Netflix raises prices for every subscription tier by up to 12.5 percent

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/netflix-increases-prices-for-all-plans-by-up-to-2-per-month/

by pseudolus • 4 months ago

89 79 4 months ago

GenerWork2• 4 months ago

Cue up people shouting about how this is horrible and that they're totally going to cancel, only to be followed by Netflix making even more money next quarter.

iAMkenough• 4 months ago

Also, more people getting into pirating their content.

GenerWork2• 4 months ago

I've been out of that scene for a long time, hasn't Netflix implemented a bunch of anti-piracy methods, or are people just recording HDMI/DisplayPort output and saving it?

hbn2• 4 months ago

Pirating is honestly, by-far the least painful experience to watch things.

I recently started watching a series, and I figured I'd check if it's on any streaming services I have access to. I found it on Prime Video, but when I clicked into it, it needed some other separate subscription to a service I'd never heard of to watch it. And even then, it had like, seasons 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 of the 9 total seasons. If there was any chance I'd subscribe to watch it before, I definitely wasn't now. I couldn't even figure out where the remaining seasons are available to be watched legally. It's especially hard to find this information in Canada because searching "X where to watch" just gives you results of where things are available in America, which has completely different licensing deals.

So I found a torrent for the complete series and I've been watching it pain-free. Piracy tends to be my default now. It even has the advantage that I can frequently find a Bluray rip rather than a reduced bitrate internet stream. Anything I really like and I want to support the creators, I purchase a physical release, or official merchandise or something.

cyanydeez• 4 months ago

You do realize capitalism can continue as long as there's at least 1 customer and they keep buying?

jmyeet• 4 months ago

Speaking from experience, I had Netflix for years without thinking about it, starting at $8/month. At that price I didn't care if I watched it or not. Then it went to $10, $12, etc. Once it got to $15-16 (I forget), I cancelled it.

I now sign up for 1-2 months a year to catch up on shows I like and just rotate which streaming services I have. Yes, this is anecdotal.

It's hard to find data on how common rotating streaming services is. I would guess not common. I found this from 2021 showing the number of streaming services the average US household has [1]. It's worth noting that this was based on lockdown-era data.

The number if still quite high. I still have 3-4 mainly because my ISP gives me 1 and Amazon Prime bundles it. Were it not for those, I'd probably stick with 2. This is imperfect data because is it the same 4 or are some or all of these rotated? We just don't know.

Most of the data around this is how streaming is cannibalizing satellite and cable. But at this rate Netflix will cost $30+ in 10-15 years. Will it still have growing revenue and the same subscriber numbers? There is price elasticity here.

[1] https://www.thewrap.com/u-s-households-with-4-streaming-serv...

silisili• 4 months ago

This makes sense to me as a strategy for most users.

I cancelled a year or two ago, but not for the price changes alone. I didn't like the new interface much, and I found myself endlessly scrolling through the same things looking for stuff to watch.

I'm not sure if Netflix vastly removed most of its content, or they just made discoverability a nightmare, but it felt often like I 'ran out of stuff to watch.'

It's hard to justify 20 something a month for what is essentially a few 6 episode shows that will last one season, and maybe 4 or 5 passable movies in a year. It seems rather silly to me to pay for that all year.

mattbrewsbytes• 4 months ago

I think this is a lot more common and I suspect people decide to do monthly and that they'll cancel after catching up on shows ... and then they don't cancel. So I'm sure the streaming services don't care that people do this because they might come out ahead anyways.

goldenarm2• 4 months ago

Customer resentment is slow to build up, but once the inertia is visible it's usually too late.

gdulli• 4 months ago

I just don't think that's true anymore. Netflix isn't going anywhere. Twitter and Reddit have taken highly visible user-hostile actions since back in 2023 and people stayed. People have become too passive and docile to switch anymore. The portion of the population that's discerning enough to leave is small.

epistasis• 4 months ago

Well they'd have to lose a huge percentage of people for this not to be profitable quarter over quarter. But it likely cuts in to future growth substantially.

