Netflix price hikes - just too much?

[Pemba]

I really think so this time. The standard package is going up by £2 to £12.99 a month. The fancy bells and whistles package will increase by a £1 and the basic package with ads is also increasing by a pound. As well as that, it will cost £1 a month more to add an extra member who doesn't live with you (after their crackdown on password sharing a little while ago).

The last price increase was only October 2023, I believe.

We pay for my elderly parents to be extra members so it will mean our monthly bill goes from £15.98, which was already pushing it, to £18.98 a month. It's becoming extortionate. We've had Netflix continously since about 2012/13, when it was very affordable. I just think that they are really pushing it now, and it's time for an extended break from Netflix.

People on the Premier package will be paying a fortune. For a TV streaming service, one amongst many. It's so much more expensive than Amazon Prime, Now, Disney, Apple etc. I don't know how they can justify it really.

What does anyone else think?

I just have the £4.99 package. (With ad breaks.) The ad breaks are VERY few. Since I opted for that package, (2 weeks ago,) me and DH have watched 12 programmes, and 6 of them didn't even have a single ad break. The other 6 had... two breaks in three of them, and one in the other three. The ad breaks were 25 to 30 seconds long. Very happy with it so far.

We have Amazon Prime too. And ITVX premium.

Why don't you go for the £4.99 package @Pemba ? And your elderly parents can do the same. You shouldn't have to pay for a package that costs almost £20 a month - £225 or so per year, just so your parents can get free Netflix. Let them register for Netflix themselves, and pay for their own.

I have that one too and sometimes I can go hours without even seeing an advert.

Amazon Music is increasing in price too. I just received an email with the updated prices for our next renewal.

Really? We're constantly watching things on Netflix. Currently watching The Perfect Couple and the Night agent. Some of the Korean stuff has been pretty good too!

I would never give Netflix up, it's the thing we watch. But we try loads of different programs in different genres.

We're still in the middle of Money Heist. So many episodes!!

You can pay £2.99 a month extra to your Prime membership to watch stuff ad-free @Blarn

Dumped netflix ages ago, don't miss it

Why aren't people using Torrent streaming? Eg. Lookmovie2.to
It's free!

Maybe I should then @SabreIsMyFave I mean they could definitely afford it really. It's just something small and relatively inexpensive (or was!) that I thought it would be nice to do for them, but I will re-think.

And I didn't realise that the streaming quality was the same on the package with ads, so that's good. I get a few ads on Prime and on Now, and I can't say it bothers me.

Yep! We pay £4.99 a month, and have just watched 2 episodes of MONK. Not one single advert! In either one.

I would recommend that package.

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We’ll keep our Netflix and Amazon Prime as we all use them a lot.

Cancelled Apple Music and Disney+ a long time ago though. Dont have Sky TV etc. Never paid for any other media subscriptions I don’t think.

That's lovely of you to do it for them @Pemba But not if it's costing too much extra £££ for you. As I said, you could have the £4.99 a month package, and they could too, and just pay for themselves. As I and several others have said, there are hardly any ads really, and the ones they do have are very short! Like 30 seconds!

Then maybe you can take them for a carvery now and again if you want to spoil them.

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I cancelled my Netflix sub the other day. They're getting greedy - $17.99 a month here, which works out at more than the UK license fee and you don't even even get Radio 3 and 4 for the money!

From my own perspective, it's really interesting seeing people here saying eg

"A lot of Netflix is old stuff that I have already seen on BBC, Sky and Paramount anyway"

My own experience has been very different indeed. For example, I have been introduced to a whole load of Korean romcoms and dramas that I would never have been aware of otherwise (some of which I have definitely watched more than once).

Then there have been some really great US action series. Like "The Diplomat", "The Recruit" and "The Night Agent". Or legal procedurals like "The Lincoln Lawyer".

Even the occasional British series like "Black Doves", that many people seemed to enjoy (apart from those who thought that Keira Knightly is always a bit wooden)

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5224597-black-doves-netflix-6-episodes

Then there are comedies that can get quite dark (like "Wednesday" based on the Addams Family tv series) or just extremely odd (like "The Good Place").

My DH has a thing for Vikings, and he really enjoyed the Vikings and Vikings Valhalla series.

He also persuaded me to watch Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and I really did get invested in the story lines. And I really enjoyed Ozark.

Although, I'll be totally frank and admit that I really do not like Bridgerton at all, but many other people seem to as it is one of the most watched shows.

There are also some very good children's shows. My grand nephews and nieces (the children of my niece) really enjoyed a Russian tv series Masha and the Bear and now they are really getting into some of the Japanese Studio Ghibli films like Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

There's even a version of "The Borrowers" with the title "Arrietty".

There is actually a lot on Netflix if you choose to look.

DH and I had Apple and Disney, via our older DD. She let us have it for free (on her account IYSWIM.) She cancelled them both late-ish last year as she was rarely watching them. We didn't renew them as we hardly watched them.

We have Amazon Prime for the deliveries anyway and have Netflix as part of our EE package. Compared to driving to a cinema it's a bargain!

I think it will be the end of our subscription now.

@Another2Cats I agree, there really is LOADS on Netflix. I would also recommend ITVX premium. Only £5.99 a month, and everything on ITV catch up is ad-free. But also, you get Britbox on there, and multiple 100s of other TV series that you don't get on regular ITVX. Some of the programmes were on Netflix or Amazon previously...

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Agree about ITVx premium being good, also it's not glitchy like the non premium version and there is quite a lot on it. Netflix are missing at trick not having a cheaper yearly subscription like the others have as I would probably just pay up and job done, whereas a monthly subscription makes me think is it worth it next month and then that 1 month becomes 3 missed months

Just amended mine to the £4.99 package. Cheers for the heads up!

PIL used to watch ours then when we changed to the basic with ads we offered to pay for theirs at it was still cheaper than paying for them to use ours, they said of course not and just registered for it themselves. DH is on their family Spotify plan though! I only found this out recently

YAY, enjoy! 😄

Netflix is still well worth it imo. We have Amazon for the free deliveries but it doesn’t compare to Netflix. We occasionally have Disney and Apple but I never find much to watch on them. Netflix is the one we watch most of the time so £12.99 still seems really cheap.

The £4.99 package is increasing to £5.99 though, but it's still great value. Didn't realise how much I would save by suffering a few ads!

I’ve spent most of my evening trying to find something to watch on Netflix. It’s the same old stuff suggested year after year so I often cancel it.

I will be cancelling mine again out of principle and not coming back until stranger things is released.