Netflix arrives at a relative bargain, considering the mountains of original content it regularly produces in addition to providing evergreen favorites like Friends, The Office, The Walking Dead, and so much more. The streaming service last cranked prices in in late 2017, but the time has inevitably arrived for this to happen again. CNBC reports that Netflix will raise monthly subscription prices across all tiers with the Basic plan going from $8 to $9. Meanwhile, the HD Standard plan (the most popular one) will rise from $11 to $13, and the 4K Premium plan will leap from $14 to $16.
Deadline reveals that, as a result of this news, early trading saw Netflix stock jump 7% in early trading. When will the hikes take place for you? Certainly within a few months, unless you’re a new subscriber:
The rate hikes constitute a jump of between 13 percent and 18 percent — the company’s biggest increase since launching its streaming service 12 years ago — and will take effect immediately for new customers. Existing subscribers will be see the price increase on their bills over the next three months.
Again, a few extra dollars per month isn’t exorbitant if you’re a regular binge watcher, so viewers will have to decide whether shelling out less than the cost of an extra Starbucks coffee is worth it to them.
Clearly, Netflix is hiking prices because they’re churning out so many original films and series these days, and because they will eventually have to answer for all the debt they took on in 2018, including a $2 billion bond last October. In addition, Netflix is staring down the launch of the Disney streaming service in 2019, plus an NBC Universal service in 2010, all while Amazon and Hulu are working hard to build up their own content coffers. The streaming wars won’t end anytime soon, and as Netflix is now acknowledging, there can’t be only one, so they’re strategizing accordingly.