And with what seems to now be an unavoidable economic storm as in-transit tankers dock and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz starts to be felt, there might be a larger than normal amount of people looking to cut costs in the coming year.

Or maybe not, people seem to have stopped responding to economic pressure by cutting costs in the US! When vacations got super expensive, people still spent, and increased their complaining. We will see what happens in 2026.

jedberg2• 4 months ago

Netflix, cable, etc. and other at home subscriptions tend to be the last things cut because people generally stay home more when the economy is bad so they want their in-home entertainment.

yibg• 4 months ago

Netflix is more resilient to economic downturns than you'd think. For many people it's a higher ROI for entertainment when compared to a lot of other alternatives. e.g going to bars / restaurants / movie theaters.

dogleash• 4 months ago

Do you think they think they're going to meaningfully effect Netflix's bottom line?

Or are they just trying to chat online about the purchase decision topic at hand?

DaRaam• 4 months ago

I canceled about two years ago. Most of the stuff on netflix has already been watched. The new content is hit or miss.

Better off paying for Disney and downloading the rest.

yeahwhatever10• 4 months ago

The debt subsidies are over, time to pay the piper.

guzfip• 4 months ago

The debt subsidies are over

So is all the content worth watching. I haven’t paid for Netflix in years.

darth_avocado• 4 months ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47536393

retrac98• 4 months ago

I remember signing up to Netflix to watch house of cards back in the early 2010s and being absolutely blown away.

I don’t think there’s been a single show on Netflix I’ve genuinely looked forward to in the past couple of years. It’s like they completely gave up on quality content and just shovel out the most mediocre slop. I’m amazed people still pay these ever increasing prices.

denysvitali• 4 months ago

Severance (Apple TV) and Fallout (Amazon Prime) are pretty amazing TV shows that came out somewhat recently. Nothing on top of my mind came out of Netflix for which I really felt the need of resubscribing.

I miss the quality of TV shows we reached with Mr. Robot, Silicon Valley, Utopia (UK), and Westworld :(

Supermancho• 4 months ago

* Silo (Apple TV)

* Pluribus (Apple TV)

* Paradise (Paramount+)

* Landman (Paramount+)

* A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)

First few seasons Netflix keeps it together before crapping the bed:

* Witcher (Netflix)

* Stranger Things (Netflix)

* Mindhunter (Netflix)

snovymgodym2• 4 months ago

I pretty much declared streaming show bankruptcy after sitting through Severance season 2 last year.

I know a lot of people liked it and maybe I'm just cynical, but to me it seems like every "serious" streaming show eventually falls victim to the "stretch a 2 hour movie's plot across a 12 - 16 hour season" strategy. They know it works because enough people binge watch or feel compelled to finish a series they've started.

At this point, if I'm watching a show then it's something where the episodes are sufficiently satisfying self-contained stories (e.g. something like Star Trek, X-Files, sitcoms). If I want something with a more involved plot, then I'll watch a movie. These formats are better because the limited runtime requires the creators to be intentional about what they dedicate screen time to. Meanwhile in a modern "story-driven" streamslop show it's painfully obvious when they're just padding out the runtime with fluff to make it to 8 episodes.

Of course there are exceptions to this, and there are stories for which a miniseries or a long-form series is the ideal video medium to convey them. But what happens so often is that you get 1-2 seasons of compelling storytelling followed by N more mediocre seasons that keep getting made because enough people keep watching. And the latter are just not worth the time investment.

mdasen• 4 months ago

In the early days, Netflix benefited from other media companies not recognizing streaming for what it was: their replacement. They licensed content to Netflix cheaply without thinking about how it would impact DVD sales or cable tv subscriptions.

It's kinda like how IBM didn't see the value in software and that let Microsoft become Microsoft.

randusername• 4 months ago

I am still trying to recover from whatever Witcher season 3 broke in my brain by its audaciously low quality.

I was kicked out of the suspension of disbelief so hard I can't unsee things about the production process now, like makeup, continuity, costuming, sound design.

