Here comes another Netflix price hike

Netflix is getting another price increase. As part of the streamer’s third quarter earnings results, Netflix announced that starting today, users on its $9.99 per month Basic plan will now have to pay $11.99, and those paying $19.99 per month for Premium will have to pay $22.99. Netflix’s $6.99 ad-supported plan and $15.49 Standard tier will stay the same price.

Netflix last raised its prices in January 2022 and stopped offering its $9.99 Basic ad-free plan to new and relapsed users in July, forcing them to fork out more to avoid ads. Prices for the Basic and Premium plans in the UK and France are going up as well, with the ad-supported and Standard plans remaining unchanged. In the UK, the Basic and Premium plans will cost £7.99 and £17.99, respectively, while customers in France will see the Basic plan move up to 10.99€ and the Premium plan cost 19.99€.

“As we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more,” Netflix writes in its letter to shareholders. “Our starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket.”

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported the streamer would raise the cost of its subscription a “few months” after the Hollywood actors strike ends, and now it’s happened even though the actors are still striking. Last month, the Writers Guild of America ended its strike after reaching a deal with services like Netflix to provide streaming data, higher minimum pay, and better residuals.

Over the past few months, Netflix says it added 8.76 million new subscribers, bringing the streamer’s global total to 247.15 million. In addition to its password-sharing crackdown “exceeding” expectations, Netflix also saw significant gains to its ad-supported plan, with membership increasing almost 70 percent quarter over quarter. Netflix says accounts on the cheapest tier now account for about 30 percent of all new sign-ups in the 12 countries where it’s offered.

And since removing the Basic plan in the US, UK, and Italy “boosted adoption” of Netflix’s ads and Standard plans, the company announced that it will be making the same change in Germany, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and Brazil next week. It’s also planning to roll out new features for its ad-supported tier, which will include a way to download content starting next month. Netflix added better resolution and the ability to watch two streams at once to its ad-supported tier earlier this year.