Netflix Raises Subscription Prices

Netflix prices are going up. The wildly popular streaming service is increasing the price on it plans as content costs continue to soar and competition from Disney and others intensifies.

According to Fortune, the company’s standard plan, which had cost $11 per month, will now set you back $13 per month. Its premium option, which doubles the number of screens you can watch Netflix programming on and allows for Ultra HD content, will now cost $16 per month, up from $14. Netflix’s basic plan is jumping from $8 per month to $9 per month.

The prices reflect the biggest single price hike since Netflix’s streaming service launched. It’s also the first price increase on the company’s basic plan. New customers are subject to them now and existing subscribers will see their prices go up over the next few months.

A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement that it raised its prices to allow it to “continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience for the benefit of our members.”

Netflix has been investing heavily in recent years in original content and accessing the rights to popular content. But that all comes at a significant cost. In response, Netflix has raised billions of dollars in debt in recent months to acquire new content.

The price hike could prove to be an important cash infusion for the company. At the end of the third quarter of 2018, Netflix had 137 million subscribers. A price increase of just a couple of dollars could be enough for Netflix to generate billions of additional revenue each year