Yup, Netflix may or may not increase the subscription price again. According to its 2023 Q4 report, there is a possibility but it's not confirmed yet. On top of that, the company will be removing its Basic Plan in the UK and Canada first.
Why the UK and Canada? Well, that's because those countries have a Standard with ads plan. Moreover, Netflix is not allowing new and returning customers to sign up for the Basic plan. Those who are already on it can stay until the subscription expires. Malaysian Netflix users are not affected since we don't have any plans with ads on it (yet).
In regards to the aforementioned price hike, Netflix said that it was to improve the platform further. The report didn't mention when and which market will be affected first but it will happen in due time, most probably this year. Below is an excerpt from Netflix on monetising the platform further:
"We seek to provide a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, including highly competitive starting prices. As we invest in and improve Netflix, we’ll occasionally ask our members to pay a little extra to reflect those improvements, which in turn helps drive the positive flywheel of additional investment to further improve and grow our service."
It's also intriguing to know that monetising sharing such as Transfer Profile and Extra Member was a success, contrary to popular belief. In fact, millions of members have made use of the features. The report said this can enable Netflix to "effectively penetrate the near-term addressable market of ~500M connected TV 6 households (excluding China and Russia)".
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