Netflix Price Goes Up $1 for New Subscribers; Current Customers Are Safe for Two Years
Interested in signing up for Netflix soon? It’s going to cost you one dollar more than it did yesterday, thanks to a price increase put in place by the company.
“We previously announced that we planned to increase our price slightly for new members. That increase is happening today,” said Netflix spokesman Joris Evers in an email to The Washington Post.
A quick visit to the Netflix website as a signed-out user shows that the company is still advertising its service at $7.99 a month — so perhaps it’s still possible to jump in at the $7.99 price?
If you’re able to do so, you’d likely be treated to the same perk that current Netflix subscribers are getting from the company: a two-year price freeze on the subscription cost. That means if you’re already a Netflix customer, you’ll still be paying $7.99 for the next two years. It’s a nice gesture toward the company’s current subscriber base, as many companies — looking at you, Comcast and Verizon — will give better deals to new customers while raising prices for old ones.
It’s believed that Netflix will use the extra $1 per month to increase its content offerings. The company is well-known for having a large streaming library of movies and TV shows, as well as several original programs like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. A few extra million dollars per month means the company can continue to acquire streaming rights to popular programs, as well as develop its own original content.
All in all, an extra dollar won’t break the bank for most people. The increase isn’t as dramatic as the last one — where Netflix broke its DVD and streaming plans into two, effectively doubling the price of both — so I think it won’t be as ill-received. And Netflix could certainly put the money to good use by growing its content library. It’s one of those weird situations where a price increase might actually benefit the customer, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s the case.
What do you think of the Netflix price increase? Drop us a line below with your comments.