Following its recent price-hiking efforts in the U.S., Netflix has announced its plan to raise the platform’s U.K. streaming prices by as much as 20%, per Variety.
The monthly subscription rate for the platform’s Standard plans will rise from £7.99 to £8.99 (a 12.5% bump), while its Premium plan will increase from £9.99 to £11.99 (20%). The price of the standard-definition Basic plan will not change under the new decision.
The new prices will be applied to new subscribers in the U.K. immediately, but Netflix will notify the existing 10 million U.K. subscribers by email and within the app before the new prices are applied to their plans.
Netflix previously raised its subscription charges for U.K. customers in 2017.
In January of this year, the streaming giant announced higher pricing for all U.S. plans, marking the company’s largest price increase in its history. The company justified the increase by describing it as an effort to invest in “great entertainment” and to improve “the overall Netflix experience.”
“We change our prices from time to time to reflect the significant investments we’ve made in new TV shows and films, as well as improvements to our product,” a Netflix representative told Variety of the U.K. increases.
The streamer’s latest change in subscription charges comes ahead of the U.S. launch of Disney+ later this year. Seeing that Disney+ will cost $6.99/month in the U.S., roughly half of the cost of a Netflix subscription, competition already seems to be a-brewin’. Netflix will also be battling it out in the streaming market with Apple TV+ this autumn.
Well … you have to spend money to make money.
Check out what’s coming to Netflix in June 2019 here.