Don’t Quit These Streaming Services Just Yet in January 2025

It’s a new year, and it marks a new round of streaming service commitments and cancellations. January features a good run of titles and live sports, with the debut of WWE Raw on Netflix, winter anime, an Abbott Elementary/Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover and shows like Severance, Marvel’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, The Traitors, The Night Agent and Harley Quinn arriving. And anime fans, don’t forget Solo Leveling season 2 hits Crunchyroll on Jan. 4. I hope you signed up for streaming discounts this holiday season. 

How’s your streaming budget looking so far? If things are kind of tight and you want to start of 2025 with an audit, I’d like to share my strategy for keeping streaming TV expenses low: Churn like ice cream, aka rotate. 

It’s fairly straightforward. You subscribe for a time, cancel, switch to another service and then resubscribe, keeping your favorites in a rotation. Rotating streaming services can mix things up and help you save money when Netflix, Disney Plus, Max and others don’t have the content you want to watch at a given time. Just remember to shut off auto-renewal for your monthly subscriptions. This method may not fly if you’re sharing your streaming accounts, but if you can work it out, try it. 

Here are my suggestions for which services to keep or drop in January, based on new shows, live events and movies (I didn’t consider live TV streaming services) coming to each platform. Your tastes may be different, but if nothing else, I urge you to at least consider the concept of rotating for savings. It’s easier than you might think. 

Read more: Streaming Services Keep Transforming to Earn Your Attention. We Expect 3 Areas to Grow in 2025

You should keep these streamers in January 

Hulu: Do not cancel Hulu if you just signed up for its Black Friday deal; there’s always something to watch. Abbott Elementary returns to ABC on Jan. 8 (on Hulu Jan. 9) and Paradise, a new series starring Sterling K. Brown, premieres Jan. 28. There’s also Goosebumps: The Vanishing (Jan. 10), The Silent Hour (Jan. 12) and Arcadian, a feature film with Nic Cage (Jan. 24).

Apple TV Plus: Severance is the main reason to have an active Apple TV Plus subscription this month. Season 2 drops Jan. 17, and then Mythic Quest fans can tune in for season 4 on Jan. 29. Skip this service and save a few bucks if you’re not into either show.

Netflix: Beyond the return of The Night Agent, Netflix is rolling out WWE Raw live, fresh anime drops and a new film starring Jamie Foxx. Keep your subscription for those titles and more:

• Harlan Coben’s Missing You (Jan. 1)
• Selling the City (Jan. 3)
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Jan. 3)
• WWE Raw (Jan. 6)
• My Happy Marriage season 2 (Jan. 6)
• Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action (Jan. 7)
• American Primeval (Jan. 9)
• The Upshaws, part 6 (Jan. 9)
• Sakamoto Days (Jan. 11)
• Castlevania: Nocturne season 2 (Jan. 16)
• XO, Kitty season 2 (Jan. 16)
• Back in Action – film with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz (Jan. 17)
• The Night Agent season 2 (Jan. 23)
• The Recruit season 2 (Jan. 30)
• Mo season 2 (Jan. 30)

Max: Don’t miss Harley Quinn season 5’s debut on Jan. 16. You can finally binge Dune: Prophecy, or dive in to Max for Superman & Lois season 4, A24’s The Front Room (Jan. 3), The Pitt season 1 premiere (Jan. 9) or A Different Man (Jan. 17). NBA games are streaming here, too. 

Disney Plus: The Star Wars: Skeleton Crew finale streams on Jan. 14, but the two other series to catch this month on Disney Plus are Goosebumps: The Vanishing (Jan. 10) and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Jan. 29).

Peacock: Peacock is a keeper if you grabbed its Black Friday deal, but if you’re wondering what’s on this month, here’s what’s coming: 

• Live sports  
• Bravo’s Real Housewives of Salt Lake City finale (Jan. 16) and Below Deck: Sailing Yacht finale (Jan. 28)
• Lockerbie: A Search For Truth (Jan. 2)
• The Traitors, season 3 (Jan. 9)
• Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy (Jan. 14)
• Love Island All Stars, season 2 (Jan. 15)
• Here Come The Irish (Jan. 16)

Prime Video: You can watch Thursday Night Football, or check out these upcoming releases: The Rig season 2 (Jan. 2), Unstoppable (Jan. 16); Harlem, season 3 (Jan. 23) and Blink Twice (Jan. 24).

Paramount Plus: Keep streaming Dexter: Original Sin with a premium subscription for Paramount Plus with Showtime. After the Landman finale drops Jan. 12, you may want to cancel this service unless you’re watching Dexter, live sports, Henry Danger: The Movie (Jan. 17), Star Trek: Section 31 (Jan. 24) or Watson (Jan. 26).

Time to cancel this streaming service

Starz: The Outlander finale arrives on Jan. 17, so you can cancel Starz after this or if you’ve been waiting for all the episodes, use January as a time to binge it.

Being patient saves money on streaming

Rotating to wait things out is a smart move when it comes to streaming your favorite shows. If you’re not someone who gets FOMO, hold off until most or all episodes are up on a streaming service. Instead of shelling out for a subscription for several months just to catch a show that runs for six or 10 weeks, you can binge-watch everything in one month and then rinse and repeat. This strategy is perfect if you enjoy binge-watching.

For example, this month is great to watch all the latest episodes of Landman, Outlander, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Silo. Series like Harley Quinn season 5 and Severance will stream into March, while Dexter: Original Sin’s 10 episodes will air through the winter of 2025. If you wait, you can save money on Apple TV Plus, Max and Paramount Plus. Catch a series a month or so later in the season, or wait to binge it all in later months. 

Think about how much you’re paying per month for every streaming service you have, and do the math. Netflix is $7 to $23 (plus extra member fees), and Paramount Plus starts at $8. Apple TV Plus is $10. Disney Plus is anywhere from $10 to $27, depending on bundles. Max costs $10 to $21, Hulu is $10 a month, Starz runs $11 now and Peacock has a base rate of $8 monthly. Should you decide to rotate, set a calendar reminder to alert you when it’s time to resubscribe or cancel. 

See you in February for another streaming service rundown.