You’ll spend almost $200,000 in your lifetime on streaming, cable TV, mobile, and internet

We often consider the significant purchases in our lives to be the big-ticket items: a home, a nice car, or a college degree. Not many of us would expect our subscriptions to streaming services, mobile phone plans, cable TV, and internet over our lifetime to approach or even exceed some of those traditional big-ticket items—but a new report from Reviews.org finds that they will.

In its annual State of Consumer Media Spending Report, Reviews.org surveyed U.S. consumers about their spending habits on internet, mobile phone plans, streaming services, and cable TV plans. And it found that they are paying a lot.

On average, a U.S. consumer spends $272.90 per month on the four data and entertainment services above. Individually, that breaks down into:

• Internet: $69.43 per month
• Mobile plans: $60.69 per month
• Streaming services: $42.38 per month
• Cable TV: $88.94 per month

When factoring in a full year of payments for the four services above, U.S. consumers spend a staggering $3,274.80 annually:

• Internet: $833.16 per year
• Mobile plans: $731.52 per year
• Streaming services: $508.56 per year
• Cable TV: $1,067.28 per year

To put that annual $3,274.80 figure into more perspective, that’s 5% of the average U.S. worker’s annual income of $63,200 per year, notes Reviews.org.

However, that $3,274.80 figure looks absolutely paltry when compared to how much the average U.S. consumer will spend on the four services across a lifetime, which the report defined as 60 years.

During those 60 years, the average U.S. consumer will spend $196,488 on internet, mobile, streaming, and cable TV. It breaks down like this:

• Internet: $49,989.60 lifetime cost
• Mobile plans: $43,891.20 lifetime cost
• Streaming services: $30,513.60 lifetime cost
• Cable TV: $64,036.80 lifetime cost

Worth noting, $196,488 is more than some houses. The $30,513.60 that consumers will spend on streaming services alone during their lifetime is more than many cars.

Reviews.org used the most recent pricing data of various services in the United States to arrive at its findings. Monthly home internet plan figures were analyzed from U.S. providers in October 2024.

One thousand Americans were polled to find out the median monthly cost for streaming services. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly cellphone bill data for plans with Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T was used to figure monthly mobile phone bills.