State of Consumer Media Spending in 2024: Cost of Internet, TV, and Mobile

According to our research, it costs an estimated $272.90 per month for internet, mobile phone plans, streaming services, and cable TV plans. In a year, this totals to $3,274.80, and over a 60-year lifetime, a total of $196,488. Below is a breakdown of average monthly costs for household telecom services:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. worker in the private sector makes $1,216 per week, or an annual income of slightly over $63,200 per year. Based on this data, household connectivity expenses make up 5% of the average American’s total income. 

Compared to last year's report total home connectivity services prices decreased by 3.4%. However, even though weekly earnings are rising and inflation is slowing, this doesn’t equate to decreased cost of goods and services long-term. Over the past decade, home internet and cable TV services have been experiencing a gradual price increase, with only mobile services seeing a decline.

Home internet might not be as pricey as other household utilities like electricity, but it still makes a significant dent in consumer monthly expenses. Our data finds that Americans spend $69.43 per month on their internet plan, totaling to $833.11 a year, and $49,986.65 over a 60-year service lifetime.

The internet connection type makes a significant difference in home internet cost. On average, cable internet providers have the cheapest prices for internet service, whereas satellite internet is the most expensive. DSL, fiber, fixed wireless, and 5G broadband providers are in the middle cost-wise.

Although cable internet has the lowest prices, this doesn’t mean it’s the best deal. Cable providers often sell plans at a promotional price that increases over time, and some packages include additional fees for installation and equipment. Fiber-optic internet comparatively costs more but can end up being a better deal longterm because it doesn’t come with extra fees or price hikes, and internet users tend to get much faster internet speeds from fiber too. 

According to Reviews.org’s survey, consumer internet usage is distributed across the following internet connection types:

• Cable: 32.4%
• Wireless/5G Home: 28.7%
• Fiber (FTTH): 18.5%
• DSL: 5.9%
• Mobile Hotspot: 3%
• Satellite: 2.4%

Of the connection types, fiber and cable across the board offer the fastest internet speeds. The majority of consumers use a cable plan, although 5G home internet is quickly winning favor with consumers, surpassing all cable providers in the non-fiber category in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

According to our findings, Americans are multi-taskers when it comes to connecting online. The average U.S. netizen spends 16 hours and 10 minutes per day on various devices, with most U.S. households having 4.4 devices connected to the home internet at any time. Needless to say, quitting internet entirely is not going to happen for most of us—but it is possible to quit overspending on your internet.

Here’s a quick rundown of ways to save on your internet bill:

• Downgrade your internet plan to a slower speed. You can find internet plans for $50 a month or less for speeds from 100Mbps to 300Mbps—ample bandwidth to support one to five people.
• Switch to a 5G home internet plan for affordable, stable rates that include router rental fees.
• Look for special offers or try bargaining with customer service. Providers are often willing to set you up with a promotional deal if you tell them you’ve found a cheaper deal with another provider.

The average phone plan from Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T–otherwise known as the Big Three–costs $60.96 a month. That adds up to $731.54 a year and $43,892.31 over a lifetime. Interestingly, mobile plan prices have decreased by 7.7% since our previous report.

According to Reviews.org’s Screen Time and Internet Usage study, the average American spends five hours and one minute per day using their mobile phone. While this may seem like a long time, we often conflate phone use with needing unlimited data. In reality, customers only consume 13.6 GB of mobile data per month.

MVNO carriers like Visible, Mint, or Tello have proven to be a quality alternative to the Big Three, offering cheaper plans in exchange for simpler plans, deprioritized coverage, and lower data allotments. Compared to the yearly cost of a mobile plan from the Big Three mobile carriers, an MVNO mobile plan is 36% cheaper, costing just $39 per month on average.

Here are a few other ideas to save money on your mobile bill:

• Sign up for autopay and paperless billing for up to $10 off your monthly bill.
• Get a special discount if you’re a military family or veteran, teacher, first-responder or student.
• Add more lines to your family plan. The more lines you add, the cheaper the cost per line.
• Look for a phone and internet bundle Combining a cell phone plan with internet service can cost you as little as $50 per month altogether.
• Sign up for a prepaid phone plan from Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T.

The popularity of streaming hasn’t quite taken over live TV services, as 40.6% of Americans have a cable TV subscription and 14.3% use satellite TV. Across all the home connectivity services, cable TV is the most expensive. The average cable TV plan costs $89.29 per month, adding up to $1070.24 per year, and $64,214.60 over a lifetime.

Cable TV providers don’t always overlap geographically, but you can save big bucks by researching the cable TV options available in your area.

Budget out how much you can afford to pay each month and figure out what channels and features you want—often certain channels (i.e. CBS, CNN, Disney Channel, ESPN, Fox News) are only available on upper tier packages, so make sure you check that they’re offered. From there you can look for a specific package that meets your needs. And remember that you can also look into streaming TV options like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV.

Here are some other ways to save on cable and satellite TV:

• Talk to customer service about bundle deals with cable TV and internet.
• Bookmark our monthly internet deals round-up, which often features TV and streaming offers.
• Avoid add-ons services that add more expenses to your bill.

According to our survey, the average American spends $42.38 per month on their streaming subscriptions, racking up to $508.56 per year and $30,513.60 over a lifetime.

This cost has decreased by 23% since our previous report, which may come as a surprise given the possibility that you’ve probably signed up for multiple apps to keep up with all the current shows or rewatch your favorite series when it bounces to a new platform. A total 27.8% of Americans report experiencing "streaming fatigue,” defined as that exact feeling of being overwhelmed with the increasing number of streaming apps.

Streaming has become the great American pastime. The average American uses 2.2 streaming services and watches three hours and 49 minutes of streaming services every day.

How can you save? Some 26.5% of Americans share their accounts with others to save on costs. Recent password-sharing crackdowns mean that might soon no longer be an option, so you may be better off downsizing your number of subscriptions and spending more time on free streaming services.

Here are some other ways to save on streaming:

• Prioritize your needs by unsubscribing from platforms you use infrequently.
• Stagger your subscriptions, signing up for a platform temporarily to watch a specific show or movie, and then canceling when you finish.
• Look for free trials, discounts, and limited-time streaming deals from internet and mobile providers like Verizon and AT&T.

As we pointed out above, all it takes is a little resourcefulness to shave down your monthly bills for home connectivity services. Here’s a final breakdown on the best ways to do it:

• You can save up to $50 per month by switching from gigabit internet to a 100Mbps or 300Mbps internet plan.
• You can save up to $22 per month by choosing a low-cost MVNO cell phone plan over an unlimited plan from AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon
• You can save up to $70 per month on cable TV by switching to a lower-cost TV package or bundling your internet service with TV
• You can save up to $15 per month by reducing the number of streaming services you use, opting for an ad-supported subscription, or using free streaming apps like The Roku Channel

To calculate the lifetime cost of being connected, we used the most recent pricing data to determine the average monthly cost of internet, streaming, and cell phone bills.

We determined the average internet price by analyzing monthly internet plan pricing from providers across the United States as of October 2024.

To determine the average monthly cell phone bill, we sourced pricing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We picked Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T wireless carriers because they have the largest market share in wireless services.

Finally, to determine the average monthly cost of streaming, we surveyed 1,000 Americans to determine the median amount the average person spends on streaming services per month. We then used additional data from our survey to determine the most popular streaming services and determined the total monthly cost using standard pricing for each of these services.

We then scaled the average monthly cost of each of these services to determine how much, on average, Americans will spend on these services in a year and throughout their lifetime, assuming constant prices. Life expectancy was sourced from the World Health Organization.

All figures are in U.S. dollars.

Sources