Netflix has seemingly impressed investors with its latest results, and is promising a fresh round of price rises too.
Despite suffering something of a blip in the first half of last year, Netflix has spent the last 12 months making a series of moves that have seen it go from strength to strength. Crackdowns on password sharing and the newer ad-powered subscription tier it introduced have continued to add to the company’s revenue and no doubt please investors, even in the midst of a series of industry-quaking strikes.
While other companies are still trying to figure out how to steer their streaming platforms into profitability, Netflix has managed this feat, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations and also picking up more new subscribers than it originally forecast.
Investors may be happy, but Netflix users are bracing for another round of price rises as the platform today confirmed that subscriptions will be increasing again, including in the UK.
Deadline covered the announced changes, stating that ‘in the U.S., U.K. and France, pricing for the Ads plan, Basic, Standard and Premium are, respectively, UK £4.99/£7.99/£10.99/£17.99 and 5.99€/10.99€/ 13.49€/19.99€. As in the U.S., the Ads and Standard plans in UK and France are unchanged.’
It’s the top end prices that are on the up, as you can see. £18 a month for Netflix at the highest level is starting to sound a bit on the testing side, but we’ll see.
Whilst the prices at the top might seem pretty steep (and are only headed in one direction), the platform is gambling that users looking to cut costs will drop to the significantly cheaper ad-supported tier rather than shut down their subscriptions completely, cutting down on overall user churn. In the longer term, it is believed that Netflix stands to make more revenue from an ad-supported model than it does with its present system.
As for the other companies wrestling with streaming profitability, Netflix’s continued success will act as a beacon of sorts, signalling a route to eventual profitability. Indeed, we’ve seen other companies such as Disney take steps to emulate the same measures that helped Netflix navigate a tricky 2022, even if the Mouse House’s situation is markedly different to that of the Silicon Valley company. We’ll bring you more news on this one as we hear it. In the meantime, brace yourself for more expense…
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