General Entertainment Netflix is raising its prices

[SaysWho?]

Quote

Netflix is raising its U.S. prices by 13 percent to 18 percent, its biggest increase since the company launched its streaming service 12 years ago.

 

Its most popular plan will see the largest hike, to $13 per month from $11. That option offers high-definition streaming on up to two different internet-connected devices simultaneously. Even at the higher price, that plan is still a few dollars cheaper than HBO, whose streaming service charges $15 per month.

 

 

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/netflix-raising-prices-for-58m-us-subscribers-as-costs-rise/

[Mercury33]

Sucks but it’s inevitible that these prices would go up eventually. 

 

Btw I’ve always been curious but too lazy to google. How does Netflix make enough money to bank roll his newer wave of high budget content its rolling out. It can’t just be from subscriptions. 

[skillzdadirecta]

43 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

Sucks but it’s inevitible that these prices would go up eventually. 

 

Btw I’ve always been curious but too lazy to google. How does Netflix make enough money to bank roll his newer wave of high budget content its rolling out. It can’t just be from subscriptions. 

Probably by selling our Data like everyone else

[TwinIon]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

Btw I’ve always been curious but too lazy to google. How does Netflix make enough money to bank roll his newer wave of high budget content its rolling out. It can’t just be from subscriptions. 

For the time being they've been taking on a ton of debt. Eventually they will have to figure out how much they can put into content and be profitable, but for now they're just spending wildly.

[elbobo]

14 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

For the time being they've been taking on a ton of debt. Eventually they will have to figure out how much they can put into content and be profitable, but for now they're just spending wildly.

 

since they are actually canceling shows now I think they are trying to get things in line going forward. 

[Jason]

30 minutes ago, elbobo said:

 

since they are actually canceling shows now I think they are trying to get things in line going forward. 

 

Other than the Marvel shows, where it's pretty obvious that the decision wasn't really about the performance of the shows, have they really been canceling much? I know they canceled Sense 8, but they're also giving it a wrap-up movie. 

[TwinIon]

49 minutes ago, elbobo said:

since they are actually canceling shows now I think they are trying to get things in line going forward. 

They are indeed canceling more shows now then they used to, but overall it hasn't slowed down their spending at all.

 

Netflix upped their content spend in 2018 from a projected $8B to $13B, creating something like 1,500 hours of content. Before that spend increase, this Bloomberg article goes into just how much debt they're taking on. They do still report a profit on their quarterly financials, a net income of ~$1B through september of 2018, thanks to how they spread out their debt over multiple years.

 

Still, the point is that they're still in a "borrow money to grow as fast as possible" phase, and there's no reason to expect they won't continue that in the next year or two as more competing services continue to launch from giant companies like Disney and AT&T/Time Warner.

[elbobo]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

Other than the Marvel shows, where it's pretty obvious that the decision wasn't really about the performance of the shows, have they really been canceling much? I know they canceled Sense 8, but they're also giving it a wrap-up movie. 

 

it is not a small number of shows, some these are true cancels and others just came to the end of their run

 

https://www.simplemost.com/all-the-shows-netflix-has-canceled/

 

 

[number305]

6 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

Sucks but it’s inevitible that these prices would go up eventually. 

 

Btw I’ve always been curious but too lazy to google. How does Netflix make enough money to bank roll his newer wave of high budget content its rolling out. It can’t just be from subscriptions. 

Well my quick math (which could be wrong) shows that they have 117 million subscribers.  The article posted here says the most popular plan is going to be $13 per month.  That would mean they are taking in over 1.5b per month.  That is a lot of cash.  They obviously have some big bills to pay and they are heavily invested in new content... but if they can keep that revenue stream they should be okay.  If the revenue stream dips (hi disney) they could be in trouble.

[GeneticBlueprint]

I currently have it free through T-Mobile. I wonder if that will be affected.

[Nokt]

Might have to start charging my parents since they use my account

[Keyser_Soze]

24 minutes ago, Nokt said:

Might have to start charging my parents since they use my account

 

Supposedly they are going to start cracking down on account sharing as well.

[Jason]

40 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Supposedly they are going to start cracking down on account sharing as well.

