US-based subscribers to Netflix are about to see their prices go up.
The most popular Standard subscription has risen by $1 to $14 a month, while the Premium subscription, which gets you access to the service's 4K catalogue, has gone up by $2 to $18 a month. The basic package is staying at $9.
It might be tempting to think that this is Netflix taking advantage of our increased reliance on streaming during the COVID-19 crisis, but the company told The Verge that prices were rising "so that we can continue to offer more variety of TV shows and films".
That argument certainly does hold some water: there's more competition between streaming services than ever before, and original, exclusive content is the key differentiator between each of them.
Crucially for those outside the US, Netflix also told The Verge that the price rising "in the US does not influence or indicate a global price change", so those of us in the UK and Australia shouldn't necessarily expect our prices to go up as well. That said, the last US price rise (in January 2019) was followed by a rise in the UK four months later (in May 2019), so we certainly wouldn't rule anything out entirely.
We'll certainly report back on any future Netflix pricing developments.
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Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.
