[jjallen]

We subscribe to almost every reasonable content provider and we pay about $60 or so IN SWITZERLAND, where we pay a swiss tax just because we have more money I guess. If someone is truly paying $300 they should cancel their cable subscription and subscribe to a handful of streaming services and YT for $<100. All the content you could ever watch.

[manquer]

A typical household with say couple of newspapers and magazines, music and audio platforms, 2-3 sports and major streaming platforms in the U.S will be in the 300 range (see below)

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

- Sports: ($33) ( or any other 2 sports )

   - MLS - $13
   - NBA - $20

- Music/Podcasts: ($50)

  - Spotify(podcasts,list: $10
  - YT music: $15
  - Audible: 15

- Newspapers/ Magazines: ($65)

  - NYTimes ( or main newspaper) : $16
  - Bloomberg/FT ( or business daily): $25
  - Economist/New Yorker (or other long form magazines): $20

Total: $269

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

Final total: $700 / month on just subscriptions and licenses

[jvidalv]

Holy, I just pay HBO and Apple Music.

Is this really the middle class U.S family reality?

[manquer]

150+ Million Americans subscribed to Prime AND also Disney+ has similar numbers, so if you don't have either, you are likely a outlier.

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

[gymbeaux]

I don't know anybody with three newspaper subscriptions

[manquer]

You don't anybody who consumes from three pay walled platforms or they don't pay for it and instead use archive.ph or similar ?

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.

[gymbeaux]

I remember something about Aljazeera around ten years ago where Aljazeera America (AJAM) was remove from cable TV networks in the US. Something to do with their affiliation with middle eastern countries I think. I’m not sure that’s enough reason to dismiss them completely.

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.

[manquer]

Al Jazeera is Qatar government funded akin to BBC.

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

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_effect