Here’s What You Need To Know About Netflix’s Price Increase

Streaming giant Netflix announced today that will be increasing its $8.99 per month price tag one dollar to $9.99 effective immediately. The announcement came after CNBC noticed the company’s stock share price spike this morning.

But it’s not all bad. Seriously. We did some digging and the initial hike is a little jarring for sure (you could do so many things with that extra dollar!), but here’s what we found out and how this will effect your streaming routine.

Does it affect me?

Only if you sign up for Netflix today does the price increase affect you. If you’ve been a longtime member, your subscription fee is grandfathered, and you won’t be charged an extra dollar. (Some of you may even be grandfathered in at $7.99 from the price hike that came before this.) Netflix hasn’t dished on specifics as to when this grandfather clause will end (Netflix’s status below only says “a while”), but, for now, we’ll revel in the fact that we ancient Netflix users are officially the cool kids.

Why is this happening?

I mean, they are a business — a rapidly growing business — and they have to make money. Netflix has partnered with some major labels in the last year including Disney, which owns Marvel. Now, don’t you guys want to be able to stream all those Pixar, Star Wars, and superhero movies? Not to mention membership has swelled to over 65 million subscribers across more than 50 countries and counting (the company will move into Spain, Portugal, and Italy later this month, according to Bloomberg Business). Bloomberg also quoted media analyst Rich Greenfield who says, “It feels like they are confident in how well they are growing and that they have the consumer love to push the price.” This isn’t too far off considering how we’re all complaining today but will most likely continue to pay up. In addition to expanding, Netflix is also busy creating its own content and acquiring outside programming, which comes at a hefty price of $4.3 billion and is said to increase to $5 billion according to the same Bloomberg report. If we still want to gather around the watercooler to talk about House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, I suggest we give them the benefit of the doubt here.

What about the different plans?

Okay, so here’s the nitty gritty: this price increase will not affect you if you do not have the two-screen stream options. If you have the one-screen Standard Definition option for $7.99 per month, it will remain that price. If you have the Netflix premium subscription which includes streaming on four screens at once in High Definition, the premium price will stay put at $11.99 per month. I repeat: the only plan affected is two screens in HD for new members.

See, not so bad, right? For more info or specific questions you may have, check out Netflix’s troubleshooting Twitter page @Netflixhelps.

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