Netflix price increase prompts subscriber numbers to plummet

Many people might have had their own subscription price go up without realising

(Getty Images)

Netflix users are unsubscribing because of increases in how much the company charges.

The company’s shares have plummeted on the announcement that it has added far fewer new users than it had expected – the result of subscriber cancellations that rose “slightly and unexpectedly”. The company blamed price hikes that went into effect this year.

Netflix has gradually been pushing up the price of its subscription packages. It has said in the past that it needed to do so to invest the extra money into projects like more original content.

Surveys had suggested that many of Netflix’s users weren’t aware of the price rises before they went into effect.

It’s possible to find out whether you’ve been hit by the price rise by heading to Netflix.com/BillingActivity and signing in. That will give a full list of the last year of charges – and the subtotal will show whether or not that price has been increased.

It kept many of those price increases from hitting existing users by imposing freezes for up to two years. But those freezes came off earlier this year – leading some people to pay extra per month.

It initially announced in 2014 that it would be gradually increasing the monthly charge. But because of the “grandfathering” process, some subscribers kept paying $7.99 until the hike went into effect – at which point they saw their charge go up by as much as $2.