Netflix price jumps are here to crush your Thanksgiving and Christmas cheer
Happy holidays, your Netflix subscription will soon cost you more, the company seemingly told users over the weekend.
Netflix revealed in October prices were going up for its streaming video service. The timing of the price hike depended on individuals' billing cycles. Unfortunately for many loyal subscribers, that lined up nicely with the holidays.
The service issues a warning individually to users via email and on the app at least 30 days ahead of time. For users who pay the 25th of every month, that meant finding out about it on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and being charged the new price on Christmas this year.
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Subscribers in the U.S. who pay for the standard $9.99 service will be charged $10.99. The price of the premium tier (ultra HD and 4 screens at the same time) will rise from $11.99 to $13.99. The price for the basic $7.99 plan remains unchanged. So that's about a $1 or $2 difference, at most.
For some subscribers, the cost increase and decision to keep streaming was no question:
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Indeed, Netflix is fairly inexpensive for what it offers and especially when you compare to its competitors. Netflix's standard plan is cheaper than HBO ($15 per month) and Hulu's commercial-free plan ($11.99).
Other subscribers were not too happy with the change and had some suggestions:
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With the price hike, hopefully subscribers will have their expectations met and see more quality shows, including original series.
Netflix originally planned to spend $6 billion on projects in 2018 but has since bumped that estimation to closer to $7 billion.
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
