Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the check-your-credit-card-statement dept.

Netflix raises monthly prices on all of its US plans; here's how much you'll pay

Your Netflix subscription is about to get pricier. ‬

‪The popular streaming service announced that it will raise prices across its U.S. plans for new subscribers on Tuesday, and for existing users over the next three months. ‬

‪Netflix's most popular plan, previously $10.99 a month for two HD streams, will rise to $12.99. The cheapest $7.99 non-HD plan will now be $8.99, while the premium option that allowed four simultaneous streams in 4K will rise to $15.99 per month from $13.99. ‬

Netflix is raising the rates to fund its push into original programming. It was reported by The Economist last year that the company was spending between $12 billion and $13 billion on original programming in 2018, releasing popular films such as "Bird Box" and "Roma" as well as new seasons of TV shows like "13 Reasons Why," "Orange is the New Black" and "Marvel's Daredevil."

Related: Netflix Adds 5 Million Subscribers, Doubles Profit
Netflix Beats Wall Street Expectations on Subscriber Growth, Reaches $100 Billion Market Cap
Video Streaming Services set for Cambrian Explosion


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:17PM (11 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:17PM (#787575)

    Seriously, folks, when I browse Netflix, the "Netflix Original" logo on a show is a turn-off, I'll only go back and look at those when none of the non "Netflix" labeled options are appealing.

    Bird Box and friends certainly wasn't worth my share of $12B to me.

    I'd be much happier with a 2 HD stream service with the current selection minus Netflix original content for $8.99 per month, and pay-per-view $1 per additional title, particularly if the $1 pay-per-view included things that are currently disc only.

    I feel like the current "content explosion" is diluting the quality of all the shows that get produced. It is amusing to see the same actors/actresses over and over again, but the lack of originality in writing and production is boring enough that I'd frequently rather watch a good WebCam street scene.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Offtopic=1, Insightful=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Offtopic' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:27PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:27PM (#787582)

    Yea last I saw they had like 4 "sun is about to blow up" miniseries and also some others about asteroids and giant waves that were essentially the same plot.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 16 2019, @10:03PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 16 2019, @10:03PM (#787595) Journal

      Their script writing bot is still in alpha testing.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:28PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:28PM (#787583) Journal

    As other companies try to chip at Netflix's dominance with their own services, you are going to see Netflix double down on original content out of necessity (self-preservation). And I don't think this original content is necessarily bad. One thing you might be missing is the blockbusters; they spent $90 million on the cheesy Bright... yay.

    If you are willing to watch street webcams, maybe you should give no-fee fully-loaded Kodi [soylentnews.org] a shot instead. If you see bad Netflix 'riginals on there, at least you didn't pay for them.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:32PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:32PM (#787584)

      In addition to Kodi, and RedBox, there's also your local library which loans DVDs for free. Ours allows 10 at a time for up to a week between renewals.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:53PM

    by fakefuck39 (6620) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @09:53PM (#787592)

    As I'm laying in bed, I just type the name of the movie, the year, and "free hd streaming" into the search box on my phone. Then I click the chromecast icon. Super fast and Easy. Every time I see someone using Netflix it takes them like 5 minutes to start a video. As a bonus, I'll usually watch my stuff in French - much easier through a random website.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Apparition on Wednesday January 16 2019, @11:11PM (4 children)

    by Apparition (6835) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @11:11PM (#787643) Journal

    Pretty soon, the original programming is all Netflix will have left. Disney has been pulling their content from Netflix in favor of Hulu and the upcoming Disney+. AT&T/WarnerMedia announced that their own video streaming service will launch at the end of the year and almost all of their content on other video streaming services will disappear in favor of their own. Comcast/NBC announced their own video streaming service a couple of days ago which will launch next year, and they too plan to pull almost all of their content from other video streaming services.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 17 2019, @03:16AM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday January 17 2019, @03:16AM (#787748)

      It does appear that you are correct. We have been Netflix subscribers since we got the flyer with our first DVD player back in the '90s, and have never left because there has never been a more compelling service out there. However, they may mistake this continuous subscriber base like us as complacent... if (when?) there is no more outside programming on Netflix, I suspect I'll be leaving for something better, if there is anything better by then, still haven't seen a viable replacement.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:16AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:16AM (#787795)

        They do make it easy to stop and restart your account when there is something you want to watch.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:10AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:10AM (#787794)

      One of the main issues I have is that they keep raising their rates and they keep losing content. What content they have is hard to find and as a result, I'm not paying for a subscription. I've got one, but only because T-Mobile is picking up the tab.

      The service is just too expensive for what they're offering. There was a time when it was a good deal, but I'm not going to subscribe to it and then have to subscribe to several other services to get the content that I want. They've all decided to be greedy and as a result, none of them are going to be getting my money. I'll either do without completely or resort to piracy.

      This is one of the reasons why copyright needs to be revised, they all think that we all have huge amounts of money to give them and the reality is that we don't. Few people are going to sign up for all these services that have their exclusive content. We might sign up for a couple, but not all of them. The magic of Netflix is that it was a more or less one stop shop for most of the content we wanted and it was at a reasonable price. I'd have no issues paying $13 a month or even $20 a month for a shop that had all or most of the stuff I want, but at this point, that's not likely to be a possibility until most of these streaming services go belly up from lack of subscribers.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 17 2019, @11:05AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 17 2019, @11:05AM (#787841) Journal

        There was a time when it was a good deal, but I'm not going to subscribe to it and then have to subscribe to several other services to get the content that I want.

        Yeah, is sooo much better when you'll have to subscribe to N-1 other services.
        Because you can safely bet your ass they aren't gonna cross-license the movies in their catalogue one to the other for some time. Inevitable and reluctantly, they'll do it, but not immediately.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @12:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @12:06AM (#787663)

    I feel like the current "content explosion" is diluting the quality of all the shows that get produced. It is amusing to see the same actors/actresses over and over again, but the lack of originality in writing and production is boring enough that I'd frequently rather watch a good WebCam street scene.

    Stormy Daniels, is that you?