Netflix Plans To Raise Prices After SAG-AFTRA Strike Ends
Netflix plans to raise prices soon, starting with the US and Canada. In the past year, Netflix has gone through a lot of changes in response to the loss of subscribers that was reported in 2022.
Author:Rhyley CarneyReviewer:Paula M. GrahamOct 05, 20239K Shares136.4K Views
Netflix plans to raise pricessoon, starting with the US and Canada. In the past year, Netflix has gone through a lot of changes in response to the loss of subscribers that was reported in 2022. Some of these changes have been to make it harder to share passwords and to offer a cheaper Netflix plan with ads.
Now that the SAG strike is over, there are rumors that Netflix will raise its prices. The Wall Street Journalsays that Netflix's price hikes will affect the choice to watch with ads and will start in the U.S. and Canada before going global. No one knows how much the raise will be or when it will take place.
Netflix Plans To Raise Prices, US And Canada Up First
The Wall Street Journal claimed on Tuesday that Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service after the Hollywood actors' strike ends. This made the streaming company's shares go up by more than 3%.
People who know about the situation told the WSJ that Netflix is talking about raising prices in several markets around the world. However, the United States and Canada are likely to be the first places where prices go up. According to the report, it was not clear right away how much Netflix would raise prices or when the new prices would go into action.
The cheapest Netflix plan without ads costs $15.49 per month. This is the "standard" plan. Prices haven't gone up since the beginning of 2022. But if we look at how Netflix's prices for this tier have changed in the past, a price hike around now fits a trend. Netflix raised its prices in October 2017, January 2019, October 2020, and January 2022, so we probably could have expected another one around October 2023.
No one knows how much the prices will go up, and Netflix hasn't said anything about it. But again, based on past growth, we can probably make a pretty good guess. For example, the last three increases for a standard membership were between $1 and $2. The most this tier has ever gone up was $2 in January 2019, and the last raise, in 2022, was for an extra $1.5 a month.
Also, these are not the only changes Netflix has made in the past few months. Some Netflix users would be upset by the price rise, which could cause some to cancel their plans. But this hasn't stopped Netflix from moving forward with bold plans over the past year, despite the pushback.
When Netflix's system to stop people from sharing passwords was first introduced in Latin America, users had a lot to say about it. Still, the streaming service went ahead with the plan everywhere, and since then, Netflix has seen a rise in subscribers. So, it's possible that Netflix could do the same thing with a price increase as people wait for popular shows like Stranger Things and Wednesday to come back.
Netflix had said before that it had gained 5.9 million new users around the world since March when it stopped letting households share passwords. Because of the change, people who want to add more people to their Netflix account will have to pay an extra fee.
The deal to end the writers' strike was reached last week, but the AMPTP is still in talks with SAG-AFTRA to end the actors' strike, which began in July and is still going on. After talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is made up of big companies like Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, Warner Bros., and others, broke down on July 13, the Hollywood actors union joined the WGA in going on strike.
After five months of failed talks, the writers' union and the AMPTP came to a draft agreement last week. In February, Netflix lowered the prices of its monthly plans in some countries. In the same month, it came up with a plan to stop users from sharing passwords, which was put into action in over 100 countries in May.
Several other streaming services have raised their prices over the past few months. In some cases, this is because they were priced too low at first to get people to sign up. The standalone premium versions of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ in the U.S. will cost more as of October 12.
This summer, NBCUniversal raised the price of Peacock for the first time, and Paramount Global raised the price of its new plan, Paramount+ With Showtime. Warner Bros. Discovery also said on Tuesday that the price of Discovery+ without ads will go up by nearly 30% in the U.S. and Canada, starting right away.
Final Words
Netflix plans to raise the prices of its ad-free access plans a few months after the Hollywood actors' strike ends. Prices will go up first in the United States and Canada, and it is not yet clear how much more Netflix will charge. The last time Netflix raised prices was at the start of 2022.
Since then, Netflix has gotten rid of the Basic plan and added a Standard plan with ads that cost $6.99 per month. The company has also stopped letting people share across multiple households. If people want to share a Netflix plan, they must live in the same place or pay more for another member slot.
Rhyley Carney
Author
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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