Many of Netflix’s US subscribers are being hit with a price increase starting today, the company announced as part of its third-quarter earnings announcement. The streaming giant disclosed the news, which had been rumored about in recent weeks and led angry customers to start bracing for the company’s latest price hike, in its newly released quarterly letter to shareholders. That letter, specifically, revealed that two of Netflix’s four monthly subscription tiers are getting the price increase.
“Starting today,” Netflix’s letter announces, “we’re adjusting prices in the US, UK, and France. In the US, our ads ($6.99) and our Standard plans ($15.49) will stay the same, while Basic will now be $11.99 and Premium $22.99.”
For context, that’s a $3/month increase for the Premium ad-free plan, the benefits of which include the ability to enjoy four streams at the same time. The Basic plan, meanwhile, is getting a $2/month increase (this is Netflix’s cheapest ad-free plan, by the way, and is no longer available to new subscribers).
Netflix’s letter continues: “While we mostly paused price increases as we rolled out paid sharing, our overall approach remains the same — a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more.”
Price increases like these tend to come all at once from streaming services, which don’t want to be left out when all of their competitors are squeezing customers for more money. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now. Nearly every other streaming service besides Netflix has introduced a price hike in recent weeks and months. Hulu, Max, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Apple TV+ are all more expensive than they were in January 2022.
Prime Video has even taken the dramatic step of making customers pay extra just to avoid watching ads starting in early 2024.
