Netflix will be getting a price hike, CEO Reed Hastings announced, but fear not--it doesn't sound too bad. The subscription cost will only be increased by a dollar or two, and will exclusively affect new members who sign up for the streaming service. If you're currently a subscriber, you've got no increased costs heading your way right now--but they will be coming eventually.
"Our current view is to do a one or two dollar increase, depending on the country, later this quarter for new members only," said Hastings in a letter to shareholders. He went on to say existing customers will remain on the current pricing plan for a "generous" period of time, but that does imply rates will be increasing at some point.
He also made clear that they desire to grandfather existing users into the future pricing plan "cleanly", most likely wanting to avoid grumblings and discontent form users over being forced to pay more. Allowing subscribers to continue on the current plan while others start to pay more is a good faith gesture that people will appreciate, and the eventual increase will only be a few dollars as well. They'll want it to go cleanly on their end, too, making the process simple and not having too many groups of people on different pricing plans.
Bumping up the price to only new users for now (and by only couple dollars) won't create a huge increase in Netflix's profits, but over time will give them modest additional revenue. Pricing models beyond the traditional pay bump are being experimented with, as well.
