Verify any claim · lenz.io
Claim analyzed
Finance“The average American household spends more per month on cable TV and streaming subscriptions combined than on groceries.”
The conclusion
This claim is false. BLS-based data consistently shows the average American household spends roughly $504–$519 per month on groceries. Combined cable TV and streaming costs top out at approximately $153–$278 per month — less than half the grocery bill. The higher "media spending" figures sometimes cited (~$280/month) include internet and mobile services, not just cable and streaming. Even using the most generous estimates, cable plus streaming doesn't come close to matching grocery expenditures for the average household.
Caveats
- Higher 'media spending' figures (~$280/month) often bundle internet and mobile services — isolating cable TV and streaming yields significantly lower totals.
- Only about 51% of U.S. households subscribe to cable TV, so per-subscriber cable costs overstate the true average across all households.
- Some cited subscription spending figures include all subscription types (meal kits, software, etc.), not just cable and streaming services.
Sources
Sources used in the analysis
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) program provides data on expenditures, income, and demographic characteristics of consumers in the United States. CE data are primarily used to revise the relative importance of goods and services in the market basket of the Consumer Price Index. The CE surveys collect data that fall into one of the following major expenditure categories: Alcoholic beverages, Apparel and services, Cash contributions, Education, Entertainment, Food.
In 2025, U.S. households are facing higher food prices, with the typical family now spending around $504 per month — about a 2.7% increase from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2025, U.S. consumers spent an average of $3,350 per year ($278.50 per month) to stay connected, a 2% increase year over year, driven largely by higher streaming and TV costs. ... Meanwhile, cable TV costs surged 14% to $101 per month, making traditional cable and satellite TV the most expensive media category. ... Streaming: $52/month (up from $42 in 2024).
After analyzing service prices from major providers and self-reported survey data, we found that the average American spends nearly $280 per month for internet, mobile, cable TV, and streaming services. ... The average cost of streaming is $51.71 per month, $620.51 per year, and $37,230.43 in a 60-year lifetime. ... TV, $101.11, $1,213.32, $72,799.20.
Parks' new “S.O.S. State of Streaming” report, to be released later this month at its eighth annual Future of Video: Business of Streaming conference, also shows that consumers take an average of nearly six video subscriptions and spend about $109 per month.
According to FMI, the average weekly grocery spend is now $170 – which is up significantly from 2020 when the average household spent $120 on groceries per week.
The average monthly cost of a cable TV subscription in the US is $83.
Average streaming bills cost a fifth as much as cable TV. ... Streaming consumers typically spend $20–$60 per month, or roughly $30 per household. Compare that to cable TV packages at $147 per month.
Cable Compare data shows cable customers in 2025 pay an average of $147 per month, with some paying over $200 monthly for premium packages. Meanwhile, households with multiple streaming subscriptions typically pay $70 or less per month total.
According to a CNET survey of 2,440 U.S. adults (2024), the average American spends $91 per month on subscription services. That's $1,092 per year — more than many people spend on groceries in two months. 1 in 4 Americans spend over $100/month on streaming alone.
The average American household spends $6,224 a year on groceries, according to the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (2024). That's $519 a month.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average household spends about $831 USD per month on food, which works out to about $9,970 USD per year. But this figure changes quite significantly depending on various factors, such as household size.
The average cable TV plan currently costs around $110, which can be hard on many budgets. But streaming services are getting pretty expensive, too. ... Meanwhile, subscribing to our top ten favorite on-demand streaming services will cost you around $87.90–$130.89 per month, depending on your tolerance for ads.
Through a statistical analysis of actual household consumer payments across 97% of U.S. zip codes, the doxoINSIGHTS “Cable & Internet Market Size and Household Spend Report for 2025” found 73% of U.S. households pay a cable and internet bill, spending a median amount of $121 per month, or $1,452 per year.
A third of U.S. streamers (34%) say they have cut back on other household expenses specifically to keep paying for their streaming subscriptions. As inflation continues to squeeze household budgets, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans with streaming subscriptions say they can't afford all the services they want, while more than half (55%) admit their streaming bills are higher than they'd like.
Among those who expect their finances to worsen, 66% say they will cut back on eating or drinking out, compared with 50% of those who expect their finances to improve. Those anticipating a downturn are also more likely to plan reductions in clothing (54% vs. 30%), everyday conveniences such as coffee or taxis (48% vs. 33%), subscriptions (48% vs. 31%), events and days out (48% vs. 21%) and holidays (46% vs. 20%). Even in more essential categories, differences are evident. A third (33%) of those expecting their finances to worsen plan to cut back on groceries, compared with 18%.
Shoppers plan to spend more on groceries, healthcare, and utilities, while cutting back on out-of-home dining, entertainment, and apparel. ... 39% of consumers say they are spending more on groceries today than a year ago.
Expert review
How each expert evaluated the evidence and arguments
The evidence that is actually scoped to cable+streaming spending places streaming around ~$52–$109/month (Sources 3, 5) and cable around ~$83–$147/month (Sources 7–9), implying a combined average roughly ~$135–$256/month, while grocery/at-home food estimates cited cluster around ~$504–$519/month (Sources 2, 11) and even an alternative weekly-grocery figure implies ~>$700/month (Source 6), so the claim that cable+streaming exceeds groceries does not follow. The proponent's case relies on scope mismatches (using “all subscriptions” and/or bundles including internet/mobile) and ceiling/segment language to argue an “average household” proposition, so the claim is false on the presented numbers and on the logic connecting them.
