A Netflix price hike for US and Canada is coming for existing customers, but will immediately take effect for newcomers onto the streaming service.
According to a report by USA Today, the streaming giant is raising prices on all three plans. The cheapest Basic plan will now cost $9.99 (up from $8.99); Standard plan is now at $15.49 (from $13.99), and the Premium plan now costs $19.99 (up from $17.99) a month.
Netflix gave a reasoning for the price hike, saying that they're looking to "continue to offer a wide variety of quality entertainment options." The popular video streaming platform also promised its commitment to deliver an "even better experience" for its subscribers.
The price hike will take effect over the coming weeks for current customers. If you are one of them, you can expect an email and an in-app notification 30 days before the price hike goes into effect.
This marks the second recent price hike from the popular streaming service. They previously raised their prices back in October 2020, which according to MacRumors is the last "significant" price jump.
Netflix, however, didn't confirm whether their latest price hike will also be affecting other markets aside from the US and Canada.
One could assume that this is the same situation as it was almost two years ago, when Netflix claimed that any US (or North American) price hike is not indicative of a global price change, as reported by USA Today.
What this could mean is that for now, subscribers located in other parts of the world could rest a bit easier than their North American peers. Whether or not Netflix will also raise prices elsewhere in the globe remains to be seen as of the moment.
A Massive Boom In Streaming Subs
Americans were among the biggest consumers of media streaming, especially during the pandemic when many were forced to stay at home.
According to a survey by Sykes, 38% of their respondents claimed to watch at least three hours of streamed content daily on weekdays. This number grew to 48% on weekends. Do the math, and you'll see that this is equal to around 45 days of streaming in an entire year.
2021 basically proved to be a massive boon to Netflix as well. Hollywood Reporter writes that the platform added a massive 4.4 million new subscribers during Q3 of last year, totaling a whopping 214 million paid subscribers. This led Netflix to log Q3 revenues of $7.5 billion-a slight increase from Q2's $7.3 billion.
Is The Netflix Price Hike Too Much? There Are Alternatives
There are some great Netflix alternatives out there, if you feel like this latest price hike is a bit much now. Android Authority lists these as good ones to try out:
Hulu: As little as $6.99 a month, if you don't mind ads. Ad-free plan starts at $12.99. Customization with add-on channels is among the best features.
Apple TV Plus: Pay as little as $4.99 a month with access to a library of high-quality shows. Apple looks to go for quantity over quality, with a few popular shows including "For All Mankind," "Mythic Quest," and "Little America."
Discovery Plus: This is another great option at $4.99 (ad-based) or $6.99 (ad-free) a month. You can choose from a massive show library featuring popular Discovery IPs, like "Ghost Adventures," "90-Day Fiance," and "Expedition Unknown," among others.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
