The Philippines has one of the most affordable streaming services subscription prices, according to Picodi. The country ranks fourth lowest in a list of 60 countries.
To come up with the ranking list, Picodi bundled the monthly subscription prices of popular video, music, e-book, and gaming platforms and used the total for comparison. The platforms used for the study include Netflix and Prime Video for video, Spotify for music, Scribd for e-books and audiobooks, and Microsoft’s Game Pass for gaming.
On the list, the Philippines was fourth lowest with a total monthly subscription of USD 24.85 (or roughly ₱1,450) for the bundle. The amount takes up a whopping 8.9% of the average monthly wage (₱16,401) of Filipinos.
In comparison, the highest monthly subscription bundle belongs to Switzerland, where the Swiss pay USD 64.21 per month for the services. The amount though takes up just 1.2% of its citizens’ average monthly wage, thanks to their citizens’ higher monthly wage.
While on the opposite end, Turkey has the lowest subscription bundle cost of USD 16.78, which is around 5.4% of their average monthly wage.
Here’s the breakdown of the individual monthly subscription prices in the Philippines of the platforms included in the study:
- Netflix – ₱459
- Prime Video – ₱149
- Spotify – ₱149
- Scribd – ₱589.11 ($9.99)
- Xbox Game Pass – ₱119
Take note that there are more affordable options for Netflix and Scribd that are available to Filipinos. But for the study, they chose those options for uniformity.
See also: The average Filipino has to work for 90.9 days to afford the new iPhone 14 Pro
So what can we take home from all of this? For one thing, the rankings show that just because subscription prices are higher does not mean it’s more expensive to a country’s citizens. Take Switzerland for example. It may have the highest price for the bundle at USD 64.21, but it just takes up 1.2% of their average monthly wage. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the bundle is only USD 30.90, almost half of the Swiss, but it takes up 19.5% of their average monthly wage
The study also shows that having multiple subscriptions add up, and consequently take up a large chunk of a household’s monthly income, on top of other necessities and utilities. Keeping track of subscriptions and cutting out on a few services can go a long way in lowering monthly expenses.
