Netflix is planning to increase prices for its ad-free service to make up for the revenue lost during the Hollywood actor strike, a report claims.
The streaming giant will issue the price hike a ‘few months’ after the strike ends, which could happen this month.
The Standard ad-free plan costs $15.49 monthly, while the Premium is $19.99.
The union of more than 15,000 television and movie actors began the strike in July to demand more pay and residual payments from streaming services.
And Netflix has felt the brunt of delaying the release of popular shows like ‘Stranger Things,’ now set to be released in 2025.
Netflix is planning to increase prices for its ad-free service to make up for the revenue lost during the Hollywood actor strike, a report claims
Other streaming services have also had to issue delays – HBO postponed ‘The Last of Us,’ and Hulu had to push back ‘A Handmaid’s Tale.’
DailyMail.com has contacted Netflix.
The Wall Street Journal reports the increase will likely start in the US and Canada first.
Findlay-Wilson, who is the managing director of Energy PR warned this month that Netflix could suffer major damage to its reputation due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes – because it has been positioned as the ultimate ‘villain’ in the narrative.
The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents approximately 160,000 actors, has been on strike since failing to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over concerns about residuals and the use of AI.
They followed the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since May 2.
And Netflix has felt the brunt of delaying the release of popular shows like ‘Stranger Things,’ now set to be released in 2025
Netflix has had to postpone at least 43 shows and movies due to the strike.
And it seems the streaming platform’s customers will have to pay for their losses.
Netflix users have already felt the company’s ‘betrayal’ when it banned password sharing in May.
Customers paying for standard or premium plans – which cost $15.50 to $20 per month – can share their login credentials with someone for an additional $8 per month, a $2 discount from the company’s standard stand-alone basic plan.
Without providing details on how it authenticates subscriber identities or accounts, Netflix assured that everyone living in the same household will still be able to stream TV series and movies ‘wherever they are – at home, on the go, on holiday.’
The long-anticipated move has been looming over the US since it was revealed by Netflix in 2021 to end lost revenues – Citi Bank estimated the company lost $6 billion annually from password sharing.
While Netflix did not share its revenue lost, it revealed in January that ‘widespread account sharing’ has exceeded over 100 million viewers.
Those passwords were funneled through Netflix’s 232.5 million worldwide paying subscribers, who generated the bulk of the company´s $32 billion in revenue last year.
But a year of lackluster subscriber growth included its most significant customer losses in more than a decade.
Netflix said 2022 had been a ‘tough year’ due to its first subscriber loss in more than a decade – its customer base fell by 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.
