Netflix has raised the price of its top subscription plan in the UK, US, and France.
Netflix’s Premium tier, which you need for 4K and HDR streams, has jumped from £14.99 a month to £17.99 a month.
The Basic plan, which actually isn’t available to new subscribers any more, has also increased from £6.99 a month to £7.99.
This was the cheapest tier before Netflix’s ad-supported model was introduced, and gets you relatively crude 720p resolution streams.
It’s bad news all-round for Netflix fans, particularly as the Netflix Premium subscription got a lot weaker when the streamer implemented anti-password-sharing measures in the UK around July 2023.
How much is Netflix a month?
Your current options are the ad-supported subscription for £4.99 a month, which plays adverts before and during shows (some recent movies won’t have mid-roll ads). But a few movies and shows are missing from this ad-supported tier thanks to rights issues.
The Netflix Standard tier costs £10.99 a month and lets you watch at Full HD resolution, on up to two devices at the same time. It hasn’t seen a price hike. Phew.
Then there’s the £17.99 Netflix Premium model, which unlocks 4K streaming, HDR and spatial audio, and lets four devices stream at the same time.
This makes Netflix fairly pricey compared to Amazon Prime Video which, for £8.99 a month or £95 a year, nets you 4K and HDR streams plus other benefits, like free delivery from Amazon and monthly freebies from Amazon Prime Gaming.
Netflix’s current screw-tightening tactics appear to be working, though, as 8.8 million subscribers have been added to the ranks between July and September.
This exceeds the six-million estimates put forwards by analysts, and puts current subscriber numbers at around 247 million worldwide. The service also added 5.9 million in the previous quarter.
As a trailblazer in fun-robbing, Netflix has unsurprisingly inspired other streamers to take action. Disney Plus will begin implementing anti-password-sharing measures in November, just in time for Christmas.
Canadian Disney Plus users were sent an email informing them of these changes back in September, but we haven’t heard of when they may come to the UK. The groundwork is already right there on the Disney Plus website.
“You may not share your account and subscription outside of your household. 'Household' means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein,” one support page reads.
