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Uh-oh! Netflix price rises may be incoming

Subscriptions may get pricier once the Hollywood strikes are done.

Uh-oh! Netflix price rises may be incoming
Andrew Williams
04 October 2023

Netflix may be about to raise its prices yet again.

According to the Wall Street Jounrnal, Netflix is looking at increasing its subscription prices once the current Hollywood strike action comes to an end.

The movie-slinger will apparently wait “a few months” after the strikes end before hiking prices, which should give it time to start getting productions back in action.

There have been two major strike actions over in the film and TV world, those by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

WGA is the Writer’s Guild of America, which has managed to work out a preliminary deal with the big studios. That strike is ended, fingers crossed.

However, the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, remains on strike.

Netflix, and the other big studios, kinda need both actors and writers to make their wares, even with all the clever AI nonsense we have at our fingertips these days.

These upcoming price rises will affect a bunch of different countries, including the “US and Canada.”

Those in the UK and US got a price bump in 2022. Since then Netflix has introduced an ad-supported tier and killed off the cheapest subscription without ads.

This means if you don’t want your shows disturbed by adverts, you’re going to have to pay at least $15.49/£10.99 a month. You may also have noticed Netflix has cracked down on account sharing in a major way in the last year, asking for an extra wad of cash if you want to add someone who doesn't live in the same house.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos estimated the company’s production spend from 2022-2024 would be $17 billion earlier this year.

According to calculations made by the WGA, Netflix will end up spending an extra 0.2% of its annual revenue after factoring in the changes made in the WGA’s strike-ending deal. We’re yet to see how the actors’ guild could further impact Netflix’s bottom line, although you’d imagine Netflix is already attempting to factor this into price bump plans.