Netflix to hike prices by up to £24 a year for some – here's what's happening

MSE_Molly_G

Netflix subscribers on its basic and premium plans will see costs rise by up to £24 a year as the streaming service has announced a new round of price hikes.

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Netflix to hike prices by up to £24 a year for some – here's what's happening

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eri1964

Probably I'll cancel it then... more expensive but less quality content than ever?? 

PascalG

We cancelled Netflix when they started this share malarkey, we are a multi-generation household with two of my family driving for a living.  They stay in BnB's or their wagons so use whatever wi-fi they can get.

They  were getting harassed like mad, we added their HDMI sticks to our household but always at a critical moment the accusation screens appeared and they could not get access. 

On one of them it had an option to say "I'm traveling" and it had the audacity to say you have done enough traveling, they had only one token it appears.

The price of Netflix was already high but I factored in the 4 screens, I can't believe they are hiking prices again.

We had given them years of business but now I have real contempt for Netflix and I will NEVER buy from them again.  It seems to me they have destroyed their brand, they will experience a short blip but watch this space, they are finished.

I heard on the radio that they are trying to push people to their ad version, this shows how little they understand their customers, it was one of the reasons we went with them in the first place.

I have done a few trials of other services but mostly I have gone back to downloading, so I can still see Netflix content, albeit not legally.  I am not promoting this, in fact I do not like doing it but if it hurts Netflix then I am willing.

None of my family have signed up with them, we all feel the same way (angry), some are using free channels like Pluto and the catch-up channels, one has got AppleTV free and she tells me I can get it free via their account on some sort of family sharing sub they already had.

Netflix have made the classic mistake that Sky made 15-20 years ago, they got into a bidding war when what used to set them apart was producing their own quality content.  Now they content is dire and they buy in content from elsewhere that I have no interest in.  The portal was also awful and they are always putting hurdles in front of you, I am sure 90% of people want to see continue watching first.

Soon they will be locked into paying more and more for content while losing subscribers at alarming rates.  When they go bust or are taken over I will cheer, they can shove their proposition where the sun does not shine.

DigSunPap

I remember reading somewhere that they were bringing in a cheaper subscription method but the catch was that there would be advertisements instead. Unsure if this is actually going to happen or if anybody can fact-check me

Neil_Jones

DigSunPap said:

I remember reading somewhere that they were bringing in a cheaper subscription method but the catch was that there would be advertisements instead. Unsure if this is actually going to happen or if anybody can fact-check me

That happened last year:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/10/netflix-confirms-new-ad-supported-tier-for-p4-99-a-month--launch/

eri1964

It is funny, how everything is starting to go back to it's original. As I heard they are trying to open brick-and-mortar stores again ( remember Blockbuster?) and thinking to insert ads now? They are basically just turning into the conventional media. But on the dark side, they definitely lowered the quality of the content.

DigSunPap

Neil_Jones said:

DigSunPap said:

I remember reading somewhere that they were bringing in a cheaper subscription method but the catch was that there would be advertisements instead. Unsure if this is actually going to happen or if anybody can fact-check me

That happened last year:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/10/netflix-confirms-new-ad-supported-tier-for-p4-99-a-month--launch/

Wow I am really slow to the party! Didn't realise it was already put into place, I had been meaning to change my subscription for a while - adverts don't really tend to bother me too much.

Keu

We also dumped Netflix, we don't like being messed with and the quality of content is dire, we got Netflix for original content and no more advertising.

Netflix was forgiven for giving us awful content with movies going as far back as the 70's when we had the pandemic, but we are well past that excuse.  Also they give the first few series of a BBC production but leave us high and dry or they buy series 5 and 6 of a series that started on the BBC or Channel 4, no way I would start any series half way through.  They had this "topboy" production only it had half the episodes of previous series and they killed off both main characters.

As for the MSE poll, the serious difference here is that part of the value proposition for four screens was the 4k and none of the other Netflix subs support that, then they do the same with HD.  It is a bit like Sainsburys charging people in a Porsche or BMW way more for the same petrol because there is hardly any 4k content and it just annoys the F out of me to be "played" by Netflix.  Charging more for HD is like extending that petrol con to people driving a family saloon.

We are also doing the MSE suggested trials on other platforms, but if anything this has just pushed us back into AppleTV which we get free and downloading if we want any other content, i.e. not interested in Netflix.

It is interesting that the younger generation that were tempted into Netflix with a six month free subscription are simply not bothered with keeping Netflix, they might watch the occasional programme but they would rather pay for Apple Music or Spotify.

We did find a way to hack Netflix  but why bother, it really is not worth the effort, that tells you something about the quality of the content. 

