With the amount of high-quality titles, including must-see original series, we are willing to pay just about anything for our subscription to Netflix. Well, as long as it's not more than 10 bucks.
The streaming service's standard $9.99 monthly subscription fee doesn't hurt our pockets, and it seems like a fair price for the amount of titles offered (although the library continues to shrink).
However, there are about 17 million people who are about to see the price for their Netflix subscriptions increase next month. The worst part is they don't even have a clue that it's coming.
Before you start to freak out about having to pay more for Netflix, the price increase is just for those preexisting customers who signed up for the service before the spring of 2014.
Back in May 2014, Netflix raised the price of its standard plan to $9.99 per month for new users. Those who already had an account were grandfathered into their then-current two-stream HD plan of $7.99 per month. They have been paying that price ever since.
Now, starting in May, these grandfathered customers, or about 17 million U.S. subscribers, will have to start paying the additional $2.
According to a recent survey from JP Morgan, 80 percent of those subscribers had no idea that the price increase was about to happen.
Netflix did reveal that those members would be notified via both email and within the service so that they are aware of the change and may choose which tier of service will now work the best for them.
However, just because these customers will have to pay a bit more doesn't mean that they are going to cancel their subscriptions. The financial services company UBS estimated that only three to four percent of those customers will pull the plug.
UBS found that it costs only nine cents an hour to watch content on Netflix, compared with the 30 cents it costs in a traditional TV package. That makes Netflix still a lot cheaper for those thinking of cutting the cord. Of course, there are people who might be willing to pay even more than $9.99 a month to watch series like Daredevil or Orange is the New Black.
Hulu is cheaper at $7.99 per month, but it costs $11.99 per month to stream with no commercials. Prime Video costs Amazon members $99 per year, but the Prime subscription also comes with other perks like Amazon Music and free two-day shipping.
To see if you will be affected by the price increase, log in to Netflix and click "Your Account" in the drop-down menu. Go down to "Plan Details" and "change plan" to see which plan you currently have and to make any adjustments.
Source: Business Insider
