Stop expecting ad-free streaming to return—here’s why the industry has moved on

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The streaming revolution has changed the entire television landscape. What started as a way to bring television to the Internet has now grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Streaming used to be a place where users could watch their favorite shows ad-free. The pendulum has completely swung to the other side, as major streaming services integrate more ads on their platforms.

Are ad-free streaming services over? No. Users can still pay extra to stream ad-free. However, the era of ad-free content dominating the streaming ecosystem is over. If you think the balance will eventually swing back toward ad-free streaming, I hate to break it for you, but it’s only going to get worse.

The original appeal of streaming

Watch your favorite shows with little to no interruptions

Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max logos on a phone in front of a television.

Streaming dates back to the 1990s, with services like RealPlayer, Audionet and Napster. For the purposes of this article, the year I want to start with is 2007. That was the year Netflix launched its streaming media service, which offered movies and TV shows on demand. For Netflix, this development represented a radical shift in strategy, given that its previous business was based on shipping DVDs to customers.

Why would cable consumers switch to streaming? Two reasons. One: the excessive release model. Why wait for a weekly episode when I can have access to an entire season immediately? You say I can sit down and start a new season of Stranger Thingsand finish each episode on the same day? It’s an attractive selling point that has attracted viewers looking to bypass the weekly release model.

The second reason consumers have turned to streaming is the lack of ads. I remember when Netflix first started, they didn’t offer any ad-supported tiers. Netflix wanted to destroy cable, not imitate it. Why pay for cable, which includes many channels you may not want, when you can pay for a service that offers entertaining movies and shows without commercials?

Again, this is another attractive selling point. Although other services in the 2010s, like Hulu, offered ads, Netflix’s complete rejection of them helped push the service to 219 million subscribers in 2021.

The rise of ad-supported streaming

Welcome back, advertisements

In 2020, the streaming wars were reaching a fever pitch. As Netflix became more powerful, other companies tried to catch up by spending ridiculous amounts of money to increase subscriber numbers. Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV, Paramount+, Disney+, Prime Video and Peacock were all fighting for second place behind Netflix.

Aside from Apple and Prime Video, these major streaming services have not generated profits. In fact, most were operating at a loss. Other factors to consider were COVID-19, which made it even more expensive to make movies and shows, and Hollywood strikes, which delayed productions. Studios desperately needed additional revenue streams.

You know what was generating billions in revenue for the studios? The cable television model, which operates on carriage fees and advertising. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It took a while for services to realize they could apply the same principles of cable TV to streaming by integrating ad-supported packages. With ad-supported plans, streamers can charge less and attract customers looking for alternatives to cable.

The final straw in streaming is Netflix, which went against its founding principles in 2022 with an ad-supported tier: Basic with Ads. The ad-supported subscription started at $6.99 per month, about $5 less than Netflix’s Basic plan and $13 less than Premium. The ads only made Netflix stronger, not weaker. In 2025, Netflix’s advertising revenue exceeded $1.5 billion and the company is targeting $3 billion by the end of 2026.

Netflix is also investing heavily in live events: WWE Raw, Christmas football and boxing. All of these events show ads, regardless of what tier you are subscribed to.

Netflix has been a profitable streaming service for years, but for the first time, other streamers are now profitable. In 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO Max), Paramount+ and Disney+ & Hulu all reported profits. An ad-supported tier, password-sharing crusades, and price hikes have helped streamers become profitable.

If you don’t believe these streamers will double their ads, you’re crazy. A report from PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook suggests that streaming advertising revenue in the United States could grow from $26.5 billion to $37.3 billion by 2029. This is reliable revenue for these companies. They don’t pass that money on, even if you complain loudly about the ads.

Goodbye to ad-free streaming as we know it

Ad-supported streaming is here to stay

Credit: Hamara/Shutterstock

Streaming services will never openly say that they want all their customers, especially new ones, to join the ad-supported tier. However, this is what they want. More subscribers at ad-supported tiers means more revenue streams for streamers. To persuade consumers to upgrade to an ad-supported tier, streaming services take you where it hurts the most: in your wallet.

Let’s watch Netflix. The cost of each tier in 2026: Standard with ads at $7.99 per month, Standard (without ads) at $17.99 per month, and Premium at $24.99 per month. In 2020, the cost of the ad-free tiers were: Basic (now discontinued) at $8.99, Standard at $13.99, and Premium at $17.99. The cost of ad-supported streaming is almost the same as the lowest tier of ad-free streaming of 2020.

The same patterns occurred for other streamers. In 2020, ad-free Hulu costs $11.99. In 2026, the ad-free service will cost $18.99 and Hulu with ads will cost $11.99. Disney+ with ads now costs $11.99 and Disney+ without ads costs $18.99. When Disney+ launched in 2019, there was no ad-free tier at $6.99 per month.

Consumers, myself included, initially turned to streaming for a different experience than cable, mostly ad-free. Now all they get is ad-supported streaming. In the first quarter of 2025, Nielsen (via THR) reported that 72.4% of TV usage came from ad-supported platforms, including cable programming and ad-supported streaming.

In The thread In the season 4 finale, Bodie tells McNulty that “the game is rigged” and he feels like a pawn on a chessboard. The system always wins. The streaming industry isn’t about drug trafficking, but there is an underlying theme of capitalism. Today, many streaming services are now profitable. They’re making money, and yet all the major services have raised their prices in the last three years. Amazon just announced that its ad-free subscription will become Prime Video Ultra for $4.99 per month. How can the average American pay for multiple ad-free streaming services? These prices never go down. The toothpaste never goes back into the tube.

Bundles are now the flagship product of streaming. Why have just one streaming service when you can buy three for the price of one? Buying multiple streaming services with ads seems like a familiar concept. Bundles are the streaming equivalent of a cable provider. Bodie was right. The game is rigged, and in the age of streaming, the consumer never wins.

Don’t forget free, ad-supported TV

FAST (free and ad-supported) TV channels are becoming more and more popular. While streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max have become more expensive, ad-supported services like Tubi and Pluto TV remain free. Speaking of Tubi, it is now profitable and will partner with TikTok creators to develop long-form content. Still think streaming is returning to the ad-free era?