Starz Price Hike Hits June 8: Keep It, Drop AMC+, or Cancel Both?

Quick Answer: Starz rises to $11.99 on June 8, 2026. AMC+ already moved to $10.99 back in March. If you finished Outlander in mid-May, this is the cleanest moment in years to pause Starz. AMC+ is the harder call because some major AMC shows have already moved to Netflix after their AMC+ window. The decision splits cleanly by what you’re actually watching this summer, not what you might watch in fall.

The notice arrives the way these notices always do, buried between a verification code and a shipping notification: your monthly Starz bill is going up to $11.99 starting on or after June 8, 2026. AMC+ subscribers got their version of this email months ago; their bill quietly moved from $9.99 to $10.99 back in March. Two dollars combined. Not enough to start a fight with your spouse over. Just enough to make you open a tab, ask one question, and never close it.

Here’s what most coverage of these two hikes skips. The timing isn’t generic inflation. The pattern is hard to miss: prices climb in the exact window the biggest reasons to subscribe are wrapping up. Outlander aired its final episode on Starz on May 15, 2026. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was confirmed to end with its fourth season on AMC. For subscribers who came in for those shows, the renewal price gets harder to justify just as the reason to renew is ending.

So the question isn’t whether the hike is fair. It’s whether you’re still getting $11 or $12 of monthly value, or paying for inertia.

What’s changing, and what already changed

Service	New monthly	Old monthly	Effective date	Cheapest option
Starz	$11.99	$10.99	June 8, 2026	$69.99/yr ($5.83/mo effective)
AMC+	$10.99	$9.99	March 13, 2026 (already in effect)	$7.99/mo with ads

For both services, the change applies to existing subscribers, not just new ones. AMC+ moved first. New members started seeing $10.99 on February 11, and existing subscribers were charged the new rate on their first renewal on or after March 13. Starz is the second wave, with existing subscribers seeing $11.99 on their first bill on or after June 8. If you subscribe through Amazon Prime Video Channels, Roku, Apple TV, or another billing partner, check that provider’s renewal page. Distributor billing can show a different notice, promo, or renewal date than the direct service page.

Two details easy to miss. First, Starz’s annual plan stays at $69.99 as of late May 2026, which works out to roughly $5.83 a month, half the new monthly rate. Second, AMC+ kept a $7.99 ad-supported tier when it restructured pricing in February, and that tier is the quietest downgrade option in this entire conversation.

Starz at $11.99: who’s still getting their money’s worth

Starz lives or dies on a small number of franchises. Outlander, which ended its eighth and final season on May 15, is the obvious one. The Power universe is the other, with Power Book III: Raising Kanan returning for its fifth and final season on June 12, 2026, four days after the new Starz price kicks in. If those are the shows holding your subscription together, the math hasn’t actually shifted much. You’d have paid roughly the same for one premium cable channel back in 2015.

It does shift if you signed up for Outlander and nothing else. The series is over. Outlander: Blood of My Blood season two doesn’t return until fall 2026, which means there’s a four to five month stretch where Starz is asking $11.99 a month for a library you may have already finished. The cleanest move there is the $69.99 annual plan if you’re sure you’ll come back, the cancel-and-resubscribe move if you’re not.

The honest test: open your viewing history. If the last thing you watched on Starz was more than 30 days ago and you don’t have a specific show waiting for you in the next 60 days, you’re paying for the option, not the service. The catalog of older movies is decent, but $144 a year is steep when free services and your library’s Kanopy access can fill part of that role.

AMC+ at $10.99: the Netflix question changes the math

The AMC+ decision has one extra wrinkle: Netflix. AMC Networks has an active content deal with Netflix. Interview with the Vampire season 2, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2, The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches season 2, and Dark Winds season 3 have already moved to Netflix. AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan confirmed in February 2026 that renewal talks for the broader Walking Dead streaming rights were underway.

