Netflix Raising U.S. Prices Yet Again, Premium Plan Now Costs $23/Month

[GraXXoR]

Arcane season 2 in a year or so.

Arcane was by far the best animated show I’ve ever watched. A real masterpiece. I even changed my avatar that had been unchanged since about 2005 or so.

If my daughters weren’t watching the apparently endless ONE PIECE animation series (1000 episodes+) I’d likely quit the service. I’m watching Vampire Diaries and Supernatural again but both of those old clunkers could theoretically be torrented.

 

[GraXXoR]

So many artists got their start on Adult Swim, like the late legend MF Doom. Adult Swim influenced many parts of our pop culture, like saving Futurama and Family Guy when Fox didn't want to give them a chance, or causing McDonalds to bring the Mulan szechuan sauce back.

The Szechuan sauce episode… Rickshank Redemption if memory serves me well.

Classic early Rick and Morty tom foolery back when the show was still funny and before they Deified Rick.

 

[Serge88]

Time to install an antenna on my roof and watch PBS.

 

[hippyeverafter]

Downgraded to HD at the last price increase but will probably unsubscribe with the next one. The wife is the only one who watches Netflix and even then spends ages scrolling through the available content only to switch back to terrestrial TV after saying there is nothing of interest to watch!. Looking at the newish content produced by Netflix it is clear to me the demographic they are aiming for are the Z generation and Millennials promoting the recent emerging Woke mind games and brain washing but that's not for me but hey if that's want they want fair play. Back to physical media for me probably and it may cost me more but at least I will have control of the content I want to watch.

 

[Ankaa]

Revenue is only one part of the equation. How much did they spend in content and overhead, etc.? Exactly how is all that money being allocated?

All right, after deducting all expenses, last year Netflix had a net income of $4.5 Billion.

 

[Picklefoot]

It happens because people keep letting it happen. Is everyone claiming "I've cancelled my subscription" actually cancelling their sub?

 

[NewYorkRanger]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day. Ultimate scam by these streaming companies to get customers, teaser rates and then massive rate hikes.

 

[Michael Scrip]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day.

Yeah that's true... if you pay for all the streaming services.

But you don't have to do that. You can pick and choose which services you actually want. You have control.

Remember people complaining about cable 10 years ago?

"It's too expensive"
"I'm paying for hundreds of channels I will never watch"
"Why can't I pick just the 10 channels I want a la carte?"

While a la carte cable channels will never happen... you can get a similar thing with streaming.

Do you like Paramount/CBS but not Disney/Marvel? Then subscribe to Paramount Plus and not Disney Plus. Easy.

But good luck telling your cable company you only want to pay for 10 channels out of the 200 channel package...

 

[webkit]

Is everyone claiming "I've cancelled my subscription" actually cancelling their sub?

Probably not. There may even be people claiming they are going to cancel their subscription who don't even have one.

 

[webkit]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day. Ultimate scam by these streaming companies to get customers, teaser rates and then massive rate hikes.

And it cost more than cable to subscribe to every premium channel "back in the day" too. The price of just one premium channel like HBO or Showtime could run around $30 or more per month in today’s dollars. By comparison, streaming services are a bargain even with recent price increases.

 

[ackmondual]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day. Ultimate scam by these streaming companies to get customers, teaser rates and then massive rate hikes.

I'd say cable TV is still the bigger scam. They do the exact thing, but worse. They draw you in with promo rates, but after a few months the regular rates are typically double per month. And with cable TV, the price you're quoted ends up being higher b/c they tack on numerous fees to your bill. There's a push via FCC to have ISPs (many of them also provide cable TV service) to list all of those fees. They complained it's too hard and don't want to do it.

Comcast complains to FCC that listing all of its monthly fees is too hard

Comcast blasted for seeking “loopholes” in rule requiring disclosure of all fees.

arstechnica.com

With streaming services, I can get a smorgasbord of content, on demand, ad-free, for only $7 to $20/mo. Not something you can do with cable TV. The main advantage of cable TV these days is for sports programming, and live channels (which simplifies my situation since I don't care about either of those).

 

[ackmondual]

What's insane about this is the streamers are getting to the point where their annual pricing is as much as all of Prime, and you only get their shows and movies. Prime you get originals and movies and shows outside of those and all the other perks of Prime.

