Netflix Raises Prices in the UK

[Veinticinco]

Used to be worth it when it was a simple model, costing single digits pre-COVID. Then, in the face of competition, came price hikes, then premium, then the crackdown on multi-household use, then additional tiers with ads and device limits.

As the kids are now teens, this is the ideal time to cut the cord.

 

[Stiksi]

”use the money to provide more value to subscribers” The last time they said this, they re-encoded their 4K library at a lower bitrate. But hey, who doesn’t love a bazillion new tv show first seasons that end in a cliffhanger and never get a second season. And also you can probably fit a few dozen more stories about ordinary guys who find out their girlfriend / wife is actually a superspy and then also become superspies within two days just by being white males. Or have they now moved onto strip mining another topic?

 

[norwaypianoman]

£227.88 a year. Compare that to Amazon Prime and all that you get, which is £95.

Let that sink in for a minute...

I just wonder, where are all the movies that used to be on Netflix.

In Norway, 90% of all movies and series are occult escapism, time travel and supernatural ideology. And all the content is made after 2012 ? Why are there better movies on YouTube ? Where are the happy movies of the 80s ?

Netflix is the sickest New Age cult of all time. And they take money like scientology.

 

[Padaung]

£227.88 a year. Compare that to Amazon Prime and all that you get, which is £95.

Let that sink in for a minute...

Amazon Prime is with ads, and there is huge amount of content that needs extra payment for. £95 per year.

Netflix (new price, with ads) is £71.88 per year. But you don't need to pay anything extra for any content.

The children's profile doesn't have any ads at all, even with a basic ad account.

In our household we find the content on Netflix (children and adult profiles) to be a lot more compelling than the included (with subscription) content found on Amazon Prime.

So with all things, what you value depends on how you use it (and a fair comparison of like for like...)

 

[Padaung]

TL;DR:​

• Raising prices trims excess users → avoids premature infrastructure upgrades → saves costs while making more money.
• It’s not just about getting more cash per user—it’s about optimizing load on their tech stack.

For me personally the price is to high I watch perhaps 30 min pr day (roughly 1 episode every 2 days) @icanhazmac But for many i aggrege.

(and yes even so 169 dkk pr month - 23.60 US Dollars (USD). or 18.87 British Pounds (GBP))

so that is roughly 16,9 DKK pr hour of entertainment (since we in average watches 10 hour pr. month i estimate) - so yes cheap compared to going to the movies- but then we also have Disney + and HBO and TV2 Play (Danish Station)
so it ads up over the year.

Also i think many people are missing the math that Netflix is doing

10.000.000 - 10 million people paying 7,99£ = 79,9£ Millions

Then they up the price 1 £ and perhaps looses 1 in 10 (i dont think they will lose 10%) but lets say they did
they loose 10 % but they upped the price by 11% so they still make more money

9.000.000 - 9 million people paying 8,99£ = 80,91£ Millions

so EVEN if 10% is leaving they make more money (only on the low tier, on the high tier it would hurt if 10% left) since its a much lower % price jump.

in the optimal world they had only 1 subscriber that payee the 80,9 £ millions - here is why

for every stream you have going out you need hardware to support this, so it is in their interest to trim their user base if they get to much outgoing traffic.

so they save money on
1) Hardware
2) Internet fees for outgoing traffic
3) things like customers support, if you have fewer customers you need fewer support people.


We just quit all of our streaming services (Disney+ , Netflix, and HBO) so when this month end we will have non.

Nice analysis.

I also wonder if the companies expect an initial drop in subscriber numbers following a price rise, but they also know that with time people will creep back in to subscribing - for example when a new season of a favourite show arrives. I know for certain this has happened in my household.

 

[Zest28]

One thing I don't understand about these price hikes...

Disney+ just did it and lost 700,000 subscribers as a result.
Netflix are doing it and will loose subscribers too.

Surely its better to have more subscribers paying less, than having less subscribers paying more?
Don't viewing figures matter in the ever desperate grab for cash?

Netflix seems to be gaining more subscribers for some reason, which is why Netflix keep increasing the prices.

 

[dobba]

Another long time subscriber to Netflix cancelling soon. The odd film or series is good, but overall, it's the same tired movies that I start watching and then turn off half way through because they're poor. Same for series - I can't be invested in something that is gonna get cancelled after the first season, which happens too often.

 

[JoeMaj]

I dropped Netflix several months ago due to their high pricing and lack of interesting new content. Apple TV+, Paramount+, Hulu, etc. have been releasing more new content than Netflix and cost half as much.

 

[webkit]

One thing I don't understand about these price hikes...

Disney+ just did it and lost 700,000 subscribers as a result.

700,000 is a fairly insignificant drop (less than 1%) considering they have around 125 million subscribers. The higher prices probably much more than make up for any revenue lost from the 700,000.

Netflix are doing it and will loose subscribers too.

Despite nearly annual price increases, I think the number of Netflix subscribers has continued to increase every year.

Surely its better to have more subscribers paying less, than having less subscribers paying more?
Don't viewing figures matter in the ever desperate grab for cash?

That depends on how much more in price and how much less in subscribers/viewers.

 

[stocklen]

700,000 is a fairly insignificant drop (less than 1%) considering they have around 125 million subscribers. The higher prices probably much more than make up for any revenue lost from the 700,000.




Despite nearly annual price increases, I think the number of Netflix subscribers has continued to increase every year.




That depends on how much more in price and how much less in subscribers/viewers.

all fair.

But if we keep going in this trajectory...

where once the top show on Netflix was viewed '10 million times.....'
we are going to end up with it being watched by half as many actual people yet seen just as successful.

