Netflix is raising its prices this year.
To those who pay close attention to the company, this isn't a surprise at all. But there are still bound to be plenty of long-time Netflix customers surprised when they get an email from the company saying they'll have to start paying another $2 per month.
A little history:
Back in 2014, Netflix announced it was raising prices from $7.99 to $8.99 per month for new customers, but current customers were able to continue paying $7.99. Then in 2015, the company announced another price hike to $9.99, which would eventually affect Netflix's older customers paying $7.99.
So while it seems like Netflix was only raising prices $1 at a time, it was effectively charging its oldest and most loyal customers $2 more per month in one go. The price increase started rolling out to customers in May.
I've been paying $7.99 since I first joined Netflix in 2007, back when it was mostly a DVD service. (Remember DVDs?) I just got the dreaded email from Netflix saying I'd have to start paying $9.99 per month in August:
Netflix
OH NO!
Is this a big deal? Should we all panic?
No way.
Netflix is a tremendous value, especially for someone like me who doesn't even have cable. And plenty of people who do have cable are happy to pay even more for Netflix because it's a fundamentally superior experience to discovering and watching shows compared to the clunky cable systems we have today. Netflix is worth every penny of that $9.99 per month.