Netflix messing us around during a cost of living crisis made us just think "do we need this sub" and we realised we did not.  If they had not pulled this stunt we would have probably carried on paying regardless.  It is a like a gym membership that you hardly use because life is busy, or continuing to pay for a mobile phone contract when it has actually come to an end.  One of my relatives earns very good money (over £250k into household) but they also dumped Netflix, they kept Amazon, Apple and even Disney. 

It is hard to imagine us ever going back to Netflix, their reputations is mud for us now, because we feel ripped off and nobody wants to be a mug.  Previously, we could almost justify the cost but now none of the offers make any financial sense.  We might have gone down to the basic plan without ads but that is no longer available and at £7.99 is not HD never mind 4k, so stuff that.  

They could make it FREE with ads but I would not be interested and here is where the problem is, this is all about Netflix not about their Customers needs.  Netflix wants to cattle prod us all into ads when being ad free was one of their benefits, especially as a replacement for BBC. 

If the BBC produced an app without the shotgun TV Licence I would probably go for it, again it is a matter of principle, I will not be forced to jump over hurdles or threatened with goons, hard to forgive the BBC for what they have done and are continuing to do to the elderly. 

So Netflix have priced themselves out of the market, that might have been OK if they had truly superb content but they don't.  They are heading down the freeview route in terms of content, so called reality TV that is just tripe, a billion badly dubbed foreign language productions and the platform suffers from "too much information".

They put all these rows in the way, many of which have the same shows in row 1 2 & 3, or shows we already watched.  I should not tell them but they need a filter where each screen can turn off films and series by country of production, Language, Certificate, IMDB rating, movie type (I hate horror), watched, partially watched or not watched, This might overcome the too much information aspect.  I achieve this will Plex by creating libraries for content below 60% and it already has the watched detail.  In Netflix it has the red line on episodes of series but not on films and even if you have watched a series several times it still takes up screen content saying "we think you will love this" !!!!!!.  It also lacks a sort option, again Plex is superb at this.

if someone in our social circle tells us we have to see XYZ Netflix show I get a family member to go download it, but currently Plex offers payment on a pay per view, if they can get the prices lower it may become viable when finances improve.

I have tried to think of what positive things would make us want to stick with Netflix but I truly can't, there "might" be something good on there but I can't find it and as they are so rare I can't justify the cost.  If I wanted ads there are 100 different options and I do not appreciate being squeezed for HD or 4k.  The value of this was that your kids could use it at Uni and even when they went got their own flat.  I gather Netflix reversed their policy in some countries because of a backlash, so keeping it with UK just makes us mugs.

The sweet spot was £6 with no ads or £5 for a single screen with no ads might have been OK, but now they are just taking the P.

My sister dumped Netflix too, she was paying for the top package and has BT Internet, her daughter was using BT Wifi at Uni which is included in the BT Internet and she got the Netflix nag screens, she confirmed she was in the household but they nagged her again.  At that point she called me and I told her I had dumped Netflix, she then told me she hardly watches it, she asked her daughter and she was not bothered to keep it either.  So she dumped it too.

All Netflix are doing is opening things up for their competitors, they have signaled that they are not interested in ad free low cost subscriptions, but I can bet that many players ARE. It is funny how some companies can do really well and then throw away all their success with stupid decisions that annoy or upset the user base they spend years building.  This behaviour just tells us that Netflix does not value us as customers, well that is fine and reciprocated. 

And if you thought this was me being a cantankerous git checkout the Netflix rating on Trustpilot, 1.5 stars, 60% of people give worst rating possible, a further 12% give 2 star and just 12% give 5 star.



If I were an analyst at a Merchant Bank I would be grading Netflix a SELL recommendation, all this price hiking seems an act of desperation.

DigSunPap

Keu said:

We also dumped Netflix, we don't like being messed with and the quality of content is dire, we got Netflix for original content and no more advertising.

Netflix was forgiven for giving us awful content with movies going as far back as the 70's when we had the pandemic, but we are well past that excuse.  Also they give the first few series of a BBC production but leave us high and dry or they buy series 5 and 6 of a series that started on the BBC or Channel 4, no way I would start any series half way through.  They had this "topboy" production only it had half the episodes of previous series and they killed off both main characters.

As for the MSE poll, the serious difference here is that part of the value proposition for four screens was the 4k and none of the other Netflix subs support that, then they do the same with HD.  It is a bit like Sainsburys charging people in a Porsche or BMW way more for the same petrol because there is hardly any 4k content and it just annoys the F out of me to be "played" by Netflix.  Charging more for HD is like extending that petrol con to people driving a family saloon.

We are also doing the MSE suggested trials on other platforms, but if anything this has just pushed us back into AppleTV which we get free and downloading if we want any other content, i.e. not interested in Netflix.

It is interesting that the younger generation that were tempted into Netflix with a six month free subscription are simply not bothered with keeping Netflix, they might watch the occasional programme but they would rather pay for Apple Music or Spotify.