YMMV. For me, I ended up doing the opposite of what you posted. I quit Amazon Prime, and went with other streaming services. For me, there just wasn't any value in Amazon Prime anymore. Their 3 "areas" for me fall under...
1) Prime shipping
2) Prime Video
3) other perks

For #1, I've cut back over the years where I'm down to buying from them to about once per year. They used to have nice discounts, but a lot of things used to be discounted, say, 20% to 10% off, are now sold at MSRP. I need to go out anyways, so may as well stop by at a brick & mortar store, and pick it up, the same day. I buy so little from them (about once per year) that I can either just combine shipping, or it's better to just pay shipping out-of-pocket. As for orders taking longer, non-Prime shipping is only a few days more.

For #2, I have a few shows I'd like to return and catch up on, but I'll do so a la carte. Subbing to Prime Video (just the streaming service) for $9/mo (and add $3/mo for ad-free). However, there's also a lot of great content on the other ss (streaming services), so it can take a while before I rotate back to this. With Prime Video, much of the stuff required extra money b/c you need to buy/rent it a la carte, or sub to yet another streaming service (like Hulu, or HBO Max). When you filter all of that out, there's not much left. Amazon Prime can subsidize their streaming with their other businesses. The other ss only focus on streaming, which to me, has yielded much better content.

For #3, these are nearly all worthless to me. Prime Music, Photos, Whole Foods, pharmacy/drugs, Twitch Prime, etc.... I tried to get into these but they mostly just don't apply (for example, I don't live near a Whole Foods). I did redeem some in-app purchases for a video game so I got $10 value out of that, but that's about it. In fact, other countries only pay $50 to $80/yr for Amazon Prime b/c they don't get any of these "other perks". I wish we had that option :\ And others in USA are wishing they could just pay for Prime shipping because that's all they care about)

... Quitting Amazon Prime put $150/yr (after sales tax) back into my pocket. I used those savings towards a dedicated ss, and it's been great!

 

[Larry-K]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day. Ultimate scam by these streaming companies to get customers, teaser rates and then massive rate hikes.

I think that for a lot of people it actually costs more. It's in so many pieces you just don't notice.

I don't know what I'd be missing without Netflix, since I haven't used it since the DVD days, but I do know I'm not missing $276 a year.

I do have Amazon Prime, but they're losing money on me with all the shipping I do.

 

[bushman4]

When Netflix adds live sports and great gaming they’ll justify The price

 

[Larry-K]

When Netflix adds live sports and great gaming they’ll justify The price

I suspect that those services will just justify another price increase.

Live Sports is a bottomless pit of expense.

 

[Abazigal]

If you add up all these streaming services, it costs as much as cable back in the day. Ultimate scam by these streaming companies to get customers, teaser rates and then massive rate hikes.

To the people claiming this, I wonder what you would have done if you are in charge of Netflix. Or any streaming service for that matter.

To me, the problem isn't that Netflix is raising their rates. The issue is that they started out with artificially low prices at the onset in a bid to attract more subscribers. This had the unfortunate side-effect of conditioning users to expect an endless buffet of content for $10 a month. This is why, even with hundreds of millions of subscribers, Netflix was not profitable for the longest time. Because making content really is expensive.

At the same time, companies like Disney and HBO saw the trend, wanted to be in on the gold rush, and so literally leap in, seemingly without a clear picture of the financial implications. They were forced to also start out with ludicrously low prices (Disney is haemorrhaging money even as we speak). In addition, these media companies lose out on additional revenue because users may decide not to catch the latest marvel movie in the cinema and instead wait for it to come to streaming, elect to skip DVDs, and because they can't license their content to third parties like cable or traditional tv. Every company starts hoarding content for themselves because they each need something to differentiate themselves from the competition. There's a huge opportunity cost in terms of lost revenue.

Another unintended consequence is that when users get inundated with more content than they have time to watch, each show starts to lose its allure. They become disposable, because companies are being forced to churn them out in order to meet a quota. To the subscriber, I watch it because it's there and I have the weekend to kill. It sometimes feels like homework or a chore even.

It seems that everyone is expecting a return to the "good old days" when Netflix was the only streaming service in town, all the shows were available on it, and people could readily access everything at a low price. Which brings me back to be original point - knowing fully well that this was never really sustainable to begin with, how long were you expecting Netflix (or any other company) to keep doing this for that matter?

 

[webkit]

To me, the problem isn't that Netflix is raising their rates. The issue is that they started out with artificially low prices at the onset in a bid to attract more subscribers. This had the unfortunate side-effect of conditioning users to expect an endless buffet of content for $10 a month. This is why, even with hundreds of millions of subscribers, Netflix was not profitable for the longest time. Because making content really is expensive.

At the same time, companies like Disney and HBO saw the trend, wanted to be in on the gold rush, and so literally leap in, seemingly without a clear picture of the financial implications. They were forced to also start out with ludicrously low prices (Disney is haemorrhaging money even as we speak).

