Netflix has raised prices across all of its subscription tiers.
Key Points
Standard with Ads is going up $1 to $8.99 per month; Standard, which doesn't have ads, is going up $2 to $19.99 per month; while ad-free Premium is also rising $2 to $26.99 per month.
This price hike comes just a year after the last raises, which impacted the Standard without ads plan for the first time in three years.
When it comes toNetflixraising subscription prices, stranger things have happened.
Long gone are the days of sub-$10 subscription fees granting you access to the streaming giant's voluminous library. For the second time in just over a year, Netflix is raising prices across all subscription tiers.
According to thePlans and Pricingpage on the Netflix Help Center, the Standard With Ads plan, which allows for two supported devices, has gone up $1 from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. The Standard plan, which doesn't include ads and also allows for two supported devices, is rising $2 from $17.99 to $19.99 per month. Finally, the coveted Premium tier, which allows users to download the app on six supported devices and watch simultaneously and without ads on four, is also going up $2 from $24.99 to $26.99.
Netflix shared the following statement withEntertainment Weeklywhen reached for comment regarding Thursday's price hikes: "Our approach remains the same: We continue offering a range of prices and plans to meet a variety of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members we are updating our prices to enable us to reinvest in quality entertainment and improve their experience by updating our prices."
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Originally a subscription-based DVD rental service, Netflix launched a parallel streaming service in 2007. At the time, pricing was computed according to the type of rental plan subscribers opted for. If you subscribed to the $18 per month plan, for example, you were accorded 18 hours of streaming time.
The following year, Netflix implemented the flat monthly subscription fee for streaming that it still employs. Unlimited streams without ads cost $9 per month back then — a service that now starts at $19.99 per month.
Netflix raised its prices last January. Though price hikes have never been uncommon at the streamer, last year's stood out, as they impacted the popular Standard without ads plan, which at the time hadn't seen a hike in three years.
The price point of Netflix's Premium subscription tier, its most expensive, is a far cry from where it started. But it's equally far from the streaming industry's most expensive monthly plan. Viewers interested in the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN unlimited, ad-free bundle are looking at a monthly cost of $44.99.
But at $26.99, Netflix's Premium plan stands head and sometimes shoulders over the rest, from HBO Max's $22.99 per month, to the newly unveiled Prime Video Ultra (a standard Prime Video plan without ads, and without a general Prime subscription) cost of $13.98 per month, to Paramount+'s $13.99, which includes Showtime and CBS programming.
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly