Netflix raises prices on plans in US, Canada
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Netflix is raising prices for its video streaming customers in the U.S. and Canada, less than a year and a half since its last price increase, as competition from other streaming services increases.
The Los Gatos, California, company said Friday that prices are going up by $1 to $2, depending on the plan. The "standard" plan that most people take is increasing by $1.50, to $15.50. The Canadian version is going up by the same amount in local currency, to $16.50 Canadian dollars.
Price increases are becoming more of a regular feature at Netflix, which is facing saturation in the U.S. market. Of Netflix's 213.5 million subscribers, some 74 million are in the U.S. and Canada. It got an influx of global subscribers early in the pandemic, but is investing in video games as it looks beyond movies and TV for growth.
In the U.S., Netflix's most expensive plan is increasing by $2, to $20; its basic plan is up $1, to $10. The plans vary based on variables like the number of screens users can watch Netflix on at the same time and the number of phones or tablets that can have downloads. The company still mails out DVDs in a service that requires a separate plan.
The price increase is effective as of Friday. Netflix will tell customers by email and inside the Netflix app before the new price is applied to them. Customers in New York, Alabama and Louisiana also got hit with a new local sales tax bill, which Netflix says was because of the addition of video games to the service.
Raising prices carries the risk that people will cancel. Netflix remains the dominant U.S. streaming service, but others, such as HBO Max and Disney+, have increased in popularity.
Netflix shares gained in late trading after news of the price increase came out. The stock closed up $6.49, or 1.3 percent, to $525.69. The company reports its fourth-quarter financial results Thursday.
The Associated Press
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Raising its prices as COMPETITION? That doesn't seem to me to be the way to compete with similar services, but since I never studied Economics perhaps I just don't understand.
At least one site online this morning is reporting The Witcher on Netflix had over a billion watched hours in it's first week online. Netflix doesn't seem worried about competition, yet.
It's a war of content customers want the service with the most content, content costs money but it makes the service more attractive. A buck fifty isn't much my cable bill seems to go up five bucks every six months and I pay more in service fees than netflix charges for their whole service. Amazon Prime has a lower cost but has less content but they offer free shipping on you amazon purchases so if you shop amazon it's a good deal.
One of the best things about netflix is that one price covers everything which is great if you have kids. Other services like Prime, Hulu, Vudu also offer pay per view movie rentals and of course the kids will want to watch them and will be asking to rent more and more. Everything you see on the netflix site is included so there's no temptation. Any adult who streams knows that new movie rentals start at 6-10 bucks and within 3 months that same movie will be 2.99 and next year it will be free but kids have no patience they see something they want and they want it now.
I'm at the top Ultra HD tier. I will probably drop a tier to save a couple of bucks.
Never a subscriber.
I would think after a while they would saturate themselves. Only so many shows one can make without all of them starting to sound the same.
What Netflix seems to be doing, is to make a lot of content for as many markets as it can find. Also they measure success on how many hours a series gets per week. From the Netfilx "about" page -
There is a lot of truth to that. Also, there are so many shows available these days that you find yourself never even paying any attention to 80 or 90 percent of them.
I just dropped Netflix, which I do sometimes for a few months, then get it back. Its impossible to watch enough from every streaming channel during the same period so sometimes its not worthwhile. I have Hulu, Sling, and HBO Max and also Paramount and Peacock. Also a subscription to a "classic" movie streaming service that is similar to Turner Classic movies. Sometime Amazon Prime. I dont come close to using them all so I try to rotate them in and out , which you can do when you pay by the month, not the year.
Netflix is the kingpin but they are far from the only game in town these days.