People are already having to rationalise subscriptions and as they all put prices up inevitably some of them will suffer as a result.
There is definitely a ceiling on affordability for subscribers or certainly a level at which most people will have to reassess which service they will keep and which they will ditch.

 

[icanhazmac]

all fair.

But if we keep going in this trajectory...

where once the top show on Netflix was viewed '10 million times.....'
we are going to end up with it being watched by half as many actual people yet seen just as successful.

People are already having to rationalise subscriptions and as they all put prices up inevitably some of them will suffer as a result.
There is definitely a ceiling on affordability for subscribers or certainly a level at which most people will have to reassess which service they will keep and which they will ditch.

Ug, how about you don't try to keep them all at once and rotate through them a couple at a time, rinse and repeat.

The only reason people find these services "expensive" is because they have too many at once and it starts to look like your old cable bill.

 

[webkit]

all fair.

But if we keep going in this trajectory...

where once the top show on Netflix was viewed '10 million times.....'
we are going to end up with it being watched by half as many actual people yet seen just as successful.

People are already having to rationalise subscriptions and as they all put prices up inevitably some of them will suffer as a result.
There is definitely a ceiling on affordability for subscribers or certainly a level at which most people will have to reassess which service they will keep and which they will ditch.

So far, they seem to be doing just fine with the price increases. Despite nearly annual price increases, the number of global Netflix subscribers has gone from around 124 million in 2018 to over 300 million today.

As far as "affordability" goes, Netflix (and others) have tried to address this with ad-supported plans. In the U.S., for example, the price of the Netflix "Standard with ads" plan is $7.99/month which is the same as what the "Standard" plan was going way back to at least 2011. Yes, it has ads but it’s a low cost option.

The reality of life is that not everything is going to be "affordable" for everybody but that doesn’t mean companies should have to operate as "charities." Should Rolex and Rolls-Royce have to price their products so they are more affordable to the masses? No.

I'm not suggesting these price increases are going to go on forever and there won't come a time when they may negatively start to impact their bottom lines but at this point, the streaming services seem to be doing ok.

 

[icanhazmac]

you seem to be very defensive about this

Not at all. I am just here stating my opinion and looking for some debate, sadly this thread is short on debate.

$20/mo is dirt cheap for content, if you are consuming it. If you pay for a month of Netflix but only watch 1 hour long show, then you spent $20 for that single show. If your household consumes 100 hours of content in that month then you paid .20/hour, that is dirt cheap!

Your turn.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Not at all. I am just here stating my opinion and looking for some debate, sadly this thread is short on debate.

But you invited negativity by making a meaningless comment on receiving negative votes. You and everyone else is aware that a downvote button exists, so why pull reference to it? If someone wants to click it they will, you don’t need to make light of that.

$20/mo is dirt cheap for content, if you are consuming it. If you pay for a month of Netflix but only watch 1 hour long show, then you spent $20 for that single show. If your household consumes 100 hours of content in that month then you paid .20/hour, that is dirt cheap!

Your turn.

My turn? I have never debated the merits or lack of in this thread.

 

[icanhazmac]

so why pull reference to it?

As an attempt to get someone to debate the merits. Most people see "price increase" and react emotionally, as seen in this thread, and most others like it. I was attempting to challenge these folks with some basic math but alas, no takers.

My turn? I have never debated the merits or lack of in this thread.

Yet you took the time to disagree with my post. One would think if you were going to disagree with a post that you might have a counter point worth discussing? Why disagree with my post at all if you don't have an opinion on the topic at hand?

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

As an attempt to get someone to debate the merits. Most people see "price increase" and react emotionally, as seen in this thread, and most others like it. I was attempting to challenge these folks with some basic math but alas, no takers.

Forum members don’t need to be challenged or ‘invited’ to challenge, agree, or disagree with you. The buttons are present, the reply box is present, so you really have no rationale for this.

View attachment 2480040

Yet you took the time to disagree with my post. One would think if you were going to disagree with a post that you might have a counter point worth discussing? Why disagree with my post at all if you don't have an opinion on the topic at hand?

I did, and I didn’t make reference to the topic at hand.

So now I will: as it happens, I think Netflix with ads is excellent value for money, especially given you only have to endure one 20 second ad after roughly every hour.

 

[icanhazmac]

Forum members don’t need to be challenged or ‘invited’ to challenge, agree, or disagree with you. The buttons are present, the reply box is present, so you really have no rationale for this.

I can challenge them all I want, and in any way I want, within the rules of course. That is my rationale. I am the first one to defend emoji responses, I have done so many times in many threads but I have to agree that, at times, it can be frustrating when you put forth a very sound argument and get no takers, only drive by haters.

I think Netflix with ads is excellent value for money, especially given you only have to endure one 20 second ad after roughly every hour.

On this we agree. Too bad others cannot get past the words "price increase" or do simple math.

 

[darkpaw]

UK user since 2015. Just cancelled.

 

[thefrost]

It's crackers mate.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm amazed people subscribe at all

Over the holidays I was with family for a few weeks and they were watching endless generic, uninspiring, sort of almost "AI made it" feeling romantic "junk food for the senses"

It just seemed like "content" ... nothing of any particular note, or quality or something you'd ever want to watch again

It was truly the "empty calories" of entertainment products

 

[Skyscraperfan]

If Netflix wastes money on Meghan and Harry, we should not pay for it.

 

[webkit]

If Netflix wastes money on Meghan and Harry, we should not pay for it.

If Meghan and Harry end up getting the full $100 million USD (which may or may not happen), that means each subscriber paid around 33 cents (USD).