Is Netflix raising its prices again? 2024 hikes explained
NetflixMo’ money, mo’ problems: Netflix’s streaming dominance may be paving the way for another price hike in 2024. Here’s what you need to know.
The streaming boom of the 2020s has seen the inception of several platforms for different studios. Alongside Netflix and Prime Video – still the two titans – there’s Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Peacock, and Max.
As it stands, Netflix is said to have more than 260 million subscribers worldwide. Amazon isn’t too far behind, with Prime Video sitting at just over 200 million in 2024.
They’re all somewhat modestly priced – but the total cost of being able to see everything has been steadily mounting up, and Netflix is set to raise its prices again.
Is Netflix raising its prices in 2024?
Netflix is expected to hike prices on all of its streaming plans this year, according to Variety.
It’s unclear exactly when that’ll happen, but they’re coming. During the company’s Q4 2023 earnings call, co-CEO Greg Peters said they’d “largely put price increases on hold as we rolled out paid sharing.”
“Now that we’re through that, we’re able to resume our sort of standard approach toward price increases. And price increases, you’ve seen us do that in the US, UK, and France. Those changes went well better than we forecasted.
“We will continue to monitor other countries and try and assess… when we’ve delivered enough additional entertainment value [to] ask [customers] to pay a bit more to keep that positive flywheel going and we can invest in more great films, series and games for those members. So, you know, the summary statement might be, ‘Back to business as usual.'”
While there have been steady increases since 2008, 2022 marked a big change: Basic, Standard, and Premium plans increased between $1-2, but subscribers could pivot to a “Basic with Ads” plan for $6.99.
In 2023, Netflix axed its original Basic plan for new subscribers, before hiking its prices again by $2-3 on its Basic and Premium in October. As it stands, Standard (with ads) costs $6.99 per month, Standard (without ads) costs $15.49 per month, and Premium costs $22.99 per month. You also have the option to add another paid member to avoid any login restrictions for an extra $7.99.
Despite enormous success with the likes of Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday, it’s still been a bumpy few years for Netflix with regards to its reputation in the public eye. As well as its price hikes, its crackdown on password-sharing was widely criticized – but it did result in mass sign-ups, with 13.1 million new subscriptions in the last three months of 2023 alone.
