Pay more to watch Netflix as streaming giant earns 8.76 mn new subscribers

San Francisco, Oct 19

Netflix has increased prices of its plans and now, users will now have to pay $11.99 per month for its Basic plan, from the current $9.99, in the US.

Those paying $19.99 per month for its Premium plan will have to shell out $22.99. Netflix’s $6.99 ad-supported plan and $15.49 Standard tier will not change at the moment.

“As we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more,” Netflix wrote in its letter to shareholders late on Wednesday as it declared its Q3 quarterly results.

“Our starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket,” said the company.

The company was yet to reveal if the new prices will be effective in other global markets, including the price-sensitive India market.

The streaming giant added 8.76 million new subscribers during the quarter, bringing the global total to 247.15 million.

"Our Q3 financials were in-line with to ahead of forecast with revenue of $8.5 billion, paid net adds of 9 million and operating margin of 22.4 per cent,” said Netflix.

In addition to its password-sharing crackdown “exceeding” expectations, Netflix also saw significant gains to its ad-supported plan, with membership increasing almost 70 per cent quarter over quarter.

The company forecasts that revenue will increase 11 per cent in the fourth quarter, reaching $8.69 billion.