Netflix Warning Grandfathered Customers About Monthly Price Hike Coming in May - MacRumors
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Netflix Warning Grandfathered Customers About Monthly Price Hike Coming in May

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In January, Netflix announced that it was raising the prices for all of its subscription tiers, making the popular "Standard" tier increase from $10.99/month to $12.99/month. This change took effect immediately for new customers signing up for Netflix, while existing customers were grandfathered into their prices for a limited time.

netflix price hike
That time is now almost up, as Netflix has begun emailing grandfathered customers on the day of their subscription renewal, warning them that their monthly subscription cost will be going up in May. A warning will also appear within the Netflix mobile app. This change affects all tiers: the cheap "Basic" tier will rise from $7.99 to $8.99/month, the popular HD "Standard" tier will rise from $10.99 to $12.99/month, and the 4K "Premium" tier will rise from $13.99 to $15.99/month.

In the email, Netflix says that this price hike is required to improve the service so that subscribers can have "even more" TV shows and movies to enjoy. Netflix has been quickly increasing the amount of original content on its service as third parties remove their films and TV shows and create their own streaming platforms, like Disney has done for its upcoming service Disney+. In order to fund all of the original productions, subscription costs have now increased for all Netflix users.

We hope you have been enjoying your Netflix membership. We are writing to let you know about an upcoming change. Your monthly price is increasing to $12.99 on Thursday, May 9th 2019. Why? We’re hard at work improving Netflix so that you can have even more great TV shows and movies to enjoy.

Here’s to watching what you want, when you want, where you want. You can change your plan, or if you do not wish to continue your membership, as always you can cancel any time at netflix.com/cancel.
We're here to help if you need it. Visit the Help Center for more info or contact us.

–The Netflix Team

This new price hike represents a jump of between 13 percent and 18 percent, which is Netflix's biggest price increase since it launched streaming 12 years ago. According to a CNBC report, Netflix will also use the extra cash to finance debt that it's recently taken on to "ward off streaming threats" from rivals like Apple, which just revealed its Apple TV+ streaming service that's set to launch later in 2019.

As of 2019, this is the fourth price hike for Netflix subscribers in the streaming service's history. The HD Standard tier was priced at $7.99/month, rose to $8.99/month in 2014, and then to $9.99/month in 2016, when CEO Reed Hastings reported an "unexpected" loss of subscribers due to the hike. In November 2017 the tier rose to $10.99/month, and now it will be priced at $12.99/month.

Tag: Netflix

Top Rated Comments

mlabonte21 Avatar
96 months ago
For just an extra $2, you can get:

* All Marvel Shows Cancelled
* All Disney/Pixar/Marvel Movies removed by years-end
* Airplay Support Removed

What a bargain!!
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Donahue Avatar
96 months ago
Bye bye Netflix. You too greedy too fast. You ain’t HBO. HBO isn’t even HBO and you charging HBO prices!!!!! Eeeek!
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unity451 Avatar
96 months ago
Glad T-Mobile picks up the check for me.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Donahue Avatar
96 months ago
For just an extra $2, you can get:

* All Marvel Shows Cancelled
* All Disney/Pixar/Marvel Movies removed by years-end
* Airplay Support Removed

What a bargain!!
Best comment ever. That’s exactly what’s happening.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Saipher Avatar
96 months ago
Netflix says that this price hike is required to improve the service so that subscribers can have "even more" TV shows and movies to enjoy
Excuses... There is no need for "even more" content. People can barely keep up with what it's already there.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
felixroqu3 Avatar
96 months ago
I don't understand. Netflix was introduced so people can "cut cable off" because it was cheaper. Now third parties are removing their content from Netflix because they want to launch their own streaming services which will probably cost the same as Netflix. So cable is now pretty much out of the picture(compared to 10 years ago), BUT now there are tons of different streaming services to choose from. This is like the cable era all over again.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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