Netflix is raising prices again in 2019. The new prices were present on Netflix’s subscription page last week and are quite the jump for some existing customers, as the increase affects all tiers of service.
The increases are between 13 and 18 per cent, the biggest rise in the streaming giant’s history.
Customers who were previously paying $8 per month for the basic plan will now be paying $9 per month to access the streaming service.
The most popular plan in the US, for HD, will now cost $13 compared to $11 per month, while Netflix’s 4K streaming plan will also see a $2 increase per month, jumping from $12 to $14.
New members will be given the new price immediately, while the price increase will be applied to current members over a period of a few months. If you haven’t been informed of the newest price increase on your Netflix account, it will be coming soon.
Netflix has increased their prices quite a bit in recent years. The company’s HD plan cost $7.99 prior to 2014 but saw a $2 increase in April 2014.
That means that the HD plan has increased from $7.99 to $13 in just over four years. The original plan without HD was still $7.99 until 2016.
Not everyone is happy with the rises.
Netflix has hiked prices as they continue to invest in new movies and television shows. Stock in the streaming service jumped after the news of the price increases broke.
But how much of a hike are users willing to accept, especially with an increasing number of streaming services hitting the market?
The news comes as Disney plans on removing their content from Netflix as it sets up its own streaming service.
However, the price rises are something Netflix obviously thought it had to do in order to continue to thrive. The company actually had a negative free cash flow of $2 billion last year, and investing in new, original content is expensive. For example, Stranger Things reportedly costs $8 million per episode to create.
It will be interesting to see how many users decide that this increase is too expensive for how much they actually use the service. When does the price become too much?