How much streaming can you get on a $39 monthly budget?

Finder research has uncovered the average monthly spend on streaming and here are 5 ways to utilise it.

A recent Finder survey has uncovered what the average monthly spend on streaming services is in Australia, and we're here to help you budget that amount.

According to a Finder September survey of 1,062 Australians as part of the Consumer Sentiment Tracker, the average spend on streaming services is $39 a month.

There are so many different ways you can spend a $39 monthly budget on streaming, so we'll try to assist you with a few options.

For the purposes of this article, we're going to be looking at the cheapest option for a streaming service in our calculations, even if it has different tiers available.

Here are some ways you can get more bang for your 39 bucks.

The popular way to spend a $39 monthly budget on streaming

Most surveys out there, including a previous one from Finder, have found that Netflix is the most common streaming service that Australians have.

So if we take that into account, we can assume at least some of that $39 is heading Netflix's way.

If you subscribe to Netflix's current cheapest plan, it's $10.99 a month out of the average monthly streaming budget, so that leaves you $28.01 to spend elsewhere.

The general consensus is then that Prime Video, Disney Plus and Stan are the other top streaming providers in Australia.

If you combine those 3 with Netflix, you come in at a total of $39.97 a month.

Yes it's only about $1 over, but we're sticklers for keeping to a budget, so you'd have to exclude one of those services.

We'd suggest making your final choice on which shows you'd like to watch.

If you like, for example, Star Wars or Marvel shows, lock in Disney Plus.

Into The Rings of Power or The Boys maybe? Then it's Prime Video for you.

Or if Better Call Saul or Yellowstone are more your style, sign up for Stan then.

We'd suggest checking for your favourite shows on the full list of Prime Video's TV shows, every series on Stan or all the titles available on Disney Plus to see which combination would work best for you.

Fun fact – if you ditch Netflix and add in BINGE instead, you could still get a combination of 4 of the most popular streaming services for $38.98 a month, squeaking in under budget.

It would just depend if you think you can do without viewing such zeitgeist shows as Stranger Things or Squid Game.

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How to spend $39 a month if you want value for money

If you want to base your choice purely by the numbers, you could spend your $39 budget based on the streaming services that have the most amount of titles.

Taking a purely numbers-based approach and working off that, the first service you'd subscribe to is Prime Video, which at the time of writing had 11,296 movies and TV shows in its library.

At $6.99 a month, that still leaves you $32.01 a month to spend.

If you want to further subscribe to services that have the most titles, then your next choice is Netflix (6,809 titles) at $10.99 a month and Disney Plus (3,281) at $11.99 a month, leaving you $9.03 a month to spend.

The next service with the most titles is Stan, but at $10 a month, that means you won't be able to stay under the $39 streaming budget.

To officially stay under budget, you could add Paramount Plus to that for a further 997 titles at $8.99 a month.

That means all up for $38.96 a month you can get 22,383 movies and TV shows, which amounts to 1.74 cents per title.

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How to spend $39 a month if you love sport

While there are plenty of entertainment options mentioned above, if you only want sport, there are a few options to look at.

But it depends on which sports you love as to which services you should get.

Kayo Sports has over 50 sports on offer and the wide selection includes NRL, AFL, cricket, motorsports such as F1 and MotoGP, plus popular American leagues like the NBA and NFL.

Kayo costs a minimum of $25 a month.

You can subscribe to Optus Sport for $24.99 a month if you're a football fan, as it has competitions like the English Premier League and La Liga.

Taking up a subscription with Stan Sport is perfect if you follow rugby union or the grand slam tennis events, alongside Indycar and the UEFA Champions League.

Stan Sport is $10 a month, but you can only have it as an add-on to an existing Stan subscription, so you'll be paying a minimum of $20 a month to access it.

Meanwhile beIN SPORTS CONNECT features general sports like ATP and WTA tennis events, some international football leagues such as Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1 and more for $19.99 a month.

For boxing fans, DAZN is a wise investment for $13.99 a month.

While not specifically sports streaming services, some providers have sports content, such as Paramount Plus featuring the A-League.

Foxtel Now does offer sport, but you have to bundle it with an entertainment pack and that costs $54 a month, so is above the average streaming spend and isn't considered here.

Some specialty streaming services focus on a single sport, so you can factor those in as well.

FITE Plus offers events from boxing, MMA, pro wrestling and other combat sports for $4.99 a month. UFC Fight Pass is $10.99 a month, NBA League Pass is $21.99 a month. AEW Plus and Impact Plus both focus on wrestling and are $6.99 and $7.99 a month, respectively.

So if you're really into wrestling and MMA, you could combine FITE Plus, UFC Fight Pass, AWE Plus and Impact Plus all for $30.96 a month.

The only major sports streaming service you could combine with another and still come in under $39 a month is DAZN.

DAZN and Kayo will set you back $38.99 a month, while Stan Sport and DAZN comes in at $33.99 a month.

If you wanted to cover all your English football needs, you're out of luck, as it will cost at least $73 a month to view all the competitions that Premier League teams take part in.

You will have to make a Sophie's Choice to come in under $39 a month as you can combine Paramount Plus for the FA Cup and your choice of only 1 other service depending on what you want to view: Optus Sport (combined total $33.98 a month), Kayo ($33.99), Stan Sport ($28.99) or beIN SPORTS CONNECT ($28.98).

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Spending a $39 monthly streaming budget if you have niche interests

While you can obviously subscribe to popular services and probably have all your bases covered regarding shows you'd like, maybe you're just into a certain style of programming.

If that's the case, you can focus your streaming budget on those loves.

For example, if you love British TV shows, you would be quite happy with BritBox and Acorn TV.

Combining those 2 is $15.98 a month.

Love anime? You'd love Crunchyroll then, which is $10.99 a month.

If you like to scare yourself silly, then a subscription to horror-focused streaming service Shudder is $6.99 a month.

And look, if you somehow happen to be into British shows, horror and anime at the same time, then, happy days, the above combination will come in under budget at $33.96 a month.

Now this being Finder, of course we can find you a cheaper way of that random combination, as subscribing to AMC Plus gets you access to both Shudder and Acorn TV for only $8.99 a month.

So that means the above mix would come in at $28.97 a month, leaving you $10.03 a month to spend elsewhere.

Maybe documentaries are your thing, which means by combining say Doc Play and Curiosity Stream, that's $19.74 a month.

If you're a news junkie, add Flash for $8 a month.

As there are many different niches services, you'd have to see which ones appeal to you to find your perfect combination.

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Stretching a $39 monthly streaming budget with a family

Finding the right streaming services when you have a family can be difficult, especially as there will be broad interests across multiple people.

If you want to prioritise which streaming services to get based on which has the most kids' or family titles, we've got you.

As you can see in the table, Disney Plus has the most titles listed as kids'/family on its service, so lock that in for $11.99 a month.

With Netflix number 2 on the list, that adds another $10.99 a month to the budget.

At $10 a month, you could also afford to subscribe to BINGE, which then brings your total monthly streaming spend so far to $32.98.

Unfortunately, that's as far as you'll get now with those major providers without going over $39 a month, but with those 3 services offering a combined total of 2,516 kids'/family titles at the time of writing, we reckon you'll be able to find something to watch.

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Spend your $39 monthly streaming budget however you damn well like!

While we've given you a few options above, we've listed a heap of streaming subscriptions below, so you can come up with your own combination of how to mix and match your way to $39.

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