, thanks to cheap yearlong introductory subscriptions, budget bundles, and libraries. One thing to skip: those one-month free trials that are easy to sign up for but even easier to forget to cancel.

Here are some of the best ways to truly save on digital media.

Free content with ads or from the library

Free news sources include the Associated Press, the BBC, DW (Germany’s international broadcaster, available in English), The Free Press, The Guardian, and NPR. Many other sites offer a portion of their content free.

You can also tap into free content newsletters and podcasts from typically paid sources such as Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In fact, most podcasts are free to stream (though they may include ads), from Joe Rogan to Jon Stewart.

Meanwhile, a library card can help you score a world of free media through apps. Libby provides e-books and audiobooks on phones, tablets, and the web. Hoopla has e-books, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music, and comics, with apps for phones, tablets, and smart TVs. Your library may not have every title you want, or there may be a waitlist. But it’s a great place to start.

For more TV and movies, skip Hulu and Netflix in favor of Amazon FreeVee, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, and Tubi. They are ad-supported, but nowadays so is the basic tier of most paid services. If you can handle commercials every few songs, check out the free tiers of Deezer, SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube Music.

Long-term introductory subscriptions

Many news outlets offer steeply discounted introductory rates for digital and digital/print subscriptions. As of this writing, deals include: six months of The New York Times for $4 a month; a year of The Wall Street Journal for $8 a month; and The Washington Post for just $40 a year. The San Francisco Chronicle offered three months for 25 cents, and the Los Angeles Times had four months for a single dollar. (For even more options, check out DiscountMags.) At the end of the introductory period, newspapers may offer further discounts to keep you from canceling.

Streaming deals change more often, so keep an eye out. They have included a year of Hulu at 99 cents per month or three free months of Peacock (both with ads). Spotify’s ad-free Premium plan is free for three months.

Shared subscriptions

You may save with a subscription that allows you to add one or more people at a discount, or even for free. For example: Two people can get one year of The Washington Post for $60.

Depending on the plan, Netflix lets you add either one or two people at $6.99 a month for service with ads or $8.99 without. Spotify offers a dual ad-free subscription for $16.99 a month and a six-person family plan for $19.99 (versus $11.99 for one person), but everyone has to live at the same address. Amazon Family allows a Prime member to add one adult (related or not) and up to four children and four teens to share e-books and some other media for free. Apple Family Sharing allows up to six people to access much of what the first person subscribes to, such as AppleTV+, at no extra charge.

Bundled subscriptions

Savings on video bundles are often small, and may not help if the individual streamers are offering their own discounts. One to consider is the bundle of Hulu, Disney+, and Max (including HBO, Studio Ghibli, CNN, Food Network, The CW, and others) for $16.99 a month with ads or $29.99 without.

For news, you can get Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Investor’s Business Daily at $16 a month for one year. For $12.99 a month, Apple News+ provides a selection of content from over 500 sources, including The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and (ahem) Fast Company—all shareable with five other people.

Look closely at bundles with wireless carriers. For instance, T-Mobile’s $85-a-month Experience More plan adds AppleTV+ and Netflix (with ads) for $35 more per line, per month than its Essentials Saver plan. But subscribing to both streamers on your own costs only $17.98. Experience More may be worthwhile for its additional wireless features, but not just for streaming.

Buying a significant piece of Apple hardware (it varies by service) gets new users three free months of AppleTV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and Apple Arcade. The company’s Apple One bundle starts with TV+, Music, Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 a month, versus $28.96 if bought separately. For $25.95, you can share all that, plus 200GB of storage, with five people. Throwing in Fitness+, News+, and 2TB raises the price to $37.95.

Student, teacher, and military discounts

The pricey Financial Times is free to pre-college students and their teachers at participating schools. Students and teachers can get a digital subscription to The Economist for 75% off. In addition, universities may offer free subscriptions to news outlets for students, faculty, and staff.

Hulu offers students its ad-supported plan for $1.99 a month. Spotify bundles that plan plus its ad-free Premium service for $5.99. Apple charges the same for ad-free Music and (for a limited time) TV+. Peacock runs $2.99 (versus $7.99) for the first year. (The site Student Beans keeps track of deals on media subscriptions and many other items.)

There are several options for military personnel, such as Peacock Premium at $3.99 a month for 12 months. Paramount+ offers a 50% discount for the life of any subscription plan. (Military discount sites The Exchange and GOVX list more deals.)

You may be feeling overwhelmed by all these cheap and free offerings for all kinds of people and all kinds of media, but that’s better than being overwhelmed with big bills.

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