Netflix Adds $1 Per Month To “Standard” Plan For New Subscribers

Screen Shot 2015-10-08 at 2.34.54 PMThree months after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the company wasn’t planning to increase rates in the U.S. anytime soon, the company announced it was doing just that — by $1, at least for one plan.

Variety reports that Netflix is raising the price of its most popular “standard” plan from $8.99/month to $9.99/month for new subscribers in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.

Current subscribers will continue to enjoy the $8.99/month cost for access to two HD streams concurrently for another 12 months before the increase kicks in on their bills.

“To continue adding more TV shows and movies including many Netflix original titles, we are modestly raising the price for some new members in the U.S., Canada and Latin America,” a Netflix rep tells Variety.

The company’s other “basic” and “premium” plans were not affected by the increase. The basic plan, which costs $7.99/month, includes standard definition video and only allows one stream at a time. The premium subscription, which costs $11.99/month, includes up to four simultaneous streams and the option of watching Ultra HD content.

On an earnings call in July, Hastings said the company would continue to offer a reasonable starter price and allow users to slowly climb the pricing ladder.

“We want to take it very slow,” said Hastings. “Things are going well. There’s no need to be disruptive… It’s really focused on going very steady, very slow, and over the next decade I think we’ll be able to have more and more content and add more value and then to be able to price that appropriately.”

The standard plan increase comes just two months after the company implemented a 10% price increase to the standard plan for subscribers in Europe.

The last increase to U.S. subscribers bills came in 2014, and was also $1.

Netflix Hikes Price of Standard Streaming Plan to $10 per Month [Variety]

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