Get Ready for Yet Another Netflix Price Hike

Netflix is preparing another price hike later in 2024, according to a leading industry analysis.

"We expect to see rate increases this year," UBS Securities analyst John Hodulik wrote in a note about the streaming platform this week, according to Variety. “As the objective in streaming shifts from subscriber growth to profitability for the traditional media companies, we see Netflix as the ultimate beneficiary of this industry rationalization."

The expected price hike comes just months after the company canceled its $9.99 per month plan for new members, raising it to $11.99. Their most premium service already tops out at $22.99.

During the company's Q4 2023 earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said that the company “largely put price increases on hold,” while it was launching its paid-sharing program, describing it as "a form of substitute price increase."

He continued:

Now that we’re through that, we’re able to resume our sort of standard approach toward price increases. And price increases, you’ve seen us do that in the U.S., U.K. and France. Those changes went well better than we forecasted.

We will continue to monitor other countries and try and assess… when we’ve delivered enough additional entertainment value to ask [customers] to pay a bit more to keep that positive flywheel going and we can invest in more great films, series and games for those members. So, you know, the summary statement might be, ‘Back to business as usual.'

In its analysis, UBS raised its Netflix price target for the next year, adjusting it upward from $570 to $685 per share, while upholding its favorable "buy" recommendation for investors. This announcement was followed by a 1.5 percent increase in Netflix's stock price.

In 2023, Netflix implemented its crackdown on password sharing, which it says helped add an additional 13 million subscribers worldwide, consolidating its position as the world's most popular streaming service.

Netflix is expected to hike prices on its streaming plans in 2024 — a move that should accelerate its revenue and earnings growth — as it continues to take a bigger bite out of overall TV viewing, according to analysts at UBS Securities. https://t.co/3G98Y9yAD8
— Variety (@Variety) February 27, 2024

Although Netflix leans heavily to the left in both its culture and its programming, the company distinguished itself in 2022 by warning "woke" employees that it would not censor certain content in order to protect their feelings.

“If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the memo stated. “Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view. So we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies, some of which can be provocative."

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The dispute over Netflix's programming came after the service released a Netflix special with comedian Dave Chappelle. Over the course of the performance, Chappelle made a few standard jokes about transgenderism, which led to employees threatening a "trans walkout" in protest.

Around the same time, the company also canceled some of its most woke and most propagandistic shows, including "Wings of Fire,” from executive producer Ava DuVernay; “Antiracist Baby,” a series aimed at preschoolers; and "With Kind Regards From Kindergarten." The company's fortunes, perhaps coincidentally, have been on the rise ever since.