Stop me if you’ve heard this before – Netflix is hiking their rates again. They’ve done this now four times in the past five years.
Remarkably, though, they’re now justifying the latest price increase due to their stellar sports offerings. You know, like the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight that trended more on social media over the buffering issues than the actual fight.
Yahoo Finance reports that Netflix is raising the cost of its ad-supported plan from $6.99 to $7.99, its Standard, ad-free tier from $15.49 to $17.99, and its Premium plan from $22.99 to $24.99.
Oh, and adding an extra member will also cost you another $1.
Nickel and diming, man.
A Standard plan in 2019 was $12.99, while a Premium plan was $15.99. A 56% increase in just five years. That’s well over the rate of inflation guys.
Netflix Rates Keep On Climbing
Netflix is citing new movie releases and their sports lineup as a justification for the rate increases.
They note their NFL broadcasts were successful, they’ve now added WWE to their roster, and even the Tyson fight, despite the debacle it became, set records.
“When you’re going to ask for a price increase, you better make sure you have the goods and the engagement to back it up,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said. “What we have going into 2025 is just that.”
They have some products. The delivery is debatable.
The Paul-Tyson fight was a completely unwatchable event save for the airing of ‘Iron Mike’s’ butt for the world to see. Netflix reacted to the buffering issues by making jokes about it on social media.
“The boxing mega-event dominated social media, shattered records, and even had our buffering systems on the ropes,” they wrote on Instagram. Commenters were less than pleased.
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Should They Raise Prices?
The streaming service somehow still brought in significant numbers with the Tyson fight, though it’s likely more a product of nostalgia and a storyline.
“Notably, the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson match attracted over 108 million global viewers, becoming the most-streamed sporting event of all time,” Yahoo writes. “For context, the 2024 Super Bowl, which was the most-watched American TV broadcast ever, pulled in 124 million US viewers.”
Netflix improved their product on Christmas Day, partnering with the NFL to stream two games, starting with Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, followed by the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans, with Beyoncé performing live at halftime of the latter.
Those games averaged around 30 million viewers.
The question is, is any of this justification for raising rates at a time when Americans are trying to recover their personal finances from the previous four years?
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