Netflix prices are going up in one of the most predicable entertainment moves since things worked out in Sleepless in Seattle. Netflix is a player, right? Netflix is transforming the world of entertainment. Netflix is visionary. Netflix is virtually a studio now, making innovative original programming that wins awards and keeps viewers binge-watching. That’s the good stuff. But Netflix can’t do all that for free. The company delivers content because the company spends money — $6 to $7 billion this year on content buys, according to sources.
Netflix is a little like the government — to create all the stuff everyone wants (like Stranger Things) it has to have the capital. Where does it get the money? From us! Subscribers are the taxpayers of Netflix — subscribers give Netflix the money to buy Stranger Things and the next Stranger Things. So prices in the US are going up — but only on the middle and top tier levels. Subscribers who pay $9.99 for standard Netfflix service will see the monthly rate bumped a buck to $10.99. The price of the premium Netflix tier will rise two bucks, from $11.99 to $13.99. The $7.99 level stays the same for now, just as it did during the last Netflix price hikes in 2014. If it’s ballpark correct that Netflix has 50 million US subscribers and if the average raise, given the tiers, is $1 per month — then the bump gives Netflix an extra $600,000,000 a year.
Hey @hardwick. Since you’re not a mouthbreather, @milliebbrown has a special spoiler for you. pic.twitter.com/dxe7lMA6JU
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) October 5, 2017