It was like the whole crew from script to editor just gave up, totally bizarre for headliner content.

partiallypro• 4 months ago

I cancelled Netflix long ago, they started cancelling their best shows (like 1899, etc) and producing absolute garbage. I mean just look at the quality of early/peak Netflix to now. Stranger Things is a great example, the decline is visible not just in the story but in the visuals. The documentaries are also bad now, I watched the "Manosphere" at someone's house, and while you can agree with the premise that these people are deranged, it was clearly a cash grab and didn't really move the needle. Then the catalogue has been gutted, and it's just mostly garbage now. Just awful stuff.

The last truly remarkable series they had was Dark. Everything since has slid into being for low attention span people on their phones, and for that reason I no longer give it my attention, or money. I guess it's working out for them, since they keep printing money...but I think it won't last forever. Look at Disney, the decline can come quick once the cracks turn into fault lines.

WillAdams• 4 months ago

While I haven't watched it, the fate of _1899_ is why I've pretty much given up on TV --- I'm _not_ going to watch anything until I know that:

- the story has been completed (_Dark Matter_ is the poster child for this)

- the ending makes sense as part of a coherent whole (the _Battlestar Galactica_ reboot still enrages me)

then, maybe I'll find time to devote to something --- until then, I've got books to read, code to write, projects to build, home improvements to make, and a yard to weed/maintain and trees which need to be harvested for lumber....

awongh• 4 months ago

What would be great is if the EU makes some kind of regulation (it worked for usb-c?) about some kind of interoperable streaming platform pricing that forces a kind of standardization across platforms and allows at least a little bit of customization.

Let me opt into or out of ads, and let me "switch channels" across multiple different streaming services on a standardized interface with predictable pricing. Is that so crazy?

The issue is the Netflix doesn't really have that much more of a compelling catalog than anyone else, their tech is not a differentiator anymore, I might like the stuff on there right now more than Disney+ but that might change later.

The fact that what's keeping anyone on Netflix is only a slightly bothersome switching cost is probably bad news for them long-term.

culopatin• 4 months ago

Why do we need to regulate how companies make their products if people are not forced to use them or are not a basic necessity? Don’t like Netflix? Too expensive? Don’t buy it. Vote with your wallet.

adrianN• 4 months ago

In the general form you post your question there are several answers, for example because the price of anarchy is too high (charger plugs), or the products at dangerous (drugs), or to avoid externalities. Whether there are good arguments in the case of streaming is a different question.

hammock• 4 months ago

This is a no brainer for Netflix and any other streaming service. I have NO IDEA what I pay for all my streaming, whether it comes thru a credit card/cell phone benefit or not, nor even who pays for it (e.g. me, or my partner, or someone in my extended family).

They are profiting off of my ignorance.

frakt0x90• 4 months ago

I think this is true for many. Hence paid services that will keep track of subscriptions for you. I saw somewhere a proposal to force subscription services to refund you if you didn't interact with it at all during the payment period. That seems reasonable. If it's only profitable through people's inattention, it's a leech and shouldn't exist.

swyx• 4 months ago

are existing subscribers grandfathered in or no?

nickjj• 4 months ago

Nope.

I've been subbed since 2008 (before streaming with DVDs).

My bill has increased for each increase they introduced. The last bill for the standard 1080p no ads plan was $19.56 (before this new price update). It was about half that when I first signed up.

To be honest I'm going to cancel, not because I can't afford it but because they keep raising their prices very frequently and it has hit the point now where I'm not interested in paying more so they have lost a lifetime customer.

I find it funny how they also only show you the last 1 year of billing history. It's a nice dark pattern to not let you easily see how much prices have gone up over the years. You have to go through the account cancellation menu just to see when you first joined.

miduil• 4 months ago

Good for them, I cancelled my subscription simply because Linux support is so awful. It's impossible to watch in 4k, and even with 1080p you frequently get automatically downgraded to lower res bitrate whenever the window isn't focused. Absolutely daunting.

coro_1• 4 months ago

You know it's funny. Awhile ago I subscribed only to watch Stranger Things, I paid for the 1080 HD plan.