Translation: if you mainly subscribe to AMC+ for the Walking Dead universe or the Anne Rice shows, AMC+ is the place where the newest seasons land first. Some major AMC titles have moved to Netflix after their AMC+ window, which changes the value calculation if you already pay for Netflix and are comfortable waiting roughly a year. The exception is anything actively airing right now. Daryl Dixon’s fourth and final season has been confirmed but not yet dated, and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat (the third season of Interview with the Vampire) premieres on AMC and AMC+ on June 7, 2026.

The other piece of AMC+ that does not move to Netflix is the genre catalog. Shudder horror titles, IFC Films arthouse, and Sundance Now international dramas all live inside the AMC+ bundle. If those are the reason you subscribed in the first place, AMC+ can still be cheaper and cleaner than paying separately for multiple niche services like Shudder and Sundance Now. If they were just nice extras you never opened, you have your answer.

If you have both: three moves before your next renewal

The combined bill once Starz crosses over on June 8 lands at $22.98 a month, or roughly $276 a year before tax. Households that pay both bills typically picked the services up months apart for different shows, then forgot to close the loop. There are three reasonable moves from here.

1. Cancel the one whose next release date is furthest away. If you finished Outlander in mid-May and your Walking Dead Universe show is mid-season, AMC+ wins. If you’re waiting on Power: Origins or the next Spartacus continuation and AMC+ is between drops, the order flips. The trigger isn’t loyalty, it’s the gap to the next thing you actually want to watch.

2. Move both to ad-supported or annual. AMC+ has a $7.99 with-ads tier that cuts the current price by $3 a month, or $36 a year. Starz doesn’t offer an ad tier but its annual plan at $69.99 works out to $5.83 a month, cheaper than the new monthly rate by $74 a year. If you’re keeping both, this combination saves more than $100 a year before you change a thing about how you watch. For a broader version of this same logic across your full lineup, see our guide to what to keep, pause, or cancel each month.

3. Rotate, don’t stack. Subscribe to one for two months, binge what’s released, cancel, and pick up the other. This works best when the release calendars don’t overlap, which (with Power Book III premiering June 12 and Daryl Dixon season 4 still undated as of late May) is the case right now. The savings come not from one big move but from rarely paying both bills in the same month.

Not sure which subscriptions still earn their spot? The 10-minute check sorts what to keep, pause, switch, or cancel before your next renewal.

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Your situation, mapped to the best move

If the three-move framework above sounds abstract, here’s how it plays out for the most common viewing situations heading into June.

Your situation	Best move	Why
Just finished Outlander, no other Starz show queued	Cancel Starz before June 8	Blood of My Blood season 2 isn’t back until fall; reactivate then
Waiting on Power Book III: Raising Kanan (June 12)	Keep Starz for one or two months	Pay through the run, then cancel before the next renewal
Mainly watch AMC originals and already have Netflix	Cancel AMC+, wait for the Netflix window	Some AMC seasons have arrived on Netflix after their AMC+ window
Actively use Shudder, IFC, or Sundance Now inside AMC+	Keep AMC+ Premium or downgrade to ads	The bundle is cheaper than buying those services separately
Casual AMC+ viewer, fine with ads	Downgrade to $7.99 with-ads tier	Saves $36 a year compared with Premium
Both services active, no current watchlist on either	Cancel both, return when a show earns the month	No watchlist is the clearest signal of inertia spending
Tempted by a distributor bundle of both	Check the cancellation rules first	Some bundles bill the two services as one product and won’t let you cancel separately

The cancellation problem nobody warns about

In recent user reviews on Trustpilot for AMC+ and Trustpilot for Starz, cancellation and billing complaints appear often enough that they deserve a practical warning. Starz reviewers describe canceling immediately after a promo period and seeing the full price hit the next month. AMC+ reviewers go further, with multiple recent posts describing month-after-month charges that continued despite documented cancellations. Customer support response times in both cases were measured in weeks, not days.

