‘Netflix and Chill’ just became a tad bit more expensive for users in some of streaming giant’s biggest markets. Netflix has increased subscription prices for several of its streaming plans in the US, France, and Britain. The increased subscription rates came in effect starting Wednesday, October 17, 2023.
Netflix’s ad tier in the US is priced at $6.99 a month, while the premium ad-free plan in the US saw a $3 monthly increase, now priced at $22.99. The basic one-stream US plan’s monthly cost increased by $2 to $11.99, while in Britain, the basic plan experienced a £1 price rise, reaching £7.99. In France, the basic plan’s monthly price went up by €2 to €10.99. “While we mostly paused price increases as we rolled out paid sharing, our overall approach remains the same — a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more,” Netflix said in its earnings call.
This move comes as the streaming giant celebrates an impressive surge in its global customer base, which surpassed analysts’ expectations and sent its shares surging by 13%. In a remarkable third quarter performance, Netflix added nearly 9 million new subscribers worldwide (8.76 million to be exact), exceeding Wall Street’s predictions of 5.49 million new sign-ups. Overall, its global paid memberships clocked an annual climb of 10.8% to 247.15 million, speeding past the estimated 243.88 million.
What makes this surge even more noteworthy is that it occurred against the backdrop of Hollywood labour tensions that had severely disrupted U.S. production. Netflix strayed strong, as much of its content is produced overseas, and this contributed significantly to its robust subscriber growth in the recently-ended quarter. Shares of Netflix rose nearly 7% in after-hours trading to $369.89, before dropping back to $346.19 at the time of the writing of this article.
Alongside the subscriber growth comes a healthy growth of its revenue – for the third quarter of the year, Netflix reported a total of $8.54 billion in revenue (an increase of 7.8%), while its earnings per share (EPS) beat analyst estimates to reach $3.73 per share. Going forward, the streaming giant expects its revenue to clock an increase of 11% in the fourth quarter and reach $8.69 billion. Overall, Netflix has picked up more than 16 million subscribers through the first nine months of the year, far more than the 8.9 million subscribers that had been added to its subscriber base during the entirety of 2022.
Netflix attributed its recent success to several key factors. This includes the global popularity of “One Piece,” a live-action adaptation of a renowned Japanese manga series, along with Netflix’s extensive content library. The same attracted new viewers to long-running television shows such as “Suits” and HBO’s World War Two series “Band of Brothers.” This vast and varied programming selection bolstered its appeal, particularly during uncertain times like the COVID-19 pandemic when production interruptions were unpredictable.
Netflix’s third-quarter customer gains represent the most substantial quarterly uptick since the second quarter of 2020 when lockdowns, due to the pandemic, led to an unprecedented surge in streaming subscriptions. Despite this already impressive growth, Netflix has chosen to raise subscription prices for select plans in several key regions.
