Those of you who have been considering canceling your Netflix subscriptions have just received a new incentive to do so, as the world’s biggest streamer has decided to raise prices once again.
According to a support document on Netflix’s official website, the Standard plan now costs $13.99, while the Premium plan costs $17.99. These plans used to cost $13 and $16, respectively.
Is a $1 or $2 price increase a big deal? Maybe not, but it’s an awkward follow-up to the recent news that Netflix had missed its Q3 subscriber forecast by a significant degree (2.2 million vs. 2.5 million).
Wall Street analyst Alex Giaimo (via Deadline) actually predicted back in September that Netflix would be raising prices. The discussions allegedly began in Q2, which is an interesting coincidence, being that coronavirus took off during that time frame, fueling a ton of new subscriptions for the streamer.
Giaimo noted that an increase of $1 to $2 a month in North America or Europe could generate $500 million to $1 billion in fiscal 2021 revenue for Netflix. The increase in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) regions could also add “an incremental $700 million to 2021 revenue.”
Netflix previously raised prices in January 2019, with the Basic plan costing $9 (up from $8), Standard plan costing $13 (up from $11), and Premium plan costing $16 ($14).
Despite Netflix’s outstanding debts, we’re guessing that most of the additional money will be spent on new content. With more and more competitors (e.g., Disney+) entering the scene, it’s becoming increasingly unclear how the streamer ever intends to pay things off.