Netflix is gearing up to raise the prices of streaming plans without advertising “a few months” after the SAG-AFTRA actors strike is resolved, according to a new report.<\/p>\n
The streaming service is “discussing” raising prices in “several markets globally,” and likely will first increase fees in the U.S. and Canada, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing anonymous sources. The Journal did not have info on what Netflix’s new prices will be or when they might go into effect.<\/p>\n
Netflix declined to comment on the report.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., Netflix’s Standard plan (two streams, no ads) is currently $15.49\/month and the Premium tier (four streams) costs $19.99\/month. This summer, Netflix eliminated the Basic tier without ads (which had cost $9.99\/month) in the U.S. and other markets, in a bid to drive customers to the $6.99\/month ad-supported plan or higher-priced tiers.<\/p>\n
This past July, Netflix CFO Spence Neumann told investors that the streamer was “more than a year out” from any price increases in its major markets like the U.S. The company has “largely paused” price hikes after it began rolling out the paid-sharing program starting in May 2023, Netflix’s effort to monetize password-sharing users, Neumann said on the second-quarter earnings interview. “Most of our revenue growth this year is from growth in volume, through new paid memberships. And that’s largely driven by our paid-sharing rollout,” he said. “It is our primary revenue accelerator in the year.”<\/p>\n
Netflix most recently increased prices in the U.S. and other major markets in the first half of 2022.<\/p>\n
Multiple other streaming services have been hiking their prices in the past few months — in some cases, because they were initially underpriced to attract subscribers. As of Oct. 12, Disney is raising prices for the standalone premium tiers of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ in the U.S. <\/p>\n
NBCUniversal instituted its first price increase for Peacock this summer, as did Paramount Global for its newly merged Paramount+ With Showtime package. And on Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a price increase for Discovery+ without ads of nearly 30% in the U.S. and Canada, effective immediately.<\/p>\n