The streaming giant, Netflix, has confirmed that it has plans to hike its subscription prices for the UK and Ireland for the second time in 18 months.
The increase has been rumoured since rates went up in America in January 2022 and the change comes after Netflix’s chief executive Reed Hastings admitted that the company had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, the first decline they had experienced in over a decade. Additionally, the share price fell by a staggering 35%.
Explaining the reasoning behind the sharp increase in prices, a spokesperson for Netflix revealed that “our updated prices reflect the investment we have made in our services and will allow us to keep making the series, documentaries and films our members love. We offer a range of plans so members can choose a price that works best for them”.
The increases were inevitable to maintain the continual pipeline of new content amid rising competition from the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Disney + (who also raised its prices in the UK in early 2020 from £5.99 to £7.99).
Netflix will be increasing subscription prices on all packages and the change for new members will happen immediately, while existing members will receive a 30-day notice before the rises will come into effect.
For the first time in a decade, ‘The Basic’ package (where viewers can watch one screen at a time and download onto one device) is increasing from £5.99 to £6.99, an increase of almost 17%. Likewise, Netflix’s ‘Standard Tier’ package (which includes HD viewing and the ability to watch on 2 devices) has also gone up by £1, jumping from £9.99 per month to £10.99. Netflix’s most superior package, ‘The Premium Plan’ (including watching on 4 screens and 4 devices), will cost a whopping £15.99 per month, increasing by £2, the most substantial rise.
Unfortunately, for us as the viewers, this means that not only are we having to navigate the rising prices in fuel, food and energy, but we are going to start to see service providers in all areas ramping up their prices as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
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