Premium movie platform Netflix raises prices again
The streaming giant announced in its third-quarter earnings report that its premium ad-free plan will increase to $22.99 starting Wednesday. In the United States, it will raise the price of its one-stream basic plan to $11.99 per month. All other plans, including the entry-level, $6.99-a-month ad-supported tier, will remain the same.
In the U.K. and France, Netflix also announced price increases for some subscription tiers.
A 9% year-over-year increase in average paid memberships was reported last quarter, adding 8.8 million subscribers. That’s up from 2.4 million in the third quarter of last year. In the third quarter, Netflix had 247 million paying subscribers around the world.
Several of Netflix’s strong subscriber growth can be attributed to its ongoing crackdown on password sharing. In every region where Netflix operates, the company has officially launched its “paid sharing” program, and fewer customers than expected have cancelled their memberships. According to Netflix, many customers who previously borrowed passwords from others are now paying subscribers.
Boosted by higher-than-expected membership growth, the company brought in $8.54 billion in revenue last quarter. $3.73 was the earnings per share for the quarter.
Netflix described this summer’s writers’ guild and actors’ guild strikes as “challenging” in a letter to shareholders. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, said the company is “totally committed” to ending the actors strike after last month’s agreement with the writers guild.
To attract new subscribers, Netflix’s co-CEOs Sarandos and Greg Peters also emphasized the company’s investments in newer business areas, like gaming and sports content.