We did find a way to hack Netflix  but why bother, it really is not worth the effort, that tells you something about the quality of the content. 

Netflix messing us around during a cost of living crisis made us just think "do we need this sub" and we realised we did not.  If they had not pulled this stunt we would have probably carried on paying regardless.  It is a like a gym membership that you hardly use because life is busy, or continuing to pay for a mobile phone contract when it has actually come to an end.  One of my relatives earns very good money (over £250k into household) but they also dumped Netflix, they kept Amazon, Apple and even Disney. 

It is hard to imagine us ever going back to Netflix, their reputations is mud for us now, because we feel ripped off and nobody wants to be a mug.  Previously, we could almost justify the cost but now none of the offers make any financial sense.  We might have gone down to the basic plan without ads but that is no longer available and at £7.99 is not HD never mind 4k, so stuff that.  

They could make it FREE with ads but I would not be interested and here is where the problem is, this is all about Netflix not about their Customers needs.  Netflix wants to cattle prod us all into ads when being ad free was one of their benefits, especially as a replacement for BBC. 

If the BBC produced an app without the shotgun TV Licence I would probably go for it, again it is a matter of principle, I will not be forced to jump over hurdles or threatened with goons, hard to forgive the BBC for what they have done and are continuing to do to the elderly. 

So Netflix have priced themselves out of the market, that might have been OK if they had truly superb content but they don't.  They are heading down the freeview route in terms of content, so called reality TV that is just tripe, a billion badly dubbed foreign language productions and the platform suffers from "too much information".

They put all these rows in the way, many of which have the same shows in row 1 2 & 3, or shows we already watched.  I should not tell them but they need a filter where each screen can turn off films and series by country of production, Language, Certificate, IMDB rating, movie type (I hate horror), watched, partially watched or not watched, This might overcome the too much information aspect.  I achieve this will Plex by creating libraries for content below 60% and it already has the watched detail.  In Netflix it has the red line on episodes of series but not on films and even if you have watched a series several times it still takes up screen content saying "we think you will love this" !!!!!!.  It also lacks a sort option, again Plex is superb at this.

if someone in our social circle tells us we have to see XYZ Netflix show I get a family member to go download it, but currently Plex offers payment on a pay per view, if they can get the prices lower it may become viable when finances improve.

I have tried to think of what positive things would make us want to stick with Netflix but I truly can't, there "might" be something good on there but I can't find it and as they are so rare I can't justify the cost.  If I wanted ads there are 100 different options and I do not appreciate being squeezed for HD or 4k.  The value of this was that your kids could use it at Uni and even when they went got their own flat.  I gather Netflix reversed their policy in some countries because of a backlash, so keeping it with UK just makes us mugs.

The sweet spot was £6 with no ads or £5 for a single screen with no ads might have been OK, but now they are just taking the P.

My sister dumped Netflix too, she was paying for the top package and has BT Internet, her daughter was using BT Wifi at Uni which is included in the BT Internet and she got the Netflix nag screens, she confirmed she was in the household but they nagged her again.  At that point she called me and I told her I had dumped Netflix, she then told me she hardly watches it, she asked her daughter and she was not bothered to keep it either.  So she dumped it too.

All Netflix are doing is opening things up for their competitors, they have signaled that they are not interested in ad free low cost subscriptions, but I can bet that many players ARE. It is funny how some companies can do really well and then throw away all their success with stupid decisions that annoy or upset the user base they spend years building.  This behaviour just tells us that Netflix does not value us as customers, well that is fine and reciprocated. 

And if you thought this was me being a cantankerous git checkout the Netflix rating on Trustpilot, 1.5 stars, 60% of people give worst rating possible, a further 12% give 2 star and just 12% give 5 star.



If I were an analyst at a Merchant Bank I would be grading Netflix a SELL recommendation, all this price hiking seems an act of desperation.

Couldn't agree more - seems as though they are increasing it every year now

housebuyer143

Agree with @Keu
I quit netflix the moment they stopped sharing. Thought about signing up again recently to see they wanted £11 😱 I will never pay £11 for Netflix. 
Have to say you definitely summed up the problem with too much content and I hate starting to watch a show and it be dubbed (most annoying thing ever!!).

I am plenty happy watching and sharing Disney, prime and paramount

400ixl

Keu said:

If I were an analyst at a Merchant Bank I would be grading Netflix a SELL recommendation, all this price hiking seems an act of desperation.

Good job you have chosen a different career then. Great rant though (and I don't mean that sarcastically).

Netflix subscriber count is going back up as is their revenue this year. Their share price is up 67% in the last year.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/netflix-statistics/

And by the way, Disney+ as a competitor is losing subscribers over the same period.