We all saw it coming, but now that it has been verified, it feels so much different. Netflix has announced that all users of its streaming service will be treated to a new price regime later this year.
This is not the first time this would be happening. Sometime in 2014, Netflix announced a hike in its services for new users. Then, the raise meant users could still pay the same $7.99 per month rate but what you get will be a standard view and for an HD, you would have to pay $9.99 per month. That was then.
Even then, Netflix made it clear to old users that their current $7.99 per month for HD would only last for two years. As the end of the two years window draws near, Netflix has rolled out reminders to all users so they won’t be taken by surprise.
In Netflix’s Q4 2015 earnings report, the company notes that old users (those who had been using Netflix before the 2014 price increase) will be given the option of keeping the same $7.99 per month plan or upgrade to the $9.99 per month plan that streams content in HD, whereas the cheaper plan is capped in standard definition. This is expected to take effect in the second or third quarter of the year and we are optimistic Netflix will provide more details before then.
Before now, Netflix has been offering the cheapest streaming service but the new rise will see them at par with their competitors and this is what the company has to say about that, “given these members have been with us at least 2 years, we expect only slightly elevated churn.”
Netflix currently has a whole host of TV series that is exclusive to the service with which they can use to hold their users ‘hostage’ and make them not want to go even with the price increase. Such programmes include House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and the recent documentary Making a Murderer, not to mention two Marvel-based TV series available to watch: Daredevil and Jessica Jones, with more coming in the future.
Netflix is to launch over 600 hours of original programming, which would be a leap from about 450 hours in 2015. With the new price will you be willing to stick with Netflix?