Viewership data and subscriber numbers may have risen steadily since March as the world got used to spending a lot more time at home than usual, but despite being one of the few industries that didn’t seem to be dangerously affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, streaming services are in no way immune from the financial implications.
Netflix have been canceling a lot more original shows than usual, even ones that had already been renewed, with reports that the market leaders were in the midst of a huge drive to reduce spending across the board. When a company of that size cuts back, the customers are usually the first ones to get hit in the pocket, and as of today, Netflix have raised their subscription prices.
While the basic plan will remain at $8.99 per month, the standard plan has gone up by $1 to $13.99, and the premium plan has been raised by $2 to $17.99. These changes have come into effect from today, and subscribers will see them reflected in their next bill. New customers, meanwhile, will be charged the updated amounts from the moment they join and are thus less likely to kick up a fuss about having to pay more in such an uncertain financial climate.
There’d been rumors that Netflix were planning a price hike, and although a couple of dollars might seem like a minor incremental increase, when you multiply that by over 190 million subscribers globally, then that’s a whole lot of extra revenue coming in to offset the losses caused by the pandemic and the increase in production costs required by the many major movies and TV shows that have resumed or started production with costly health and safety measures in place.