I agree that Netflix started out with "artificially low prices" but HBO and Disney weren't exactly new to the premium content subscription game (HBO originally launched in 1972 and the Disney Channel launched in 1983) and therefore should've had at least some idea of the financial implications.

Strong streaming service competition (free and pay/premium) had forced them to keep prices low as well as introduce even lower priced ad-supported plans. Without adjusting for inflation, ad-free Max (which includes HBO) is roughly the same price as what HBO (with less content) was 25 years ago. Similarly, ad-free Disney+ is roughly the same price as what the Disney Channel (with less content) was 25 years ago.

In the end, the question indeed is how much longer can these low prices realistically last and which services will come out the "winners" in the end?

 

[nia820]

I only subscribe to Netflix when there a new season of q show I want to watch. After that I cancel it. So in as I finish love is blind its getting canceled again.

 

[jonnysods]

I love Netflix for their documentaries (and The Office), but the price increases are getting nutty. We have D+ and Netflix, D+ is going up in November I think here in Canada, so it will go first.

 

[ackmondual]

To the people claiming this, I wonder what you would have done if you are in charge of Netflix. Or any streaming service for that matter.

To me, the problem isn't that Netflix is raising their rates. The issue is that they started out with artificially low prices at the onset in a bid to attract more subscribers. This had the unfortunate side-effect of conditioning users to expect an endless buffet of content for $10 a month. This is why, even with hundreds of millions of subscribers, Netflix was not profitable for the longest time. Because making content really is expensive.

At the same time, companies like Disney and HBO saw the trend, wanted to be in on the gold rush, and so literally leap in, seemingly without a clear picture of the financial implications. They were forced to also start out with ludicrously low prices (Disney is haemorrhaging money even as we speak). In addition, these media companies lose out on additional revenue because users may decide not to catch the latest marvel movie in the cinema and instead wait for it to come to streaming, elect to skip DVDs, and because they can't license their content to third parties like cable or traditional tv. Every company starts hoarding content for themselves because they each need something to differentiate themselves from the competition. There's a huge opportunity cost in terms of lost revenue.

Another unintended consequence is that when users get inundated with more content than they have time to watch, each show starts to lose its allure. They become disposable, because companies are being forced to churn them out in order to meet a quota. To the subscriber, I watch it because it's there and I have the weekend to kill. It sometimes feels like homework or a chore even.

It seems that everyone is expecting a return to the "good old days" when Netflix was the only streaming service in town, all the shows were available on it, and people could readily access everything at a low price. Which brings me back to be original point - knowing fully well that this was never really sustainable to begin with, how long were you expecting Netflix (or any other company) to keep doing this for that matter?

They sort of had to do that to attract subs, but otherwise, it really was nice and low. Not to mention NF was the only one in town, so it really was a "one stop shop". I don't like price increases like the next person, but to me, $15.50/mo is still a good value. I just won't sub to it all year round, and will rotate streaming services. Any one, major ss will have enough content to get me through from one month to another (if not more)

I've met some who still yearn for the days when gas (in the USA at least) was 80 cents to $1 per gallon! Phones also didn't cost north of $1K. Etc.

 

[Rychiar]

Maybe if they didn’t cripple their non premium plans with substandard resolution they’d be in line with the competition… I pay $2 a month for Hulu with ads but at least it’s 4k…

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

We dropped them a long time ago and we don’t miss them.

 

[ackmondual]

Maybe if they didn’t cripple their non premium plans with substandard resolution they’d be in line with the competition… I pay $2 a month for Hulu with ads but at least it’s 4k…

Hulu ads are just awful. Too many, and I wouldn't use that even if THEY, paid ME, to do so :\

 

[subjonas]

All right, after deducting all expenses, last year Netflix had a net income of $4.5 Billion.

Thanks for looking that up. Can I ask for a source?
Also my next question would be what is done with that profit/how is it allocated? Does it go to executive salary/bonuses? Savings? Into increasing next quarter’s/year’s budget?

 

[Ankaa]

Can I ask for a source?

Netflix Net Income 2010-2023 | NFLX

Netflix annual/quarterly net income history and growth rate from 2010 to 2023. Net income can be defined as company's net profit or loss after all revenues, income items, and expenses have been accounted for. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>Netflix net income for the quarter...

www.macrotrends.net

what is done with that profit/how is it allocated? Does it go to executive salary/bonuses? Savings? Into increasing next quarter’s/year’s budget?

None of which makes increasing fees look good, unless one is deeply married to capitalism and lives on the receiving end of that profit, of course. Which brings me back to square one of my initial point.