Netflix raises UK and ROI prices by £1/€1, US price goes up $1
Netflix has raised the price of its on-demand TV and movie streaming service here in the UK and in Ireland, but only for new customers.
[Update: Netflix confirms US price rise of $1, new price $8.99 per month]
New US Netflix customers will see a price rise of $1. The new price for Netflix in the USA will be $8.99 per month. That mirrors the £1 price-hike in the UK and €1 rise in Ireland.
As is the case in the UK and Ireland, existing Netflix customers in the US will be safe from the price-rise for the next two years, with only new customers paying the higher price.
Original story:
If you were still undecided about whether to sign up for the excellent Netflix on-demand TV and film streaming service, you’ve just missed the boat on the £5.99 monthly subscription; the company has raised its prices here in the UK and in Ireland, ahead of an expected increase in other territories soon.
When it first launched in the UK back in January 2012, Netflix cost £5.99 for unlimited streaming, but the price has now gone up for the first time. New customers will now have to pay £1/€1 extra per month, meaning £6.99 for UK customers and €8.99 for european members. It’s not all bad news, though; existing Netflix subscribers should soon receive an email explaining that their £5.99 monthly membership won’t be going up for at least two years.
According to that email the price rise is in order to continue adding new films and TV shows to the service, but we imagine it could also be an anticipatory measure for the increased bandwidth used when Netflix rolls out 4K streaming on a wider scale later this year. It will also help fund Netflix original programming, with House of Cards, Arrested Development season 4 and Orange is the New Black all proving popular with subscribers.
Netflix has yet to reveal what its plans are for a price rise in the US, but it is expected to increase the $7.99 subscription fee by either $1 and $2. The price freeze for existing customers should keep them happy in the short term, and new users aren’t paying significantly more per month to force them to look elsewhere for their on-demand content, so we doubt it will result in significantly fewer subscribers, but it will be interesting to see whether Amazon responds in kind with its Prime Instant Video service.