The claim requires that cable TV + streaming combined exceed monthly grocery spending for the average American household. The evidence consistently shows grocery spending at ~$504–$519/month (Sources 2, 11, BLS-based), while the best estimates for cable+streaming combined land at roughly $153–$278/month: streaming at ~$52–$109/month (Sources 3, 4, 5) and cable at ~$83–$147/month (Sources 7, 8, 9), yielding a combined range well below grocery spend. The claim omits critical context: (1) the ~$280/month "media spending" figure in Sources 3 and 4 bundles internet and mobile services, not just cable+streaming; (2) only ~51% of Americans still subscribe to cable (Source 13), so a true "average household" cable figure must be weighted down significantly; (3) even the highest plausible combined cable+streaming ceiling (~$278/month) falls far short of the ~$504–$519/month grocery baseline. The claim creates a fundamentally false impression that is not rescued by any reasonable interpretation of the evidence.
The most authoritative sources here are Source 1 (St. Louis Fed, 0.9) and Sources 2 and 11 (PocketGuard and MealThinker, both citing BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data), which place average household grocery spending at approximately $504–$519/month. On the cable+streaming side, the most credible independent data comes from Source 3 (EIN Presswire, 0.75) and Source 4 (Reviews.org, 0.75), which report cable at ~$101/month and streaming at ~$52/month — a combined total of roughly $153/month — well below the grocery benchmark; even the highest plausible combined cable+streaming figure (~$278/month from Sources 8 and 13) falls far short of the $504–$519/month grocery spend. The claim is clearly false: no reliable, independent source confirms that the average American household spends more on cable TV and streaming combined than on groceries, and the most trustworthy evidence consistently shows groceries costing roughly 2–3x the combined cable+streaming bill.
Expert summary
What do you think of the claim?
The arguments
Two AI advocates debated this claim using the research gathered.
Source 10 (JustCancel.io) cites a CNET survey of 2,440 U.S. adults showing the average American spends $91/month on subscriptions with 1 in 4 spending over $100/month on streaming alone, and when combined with cable TV costs of $101–$147/month (Sources 3, 4, 9), the total cable-plus-streaming figure of $153–$248/month can plausibly exceed the $504/month grocery figure only under narrow interpretations — but Source 8 (CableTV.com) reports cable at $147/month and streaming at up to $130.89/month (Source 13), yielding a combined ceiling of ~$278/month, which, when measured against Source 12 (Remitly/BLS) reporting $831/month total food spending (of which at-home groceries are a subset), suggests that for households counting only at-home grocery spending, the combined cable-and-streaming bill could rival or exceed that narrower grocery-only figure, particularly given that Source 6 (FoodNavigator-USA) pegs weekly grocery spend at $170 (~$737/month), still above the media total, yet Source 10 explicitly states subscription spending exceeds "what many people spend on groceries in two months," implying a meaningful segment of Americans do spend more on subscriptions than groceries.
You're trying to win an “average household” claim by leaning on a CNET-based “subscriptions” figure that isn't limited to cable+streaming and isn't even framed as a household average (Source 10), then you compound that mismatch by mixing in cable/streaming numbers from entirely different methodologies (Sources 3, 4, 9) to manufacture a total that still doesn't approach the grocery benchmarks in the brief. And your pivot to “narrower interpretations” is a classic bait-and-switch: the motion says groceries, while the most directly cited grocery estimates cluster around ~$504–$519/month (Sources 2, 11) and even the higher weekly-grocery figure you cite (~$737/month) (Source 6) moves the goalposts further away from your own ~$278/month ceiling (Sources 8, 13), not closer.
The motion collapses because credible grocery estimates cluster around ~$504–$519 per month (PocketGuard citing BLS, Source 2; MealThinker citing BLS CE, Source 11), while cable+streaming totals in the brief are far lower—about $109/month for streaming (Source 5) and roughly $83–$147/month for cable (Sources 7–9), yielding ~$192–$256, not more than groceries. Even the higher media-spend figures cited are either not limited to “cable TV and streaming” (they bundle internet/mobile in ~$280, Source 4) or explicitly cap streaming at ~$70 (Source 9), so the evidence provided contradicts the claim rather than supports it.
Your $192–$256 combined figure is fatally undermined by your own selective sourcing — you lean on Source 9's streaming cap of "$70 or less" while ignoring that Source 13 (CableTV.com) explicitly prices the top ten streaming services at $87.90–$130.89/month and Source 8 prices cable at $147/month, pushing the combined ceiling to ~$278/month, which is not the figure you presented. More critically, you commit a false precision fallacy by anchoring grocery spend at $504–$519/month while dismissing Source 12 (Remitly/BLS), which reports $831/month in total food spending — and since the claim hinges on "groceries," not total food, you have not established what the correct grocery-only baseline is, leaving your refutation built on a contested denominator.