Netflix Raises Prices: Here’s How Much It Costs
The sky is falling because TV streaming giant Netflix is raising its prices — again. While the sky actually remains above, some users will not love hearing that their monthly bills will soon increase for the second time in the past 15 months.
According to a CNN Business report, Netflix just announced a rate increase. Incidentally, the announcement caused the TV and movie streaming service’s stock prices to rise 6 percent at today’s opening. As for the new prices, plans increase from $1 to $2 a month across all its tiers.
The lowest cost plan will rise from $7 to $8 while the middle tier service increases from $11 to $13 monthly. The most expensive offering is currently $14, and with the new prices, it’ll cost users $16 a month. Now, the company has more than 58 million subscribers in the United States with a stunning 137 million worldwide. Projections show that Netflix expects to have 147 million worldwide subscribers by the time it releases its next earnings report, which should come on Thursday.
The increase comes in an attempt to offset the billions the company invested to create its own compelling, original content. In October, Netflix announced it would increase new debt by $2 billion.
Recently, Inquisitr reported that the streaming service also made it more difficult for subscribers to share passwords with friends. A new AI-powered system from Synamedia will analyze users and flag those accounts which appear to be shared.
Netflix is raising prices for all of its U.S. subscribers. It's most popular plan will go from $11 to $13 per month. The company says the price increase will help pay for original shows and finance debt. https://t.co/JMiAIcTehc
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 15, 2019
The new prices arrive as Disney+ plans to launch soon, and NBCUniversal announced a new streaming service for 2020. Plus, Apple will offer a Netflix rival sometime this year. New Netflix subscribers will see these increased rates immediately while current subscribers will receive notifications via their app and email in the coming months.
Some subscribers blame the recent Friends backlash for the increase. One Twitter user commented, “If yall didn’t pay all that money for Friends this wouldn’t have happened. You should’ve gotten rid of Friends…”
While plenty of people complained, others pointed out the type of original movies and content that the streaming giant recently released. One person replied, “Yeah but take into consideration Bird Box, Black Mirror, big mouth, American vandal, making a murderer, Hill House… And then the multitude of stuff for kids. Word party was the only thing that made my house tolerable this past year.” The same user also said, “Man I forgot about Stranger Things!”
“I don’t care about the increase; Netflix gives me a lot more than Comcast or Dish, and the terms are clear….no mystery charges that pop up every few months,” pointed out another subscriber.
While the service may experience some cancellations as a result of the decision to raise prices, it’s likely most users will remain even with the increase because of the quality programming they watch via the streaming media platform.
