How to Save on OTT Subscriptions: Comparing Telco Discounts in 2026

My card statement showed 17,000 KRW for Netflix, 13,500 KRW for TVING, and even YouTube Premium, totaling over 30,000 KRW every month. After re-examining my plans, I realized the key to reducing OTT costs wasn’t cancellation—it was the payment channel. TVING’s ad-supported plan, which costs 5,500 KRW at list price, drops to 950 KRW per month when processed through LGU+ Yoodok with a VIP discount.

OTT costs leak through payment channels, not just the number of subscriptions

Even for the same service, the cost can vary by several times depending on where you pay.

I was paying list price for Netflix and paying for TVING without any telco bundling.

I was essentially paying full price for services I couldn’t even fully utilize. Since OTT has replaced movie theaters as a primary form of entertainment, this expense has become a fixed monthly cost, much like a phone bill.

Below is a comparison table of OTT subscription fees by service, showing list prices versus alternative payment channels as of September 2026.

Service	List Price (Monthly)	Alternative Payment Channel	Conditions
Netflix Ad-supported + YouTube Premium	21,900 KRW	Yoodok Double Streaming Annual Pass 18,900 KRW, VIP 14,900 KRW	12-month commitment
TVING Ad-supported Standard	5,500 KRW	Yoodok 4,950 KRW, VIP 950 KRW	U+ VIP or higher
TVING Standard	13,500 KRW	Yoodok 12,825 KRW, VIP 8,825 KRW	U+ VIP or higher
Disney+ Standard	9,900 KRW	Annual Pass 99,000 KRW	1-year prepayment
1 of Netflix/Disney+/YouTube Premium	Service List Price	Included in KT 5G Choice Plans	Plans over 90,000 KRW/mo

The table makes the direction clear. The biggest discounts come from telcos, but they come with strings attached. To understand these conditions, we must first look at why each OTT service has its current price tag.

Netflix plans: Why only the ad-supported tier went up

As of September 2026, Netflix has three plans: Ad-supported (7,000 KRW), Standard (13,500 KRW), and Premium (17,000 KRW). The ad-supported plan rose from 5,500 KRW to 7,000 KRW in May 2025, while Standard and Premium remained unchanged. The video quality for Ad-supported and Standard is the same Full HD, while 4K and spatial audio are exclusive to the Premium plan.

For most users, the crackdown on account sharing felt more significant than the price hike.

The ‘party play’ where four friends split a Premium account for around 4,000 KRW each is now blocked. Adding someone from a different household costs an extra 5,000 KRW per person. If three people share, the 17,000 KRW base fee plus 10,000 KRW for two additional members totals 27,000 KRW, or 9,000 KRW per person.

They raised the price of the cheapest plan and forced shared accounts into individual payments.

Though these two moves seem disconnected, they aim for the same thing: In a saturated market, it’s faster to increase the revenue per existing user than to acquire new ones.

Those who choose the ad-supported plan are naturally the most price-sensitive, which means Netflix calculated that these users wouldn’t leave even with a price hike. From the viewer’s perspective, finding ways to watch cheaper within Netflix is becoming harder, making external channels more important.

Still, the power of their content remains. With originals like ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 and ‘Sweet Home’ Season 3, plus the success of ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters,’ “event viewing”—subscribing just to watch a specific show—still works. The fact that recommendation algorithms and the ‘continue watching’ feature are optimized for binge-watching also plays a huge role.

Disney+ and TVING: Separate paths to cheaper subscriptions

For Disney+, annual passes are the way to go; for TVING, ad-supported and bundled products are the cheapest routes.

Disney+ maintains its Standard (9,900 KRW) and Premium (13,900 KRW) plans. Paying for a full year upfront costs 99,000 KRW and 139,000 KRW respectively, about 16% cheaper. Standard offers Full HD and 2 concurrent streams, while Premium offers 4K UHD and 4 concurrent streams, so Standard is plenty if you watch alone.

For Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar fans, it remains an essential service.

Early on, critics said, “There’s nothing to watch besides Marvel,” but since ‘Moving,’ they have consistently released K-originals like ‘Trigger’ and ‘Hyper Knife.’ It also features parental controls and GroupWatch for watching with friends living far away.

TVING is a platform that combines tvN/JTBC dramas and variety shows with exclusive KBO (baseball) broadcasts.

Their pricing is the most complex in Korea. There are four tiers: Ad-supported Standard (5,500 KRW), Basic (9,500 KRW), Standard (13,500 KRW), and Premium (17,000 KRW). The ad-supported standard is the cheapest and provides 1080p, while the 9,500 KRW Basic plan is stuck at 720p. It’s a reversal where enduring ads gets you a cheaper, clearer picture.

With baseball added to the mix, TVING usage habits have changed.

It’s no longer just for “event viewing” when a big show drops; it has become a daily habit throughout the season. Aside from complaints about the app being heavy, they continue to invest in live features like multi-view and timelines.

The merger of TVING and Wavve has been stuck for three years since the MOU in late 2023.