The practical workaround is straightforward. If you signed up through Amazon Prime Video Channels, Apple TV Channels, or Roku, cancel through that platform instead of going to the service directly. Third-party billing can give you a clearer cancellation trail because the cancellation record sits inside Amazon, Apple, or Roku instead of only inside the streamer’s own account system. If you signed up directly on starz.com or amcplus.com, take a screenshot of the cancellation confirmation. Set a calendar reminder for the first day of your next billing cycle and check the charge.

Bundles deserve a separate caution. VIZIO’s $14.95 Starz and AMC+ bundle, as one example, is billed as a single combined product and cannot be canceled service-by-service. That isn’t a flaw on its own, but it changes the math. The savings look real on the line item until you want to keep one service and drop the other, at which point the bundle becomes harder to unwind than two separate subscriptions ever were. The same caution applies to other distributor bundles wherever they appear.

This is the most overlooked piece of any streaming hike: the price you pay isn’t just the new rate, it’s also the cost of whatever extra month slips through if cancellation doesn’t take on the first try.

FAQ: Starz and AMC+ after the price hikes

Is Starz more expensive than AMC+?

Yes, by $1 a month after June 8. Starz moves to $11.99 monthly; AMC+ Premium has been at $10.99 monthly since March 13, 2026. Starz also has no ad-supported tier, so $11.99 is the price floor unless you switch to the $69.99 annual plan.

Is AMC+ cheaper if I accept ads?

Yes. AMC+ keeps a $7.99 monthly ad-supported tier, which saves $36 a year compared to Premium. Starz has no equivalent ad tier, so the closest Starz move is the $69.99 annual plan at $5.83 effective per month.

Should I keep both Starz and AMC+?

Only if you have an active watchlist on both services during the same billing cycle. If one is waiting on a future season, cancel that one first and resubscribe when the next release lands. The combined bill of $22.98 a month after June 8 is steep when only half of it is being used.

Is a Starz and AMC+ bundle worth it?

It can be, if you want both services at the same time and are comfortable canceling them together. Some distributor bundles (VIZIO’s $14.95 Starz + AMC+ being one example) bill the two as a single product and don’t let you cancel them separately, which limits the flexibility most rotation strategies depend on.

Where do I cancel Starz or AMC+?

Cancel wherever you actually pay. Direct subscriptions through starz.com or amcplus.com cancel under account settings. Subscriptions through Amazon Prime Video Channels cancel under Account & Lists, then Memberships and Subscriptions, then Prime Video Channels. Apple, Roku, Google Play, Samsung, and cable providers each manage cancellation through their own billing settings. Canceling does not refund prior charges, so the renewal date matters more than the cancel button itself.

Bottom Line

The hikes look small individually and stack up across a year. AMC+ raised its price in March, Starz is following in June, and both services are now expensive enough that passive subscribing is harder to justify. The decision splits five ways depending on which side of the calendar you’re sitting on.

Keep it if you have an actively airing show on the service this summer (Power Book III: Raising Kanan on Starz, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat on AMC+) and you’re already mid-binge.

Switch if you mainly watch AMC originals and are comfortable waiting. Some major AMC titles have moved to Netflix after their AMC+ window, so AMC+ is most valuable when you want the newest season immediately. If you already pay for Netflix and a year-long wait is fine, the $10.99 you save monthly adds up quickly across a year.

Downgrade if you watch AMC+ casually. The $7.99 ad tier saves $36 a year compared with Premium. Starz doesn’t offer ads, so the equivalent move on Starz is the $69.99 annual plan, which prices out at $5.83 a month if you’ll watch enough across a full year.

Pause if you just finished Outlander and your AMC+ show is between seasons. Resubscribing for one or two months when the next release lands usually costs less than carrying the service through dead months.

Cancel if the last thing you watched was more than two months ago and there’s nothing on the release calendar pulling you back. These services often bring back promotional offers, but the safer move is simple: cancel when there is no watchlist, then check the current deal when something actually returns.

Before June 8, open your billing page and check two things: where the charge comes from, and what renews next. If both services are active but only one has a real watchlist, cancel the other now and bring it back when it earns a month.