4K is clearly incentivized. Any how, I called to complain at the time. My opinion is the picture instantly got notably better when I tried standard HD again. There seems to be different degradations of 1080 and 4K.

bombcar2• 4 months ago

Resolution is easy to see, but what you really want to pay for is the bitrate.

usernamed7• 4 months ago

I won't be cancelling by subscription because I don't have one :) I have found I get way more value out of subscribing for 1-2 months to a service and then switching to another or going a few months without any.

At this point, netflix will keep raising prices. Because they can, and because they have to as a public company beholden to shareholders. I'm not sure there are other markets or other products/services they could expand into, i think they've already reached a point of saturation.

torben-friis• 4 months ago

Honestly, having parted for the seven seas years ago, every time I check I'm surprised how much the frog's been boiled.

General quality seems on par with soap opera slop, shows look like they've become a genre itself with different structure and even lightning, there's more trash tv there than there used to be in cable (which saying something), etc.

ShowalkKama• 4 months ago

you can get a seedbox with 1T of storage for about 6€/month. That gives you access to basically all popular movies and tv series in 4k, most media in 1080p and spotty access to older/niche releases you'd not be able to watch on mainstream streaming platforms.

pllbnk• 4 months ago

There's barely anything worth watching on Netflix anymore but somehow their stock is rising and they manage to increase subscription prices. I had been subscribing on and off for the past few years but recently almost never because anything worth watching (for me anyway, although I don't have some weird intricate taste in media content) is elsewhere.

garciasn• 4 months ago

I get mine with ads via VZW with HBO Max for $7/month; if it were not for that, I wouldn't keep it. Sure; I sometimes watch things on there, but it's really an awful library these days.

fnordlord2• 4 months ago

I would love for a service to automate cycling through services. Some small fee to automate getting a month or two of service from a selection of providers and just rotate. I don't need year round Netflix, Hulu and Disney but I think I'd be in trouble if I cancelled all of them. Anyone wanna startup?

nerdsniper3• 4 months ago

Jellyfin.

fnordlord2• 4 months ago

I always thought that was just a Plex alternative. I’ll have to give it a second look.

programmertote• 4 months ago

My wife is a big movie/drama series watcher. She will occasionally flips through Netflix catalog, but will always check first if the series has finished or not. If it isn't, she'll not bother. There are so many series that Netflix started but didn't finish. That and a lot of fodder movies Netflix produced.

So in the end, my wife usually doesn't end up watching anything on Netflix. We only have that account because it was sponsored by T-mobile. Otherwise, we'd not be subscribing to Netflix.

stack_framer• 4 months ago

My wife and I canceled Netflix a while ago and went back to DVDs. An FYE store in our area recently had a store closing sale, so we bought three DVD players and snapped up all our favorite DVDs for a few bucks each.

No subscription, no mid-movie ads, and no worrying about this or that service losing the streaming rights to whatever.

bombcar2• 4 months ago

Wait until you discover the local library! DVDs for days, and they let me check out a Netflix device now and then.

FiatLuxDave• 4 months ago

I already canceled last year. It's too bad, because there is a lot of Netflix content that I like. It just seems that it takes much more time clicking around to find it, and I don't have time for that. I used Netflix on Roku, and the UX is abysmal.

Question for anyone who works in this space: is the reason why most (all?) streaming services I see have the same exact UI problems because they are copying each other, or is it because of some constraint in the Roku API which doesn't allow them to fix them? For example, on Netflix, Amazon and Youtube, if I click down to a new row, (say, from Recommended for You to Action Movies), many of the icons shown will be for content that was already offered in the rows above. Like, I've already said no to this movie five times in the last minute, why do you keep asking? It's pure waste. I figure at least one of the streaming services would do things differently (and thus gain market share), but I haven't seen one. Is it due to platform limitations?

2OEH8eoCRo0• 4 months ago

PBS is $5/mo

nojvek• 4 months ago

Netflix like any rational business keeps on increasing its prices until their profits no longer grow, or a new entrant eats their lunch.

Netflix raises prices for every subscription tier by up to 12.5 percent

Related Stories