The Netflix price increase will take effect for all U.S. users by the end of the May billing cycle.
Netflix announced in January that it would be raising the price of their monthly membership subscription, and now it's time to pay the piper.
Netflix has slowly been moving grandfathered customers over to the new price hike based on their billing cycle, but new users saw the increase immediately. The increase will take effect for all customers by May.
The new subscription prices will be as follows:
- Basic, with one HD stream, will go from $7.99 to $8.99 per month
- Standard, with two HD streams, will go from $10.99 to $12.99
- Premium will go from $13.99 to $15.99 per month
Courtesy of Giphy
When the first price increase took effect in 2017, many subscribers canceled their subscription, but there was no noticeable slow-down in Netflix's growth. By the end of 2018, the streaming service had 58.5 million U.S. subscribers and 129 million worldwide.
Netflix expressed the reason for the increase was a way to “continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience.” In order to add new content, Netflix would need to increase the price of the monthly subscription, but is it worth it?
Most of us are like this ...
Courtesy of Giphy
Can we just say that this is bad timing considering the announcement of the new Disney+ streaming service for only $6.99 per month, HBO for $15, and Hulu sitting at just $11.99 per month (ad-free) with a recent decrease?
Netflix would also be competing with other services including AT&T's WarnerMedia and Comcast's NBCUniversal.
Despite the increase, Netflix is in a solid place to continue hiking the prices considering 71 percent of its customers are satisfied with the subscription as the content is showing improvement. They were named the fastest growing brand in 2018 behind Amazon and Google and remain as the most powerful brand in the media. At the growing rate, the company is expected to rake in $1 billion with the price hike.
Courtesy of GIPHY
Do you think this will hurt Netflix? Will you be canceling your monthly subscription? What is your favorite streaming service? Tell us in the comments!
