Netflix has been booming this year. It makes sense, right? Given how most of the world has been stuck inside with little to do, Netflix became a crutch of entertainment for many looking to just escape the world around them. It’s a good thing then that the video-on-demand streaming giant charges a very reasonable rate to access all that content. If we’re honest, the fact that you can get Netflix Premium in South Africa for just R170 a month is wild considering the Showmax Pro costs a whopping R450 a month for less content. One can only hope then that the news of Netflix raising it’s fees doesn’t go further than the United States. Cross your fingers, South Africa!
Over in the very quickly crumbling United States of America, Netflix is increasing the standard plan from $13 a month to $14 and the premium version is jumping by $2, from $16 a month to $18. If you sign up for the service today you’ll be paying the new price while currently subscribed users will see the new prices reflect on their monthly bill in the coming month.
Speaking to The Verge, a spokesperson stated that the price increase in the US, “does not influence or indicate a global price change” as Netflix determines these cases country-by-country. Which means that South Africans may be able to escape the price hike right now but that doesn’t mean we’ll be exempt from future increases either.
Is Netflix risking anything?
The Verge reached out to industry analyst Ross Benes about the potential ramifications of the price increase and he seemed to think that the streaming service could very easily hike the price and not risk a major loss. Benes said that subscribers get “a lot of value for not a whole lot of money” and that the company was still dramatically undercharging users. So while Netflix might lose some subscribers, they’re certainly still pulling in enough cash to make it work.
The price increase is probably related to Netflix’s focus on content production. The budget for content and feature production has increased steadily year over year and the only way that quality shows can be expected to be good is by allocating them money necessary to pull them off. Hey, as long as we keep getting Stranger Things, we’re happy.
(Source: The Verge)