I have only reasonably included couple of options in each category, you could mix and match preferences and use different providers or may get deals and it is part of combo with some other plan , however you will still be in this range.
- Streaming: ($121) (Prime, Apple have other uses bundled, Disney is undroppable if you have kids)
- Disney+ (ESPN, Hulu, Disney) - $20
- Netflix - $16
- Paramount+ - $12
- Max (HBO) - $20
- Peacock (NBC) - $10
- Apple Tv+ (via Apple One ) - $23
- Nebula - $5
- Amazon Prime $15
- MLS - $13
- NBA - $20
- Spotify(podcasts,list: $10
- YT music: $15
- Audible: 15
- NYTimes ( or main newspaper) : $16
- Bloomberg/FT ( or business daily): $25
- Economist/New Yorker (or other long form magazines): $20
On top you could be paying for
- any game network subscriptions like PlayStation Plus maybe $20-40
- one time purchases for movies/ games etc in addition to Prime, AppleTV+, Disney+ plans when they not included perhaps another $100 every month
- cable/internet/Mobile plans which are another ~ $200 easily
- Patreon/ podcasts or other creator specific subscriptions
- other personal productivity apps you may pay for (o365, Dropbox, email etc) maybe another $100
Is this really the middle class U.S family reality?
I would think my family having access to read good quality journals rather than get their news and analysis just from social media or click bait content farms is worth $50 / month ?
I know only 2 top quality newspapers not behind a paywall : Aljazeera and The Guardian, both while have decent American coverage or not amercian. Perhaps you can also include NPR, BBC and few other high quality news sources that are still free but are not newspapers.
Every high quality news source even news agencies like Reuters[1] are now behind paywalls.
[1] Associated Press is still free, given their non-profit status hopefully will remain so.
Anyway, what you say makes sense, but I just don’t think many people drop $50/month on that stuff. They don’t see the value, and continue to feed Facebook.
They came to prominence when Bin Laden used to give them recorded tapes and interviews post 9/11. They have comprehensive and deeper coverage on topics and geographies [1][2] where western news orgs won't focus.
Beware though, they have biases too like everyone, particularly on covering Qatar and Middle East. The government funds them as tool of geopolitical soft power by creating an honest dependable news, no different from UK with BBC but without the colonial undertones, on average with global topics they are a solid source.
[1] In particular areas with some Muslim population, i.e lots of Africa, East Asia etc
How could you not have Disney+ if you have kids ?
Netflix is at 75M Americans paying for it (and many others sharing), typical family definitely has more than just Apple Music and HBO
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It is not just $12/month for YouTube that is the problem most people have to budget for all their content consumption between streaming services, sports subscriptions , music subs, newspapers you can easily spend upwards of $300/month , that is not including other productivity tools Saas you could end paying for like o365 , Dropbox and so on .
YT would be the one easiest to cut because you won’t loose access just have to put up with some ads unlike everything else .
For many not seeing ads is not worth $12 a month , for some like you the value is enormous so you see it as worth paying .
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I personally stopped paying for YT premium because I get most of the content from Nebula what I used YT for, at 1/10th the cost.
Also there is no way to disable Shorts and they won’t improve the by design poorer implementation on Firefox; both these make my experience using the platform poor even if I pay for it so I don’t bother.