Not chill: Netflix is hiking prices across all its tiers

By Parker Hall January 15, 2019

Image used with permission by copyright holder

It turns out keeping Friends and constantly developing new original content ain’t cheap.

Netflix announced this week that it will increase prices across all of its account tiers in the coming months, raising what you, your parents, or that ex you haven’t called in a while pay for access to your favorite shows and movies.

Prices will increase between $1 and $2 per account level. The $11-per-month plan will increase to $13, the $14 plan will increase to $16 per month, and the $8 plan will increase to $9 per month.

Analysts and anxious consumers have been speculating for some time that the company would raise its prices, given just how much money Netflix poured into original content over the past several years. Netflix reportedly spent $8 billion on its house-produced films and TV shows in 2018 alone, and the company announced plans in October to take on an additional $2 billion in debt to finance new projects. Netflix had a negative cash flow of $3 billion in 2018 and is reportedly expecting about the same in 2019.

Investors will be happy with the price increases, given the company’s debt; shares were up 6 percent when the market opened this morning.

Netflix is easily among the most popular paid video services on the internet, with more than 58 million subscribers in the United States, and more than 137 million globally, making the price hike an effective way to raise capital.

Time will tell whether other subscription services, like Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, will raise their prices to match Netflix, or will continue at current prices to attempt to convince subscribers to switch.

One thing’s for sure: The streaming video wars are just heating up. Apple is expected to launch a video streaming service this year, and Disney plans to launch its own service, called Disney+, in 2019. NBC Universal has also recently announced that it planned to launch its own streaming service in 2020.

Looking to stream something fun before the changes hit your pocketbook? Check out our list of the best shows to stream on Netflix right now.

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Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

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