With basically no warning, Netflix announced both that it is bringing in more money than ever, and that it is raising prices on consumers yet again. The streaming giant announced on Jan. 21 in their earnings call that they were “adjusting prices today across most plans” in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and Portugal.
The price increases include a hike from $6.99 per month to $7.99 per month for the ad-supported tier, and the standard ad-free tier is going from $15.49 per month to $17.99 per month. The streamer’s highest-priced premium tier is also jumping in price from $22.99 per month to $24.99 per month. These changes in price will be reflected in each subscriber’s next billing cycle.
“As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” the company said in a statement to shareholders.
Netflix last increased prices in October of 2023, and it’s also the first time the company is raising the price of its ad-supported plan, which it first launched in 2022.
Over the past few months, Netflix has added 19 million subscribers, which is the most they have ever added in a single quarter. That brings the total number of subscribers on the platform to over 300 million and also signals the end of the company’s quarterly updates on subscriber growth. Moving forward, the company will only announce such growth when they have crossed a new milestone. In spite of the huge growth in subscribers, Netflix’s executives believe the company still has room to grow.
What seems clear, at the very least, is that Netflix remains the most dominant player in streaming, and its slow increase in fees has helped it support the massive amount of original content that it develops.