 

A quick Google search says that if Netflix buys the software to track it, one of the remedies would be to make you upgrade to multi-screen plan anyhow. So unless you're sharing a single-screen plan or something, I don't see why it'd really affect you even if it's true. 

[Nokt]

12 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Supposedly they are going to start cracking down on account sharing as well.

I have the 4K plan which means I have up to 4 screens at once right or would they still crack down on that?

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Nokt said:

I have the 4K plan which means I have up to 4 screens at once right or would they still crack down on that?

 

Probably not.

It's probably more for single screen people logging on to friend's devices or something.

[Chairslinger]

5 years ago Netflix was my only streaming service and I never would have imagined saying this, but I think I might drop down to buying a month here and there to binge on shows or seasons when they come out. 

 

I do not like their strategy of becoming a glorified premium cable channel. And 13 per month is getting to where I can't justify keeping it around just for the hell of it. Most of my viewing is done on Hulu now, anyway.

[Mercury33]

1 hour ago, Chairslinger said:

5 years ago Netflix was my only streaming service and I never would have imagined saying this, but I think I might drop down to buying a month here and there to binge on shows or seasons when they come out. 

 

I do not like their strategy of becoming a glorified premium cable channel. And 13 per month is getting to where I can't justify keeping it around just for the hell of it. Most of my viewing is done on Hulu now, anyway.

 

What direction would you prefer they take? With more and ore companies starting their own services the amount of content from other providers that Netflix can show is dwindling. 

[Chairslinger]

14 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

 

What direction would you prefer they take? With more and ore companies starting their own services the amount of content from other providers that Netflix can show is dwindling. 

 

 

Yeah, I am aware of the argument. Netflix grabbed a lot of cheap content in the early days and those deals have been expiring. But they're still choosing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on original content I largely don't care about instead of keeping old shows that I do.

 

I have always said that the price increases for Netflix don't bother me because it's still leagues better than cable, but the narrowing of its content(as I said, it feels more and more like a glorified HBO than it does a true smorgasbord of content) along with this price increase finally makes me think I don't need to keep it around just because some day after work I feel like watching some random old show. It's more like HBO where I'd use a two week free trial to binge GoT then let it go without missing it much.

 

And ultimately, I am not rage quitting them or anything. I guess they're doing what they think is smart business for them...it just doesn't fit my tastes. And I didn't really mean it as a jab at Netflix, it's just genuinely surprising to me. As I find myself watching Hulu almost exclusively I really do think back to not 5 years ago when Hulu was a garbage fire of free and paid content with a horrible UI I would never have imagined I would prefer it over Netflix, which for a time I used as literally the only TV/Movie service I had.

[Keyser_Soze]

I actually haven't watched Netflix streaming in a while. I rarely watch the movies only the shows. I guess I am streaming that Ken Burns Vietnam doc but other than that I've actually invested in a Viki subscription. It was like $30 for a year. Gotta watch my K-Dramas @thewhyteboar

[Jason]

7 hours ago, Chairslinger said:

Yeah, I am aware of the argument. Netflix grabbed a lot of cheap content in the early days and those deals have been expiring. But they're still choosing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on original content I largely don't care about instead of keeping old shows that I do.

 

Originally they were able to license a ton of content for cheap because traditional media companies didn't take them, or streaming in general, seriously. Whereas now the content owners will routinely ask for unreasonably high rates to renew the license, and even just outright continue to renew. Even before each company decided to just start their own streaming service, there was a lot of intentionally rotating content between Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon simply to try to keep any from becoming strong enough to become a threat. 

[Joe]

If you watch Netflix for their catalog of old shows, you're kind of missing the point.

 

[Keyser_Soze]

18 minutes ago, Jose said:

If you watch Netflix for their catalog of old shows, you're kind of missing the point.

 

 

Yall should be watching Memories of the Alhambra

[johnny]

Netflix is still my streaming preference with prime video behind it. Hulu is like off to the side since I prefer movies to shows and they have like a handful of movies I’m interested in. 

[Joe]

2 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Yall should be watching Memories of the Alhambra

 

Sounds ridiculous yet intriguing. I will definitely check it out. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I have so much on my Netflix watchlist, much of it original content. I need to go ahead and watch all of The Handmaid's Tale and I'll probably cancel Hulu for a while. I'll sub to HBO when GoT premieres. 

