Analysis by investment bank UBS Securities suggests that Netflix is gearing up for another round of price increases this year.
Last October, the streaming giant raised its subscription fees, with the basic ad-free plan in the UK climbing from £6.99 to £7.99 per month and the premium plan from £15.99 to £17.99. Now, led by analyst John Hodulik, UBS analysts anticipate additional hikes in subscription costs.
“We expect to see rate increases this year,” Hodulik stated in a research document published on February 27th.
Business analysts project that the additional revenue, alongside earnings from the new advertising subscriptions, could increase Netflix’s total growth to soar by 15 per cent in 2024. In 2023, the streamer reported growth of 7 per cent.
However, this model does not account for the alienation of subscribers that could catch on with elevated prices in the current economic climate.
The price increases implemented in 2023 coincided with the announcement that Netflix had welcomed 8.8million new subscribers between July and September, surpassing expectations. This surge was partly attributed to the company’s clamp down on password sharing.
Netflix introduced an additional fee for those who wished to share one account between multiple households, a feature that accounted for around 30 per cent of the new sign-ups. The streamer reported that most users opted for this option rather than discontinuing their subscription altogether.
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters stated last year that they had avoided significant price hikes during the password sharing clamp down. However, the time for an increase may be upon us soon.
“Now that we’re through that, we’re able to resume our sort of standard approach toward price increases,” Peters says. “You’ve seen us do that in the US, UK and France. Those changes went better than we forecasted.”
