Netflix plans to increase the price of its ad-free service in a few months.
The latest in a series of recent price increases by the country’s largest streaming platforms as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
According to WSJ, the streaming platform reportedly issued plans to increase its price a “few months” after the Hollywood actor’s strike ended which could happen in the coming weeks.
As reported by WSJ, Netflix will raise prices in “several markets globally,” starting with the US and Canada. It’s still not clear how much Netflix will raise prices, and Netflix declined to comment. Netflix raised prices across all of its plans last year, bringing the ad-free Standard tier to $15.49 / month and the Premium plan to $19.99 / month. The company also rolled out a $6.99 / month ad-supported plan and later axed its mid-tier $9.99 / month basic ad-free plan.
Earlier this year, Netflix cracked down on password sharing and started charging an extra $7.99 per month for users to share their account with someone outside their household. The move to raise prices again also comes as Hollywood moves closer to getting back to work. Just last week, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) ended its strike and began voting on a contract with major Hollywood studios, including Netflix, that could change the business of streaming.
For example, Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and other services will now have to share streaming data with the WGA under the new contract, allowing writers to see how well their content performed. The contract also grants writers of streaming features a minimum compensation increase of 18 percent for high-budget films, along with a 26 percent increase in residuals. According to the WGA’s calculations, the cost of their new contract will amount to just 0.2 percent of Netflix’s annual revenue.
Also, in complement to the notice about Netflix, the WSJ reports that Disney Plus could launch a new live sports tier outside the US. Disney Plus is no stranger to price hikes, either, as its most recent one goes into effect later this month.