Even though the Fair Trade Commission granted conditional approval, the second-largest shareholder, KT, is delaying final consent. Instead, bundled products arrived first. The ‘Double Pass’ launched in June 2025 allowed using two services under one subscription, which was up to 39% cheaper than subscribing separately at the time of launch. Now, TVING/Disney+ bundles are also available. However, there is talk in the industry about possible price hikes after the merger, so there is no guarantee these bundle prices will last.

Three major telcos: Playing different games with OTT discounts

All three telcos use the term “OTT discount,” but they target different customers. You need to know the differences to find what fits you.

SKT’s T Universe is more of an ecosystem than just a discount.

It uses OTT as bait to bundle benefits like 11st, CU, and Google One into a single product, and has expanded its lineup to include products that directly bundle Netflix, like ‘Universe Pass Netflix,’ along with TVING/Wavve bundles. Once the idea that “if I cancel this, all other benefits disappear” takes root in a subscriber’s mind, the cancel button stays far away. The goal is lock-in.

KT’s ‘Choice’ is much simpler. If you use a 5G Choice plan of 90,000 KRW or more per month, you can choose one from Netflix, Disney+, or YouTube Premium. It’s a strategy to retain high-value customers with high ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) by giving them a choice.

LGU+ Yoodok allows you to mix and match whatever subscriptions you want regardless of your mobile plan, and it competes on price alone. If SKT casts a wide net and KT caters to big spenders, LGU+ targets those who crunch the numbers.

Lowest price telco discount: How TVING becomes 950 KRW on LGU+ Yoodok

Where the actual numbers drop the lowest is LGU+ Yoodok. Basic discounts are only around 5~10% per service, so that alone isn’t huge. What changes the game is the 4,000 KRW monthly discount provided to U+ VIP/VVIP members. It’s a fixed-amount discount, not a percentage, so the cheaper the original price, the higher the discount rate.

TVING’s Ad-supported Standard is the extreme example.

It becomes 4,950 KRW after a 10% discount on Yoodok, and subtracting the 4,000 KRW VIP discount makes it 950 KRW per month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee. If you apply the same coupon to TVING Standard (12,825 KRW on Yoodok), it drops to 8,825 KRW; the discount amount is the same, but the percentage is much smaller.

Netflix is accessed via the Double Streaming Annual Pass.

Bundling YouTube Premium and Netflix Ad-supported costs 18,900 KRW per month, or 14,900 KRW after the VIP discount. The VIP discount is based on U+ mobile plans of 75,000 KRW or higher, and this product is a 12-month commitment, so canceling early incurs a penalty.

OTT subscription strategy based on viewing habits

I calculated this based on three representative types.

For those focused on baseball and dramas, Yoodok’s TVING is the answer. If you can tolerate ads, the ad-supported plan is 950 KRW per month. If you dislike ads, you can get the Standard plan for 8,825 KRW per month with the VIP discount, totaling 105,900 KRW per year. This is nearly 40,000 KRW cheaper than the 145,800 KRW TVING Standard annual pass. If you also need Wavve’s terrestrial content, it’s worth comparing with the Double Pass.

For those who watch new global releases first, many use Netflix and YouTube Premium together. In this case, you should look at the Netflix tier options for the Double Streaming Annual Pass. The base 18,900 KRW is for the ad-supported tier. To upgrade to Premium, it costs an extra 8,000 KRW, totaling 26,900 KRW, or 22,900 KRW with the VIP discount. This is 9,000 KRW cheaper per month than paying 31,900 KRW for Netflix Premium (17,000 KRW) and YouTube Premium (14,900 KRW) separately. However, you are locked in for a year.

For households that watch Netflix, Disney+, and TVING, it’s better not to bundle them all into one path. The VIP discount is limited to 4,000 KRW once a month, so putting all three in Yoodok doesn’t multiply the effect. It is mathematically better to choose the cheapest path for each service separately, like an annual pass for Disney+, Yoodok and VIP discount for TVING, and Double Streaming or KT Choice for Netflix.

Four things to check before bundling telco discounts

First, check the contract terms.

Products tied to a 1-year commitment, like the Double Streaming Annual Pass, incur penalties if canceled early. If you frequently switch subscriptions, month-to-month plans without commitments are better.

Don’t be tempted by bundled benefits. Unused benefits are worth 0 KRW, and if that 0 KRW benefit makes you hesitate to cancel, you’re actually losing money. Also, keep in mind that subscriptions through telcos are one step more cumbersome to cancel or change than individual subscriptions.

Finally, prices change constantly.

Netflix’s ad-supported plan rose after three and a half years, and telco coupon/bundling conditions change frequently due to promotion ends or restructuring. The numbers in this article are as of September 2026, so it’s safest to check the official app or page again right before signing up.

Re-opening the OTT subscription statement

When I first saw my statement, I just wanted to cancel everything. After picking it apart, I realized the problem wasn’t the number of subscriptions. It was just that the services I use and my payment channels were out of sync.

If you want to switch freely, go for individual OTT annual subscriptions; if you’re a high-plan user who doesn’t want to worry about it, choose SKT T Universe or KT Choice; and if you’re a U+ VIP trying to save even a single won, go with Yoodok.

Either way, just matching the services you actually use frequently with what you pay for them will save you thousands of won every month.