[Xbob42]

On 1/15/2019 at 7:31 AM, Mercury33 said:

Sucks but it’s inevitible that these prices would go up eventually. 

 

Btw I’ve always been curious but too lazy to google. How does Netflix make enough money to bank roll his newer wave of high budget content its rolling out. It can’t just be from subscriptions. 

???

 

Last I checked, Netflix had like 137 million subs.

 

$11 x 137,000,000 = 1,507,000,000

 

Per MONTH

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jose said:

If you watch Netflix for their catalog of old shows, you're kind of missing the point.

 

The point of Netflix streaming was to replace Netflix disc service. The further along it goes the more Netflix is turning into just another premium cable channel. I think it is Netflix that is missing the point of why people subscribed in the first place.

[Keyser_Soze]

Just now, sblfilms said:

The point of Netflix streaming was to replace Netflix disc service. The further along it goes the more Netflix is turning into just another premium cable channel. I think it is Netflix that is missing the point of why people subscribed in the first place.

 

Yeah but even HBO branched out into shows and whatnot, they're trying to match that. Watch some movies watch some tv.

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Jose said:

If you watch Netflix for their catalog of old shows, you're kind of missing the point.

 

That did used to be the value proposition.

 

4 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

The point of Netflix streaming was to replace Netflix disc service. The further along it goes the more Netflix is turning into just another premium cable channel. I think it is Netflix that is missing the point of why people subscribed in the first place.

 

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Originally they were able to license a ton of content for cheap because traditional media companies didn't take them, or streaming in general, seriously. Whereas now the content owners will routinely ask for unreasonably high rates to renew the license, and even just outright continue to renew. Even before each company decided to just start their own streaming service, there was a lot of intentionally rotating content between Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon simply to try to keep any from becoming strong enough to become a threat. 

 

Not saying that people should use that as a reason to keep subscribing if Netflix is no longer giving them what they want, but I don't think it's so much Netflix "missing the point" as Netflix having this shift in model largely forced on them.

[Joe]

1 hour ago, sblfilms said:

The point of Netflix streaming was to replace Netflix disc service. The further along it goes the more Netflix is turning into just another premium cable channel. I think it is Netflix that is missing the point of why people subscribed in the first place.

 

True, but it's been obvious that the point of Netflix changed several years ago is what I was trying to say. It'd be like bemoaning the fact that Amazon doesn't really prioritize selling books online anymore.

[thewhyteboar]

9 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I actually haven't watched Netflix streaming in a while. I rarely watch the movies only the shows. I guess I am streaming that Ken Burns Vietnam doc but other than that I've actually invested in a Viki subscription. It was like $30 for a year. Gotta watch my K-Dramas @thewhyteboar

I don't know how you watch those. I can't stand Korean dramas.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

That did used to be the value proposition.

 

 

 

Not saying that people should use that as a reason to keep subscribing if Netflix is no longer giving them what they want, but I don't think it's so much Netflix "missing the point" as Netflix having this shift in model largely forced on them.

I was being cheeky about the missing the point . Certainly their shift in focus is largely as a response to the changing landscape of content rights and competiting platforms.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Netflix has gotta make the interest payments on its mountain of debt somehow!

[Keyser_Soze]

59 minutes ago, thewhyteboar said:

I don't know how you watch those. I can't stand Korean dramas. 

 

I dunno, maybe I'm just watching the good ones.

[TheLeon]

15 hours ago, Chairslinger said:

5 years ago Netflix was my only streaming service and I never would have imagined saying this, but I think I might drop down to buying a month here and there to binge on shows or seasons when they come out. 

 

I do not like their strategy of becoming a glorified premium cable channel. And 13 per month is getting to where I can't justify keeping it around just for the hell of it. Most of my viewing is done on Hulu now, anyway.

For the past couple years, I’ve been subbing to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and HBO, but only one or two at a time. Once I realize that I haven’t watched anything on a particular service for a few weeks, I’ll just cancel it. After a few months, if they’ve added enough new things that I want to watch, I’ll resub. They make it easy enough to do (they save your lists and all that) and they sometimes offer free months to bring you back, particularly Hulu. 

 

While I’m not particularly looking forward to the future where everything is exclusive to its own streaming service, I’ll just try and stick to a similar plan of action.