Ad-free streaming is a luxury now

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about the streaming industry, follow Emma Roth . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . Streaming was once a reprieve from cable. Not only could you watch whatever you wanted at any given time, but you didn’t have to sit through five-minute-long commercial breaks. And the best part was the price: Netflix, for example, cost just $7.99 / month when it launched its standalone streaming service in 2010. Amazon’s Prime Video was the same, offering ad-free streaming as a perk with its Prime membership. Hulu was an outlier at the time, but that’s because it allowed you to stream ad-supported TV shows and movies for free . It later added a $7.99 / month Hulu Plus subscription, with limited advertising. But the commercial-free streaming model was so appealing that when companies launched rival streaming services, most made them ad-free by default. Disney Plus cost $6.99 / month when it launched in 2019, followed by the $4.99 / month subscription to Apple TV, and the launch of HBO Max’s $14.99 / month streaming service. …