Netflix is increasing the price of its two most popular plans in South Africa, ‘the Standard and Premium tiers’, with immediate effect.
The company said in an e-mailed statement that the price of the Standard plan, which costs R139/month, will be hiked to R159/month an increase of 14.4%.
Subscribers on the Premium plan, which offers 4K, ultra-high-definition streaming among other benefits, will see an even bigger jump, with the price rising from R169/month to R199/month – an increase of 17.8%.
Netflix said the prices hikes are not related to changes in the value of the rand. Rather, they “reflect improvements to our catalogue of movies and shows and the quality of our service — and, most importantly, so that we can continue giving our members in South Africa more options and continuously increasing value.
”Although the increases are well above inflation – with CPI currently at just over 4%/year – Netflix pointed out that these are the first increases since the service was launched in South Africa in 2016.
The prices for the Basic plan, which costs R99/month, and the Mobile plan, at R49/month, remain unchanged, Netflix said.
Netflix stated, “The increases to the Standard and Premium plans will roll out to existing members over the next several weeks, while the increased prices will apply to new members immediately”.
“Members will be notified through e-mail and will also receive a notification within the app 30 days ahead of their price increase. Timing will be based on the specific member’s billing cycle and will be rolled out over the course of the next few months”.
Omotayo Araoye
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